The Book of Life

Premiered October 17, 2014.

In the small Mexican town of San Angel, three childhood best friends musically inclined Manolo, free spirited Maria and aspiring hero Joaquin have adventures and get into mischief on the Day of the Dead.  There are also the stirrings of a love triangle as Joaquin and Manolo compete for Maria's attention. 

They are observed by two gods La Muerte (Kate del Castillo), who rules the Land of the Remembered and Xibalba (Ron Perlman), ruler of the Land of the Forgotten.  

The two supernatural beings decide to make a wager over which of the two young men will eventually marry Maria.  La Muerte backs the kind-hearted Manolo, while Xibalba prefers the bold Joaquin.  If Manolo wins Maria's hand,  Xibalba agrees to stop interfering in the lives of mortals, but if she marries Joaquin, La Muerte will have to swap realms with Xibalba.    Xibalba decides to cheat a bit and secretly provides Joaquin the Medal of Everlasting Life which grants invincibility to its owner. 

After an incident where the children cause mayhem by freeing animals destined for slaughter,  Maria's father General Posada (Carlos Alazraqui) decides to send her to Spain to be educated.   

Several years pass and Joaquin (Channing Tatum) has grown up to become a military hero (with aid from Xibalba's gift).  

Meanwhile Manolo (Diego Luna) has trained to follow in his family tradition and become a bullfighter.  He would much rather follow his musical aspirations, but his father Carlos (Hector Elizondo) disapproves.  

Maria (Zoe Saldana) has returned from Spain a well educated and accomplished young woman. She arrives back in San Angel just in time to see Manolo's first bullfight.  Manolo defeats the bull, but refuses to kill it, infuriating his father and impressing Maria.    

However, Maria's father pressures her to marry Joaquin in order to ensure that San Angel is protected from the bandit Chakal (Dan Navarro).   

Both Manolo and Joaquin compete for Maria's affections, but it seems that she and Manolo are destined to be together.  

As the young couple profess their love (on the Day of the Dead),  Xibalba - not wanting to lose his bet - sends a  two headed snake to bite Maria, apparently killing her!  

Manolo is devastated by Maria's apparent death and allows Xibalba's snake to bite him twice, in the belief that he will be reunited with his love in death.   

Manolo finds himself in the Land of the Remembered where he is reunited with his deceased mother and many other relatives but Maria is nowhere to be found!    

They travel to La Muerte's palace, but encounter Xibalba - who smugly explains that he won the bet with La Muerte and reveals that Maria did NOT die from the snake bite (she was only bitten once, but Manolo was bitten twice).      

Manolo must journey through multiple realms where he encounters the Candle Maker (Ice Cube) and La Muerte.  In order to have a chance at being restored to life, he will have to face Xibalba's trickery as well as his greatest fears.  

Back in the mortal world, Maria and Joaquin are about to be married when the ceremony is interrupted by the Bandit Chakal and his thugs.  Chakal is seeking the Medal of Everlasting Life for himself and is willing to destroy the whole town to get it. 

Will Manolo succeed in his quest through the afterlife?  Will the citizens of San Angel save their town from destruction?   Will La Muerte learn of Xibalba's interference with their bet?   

RigbyMel says: 

Being a big fan of animation and of movies having to do with holidays,  I went to see The Book of Life in first run with my esteemed co-blogger.   We enjoyed it then and continue to enjoy it. 

The movie serves as a lovely way to teach children -- and adults -- about the Mexican Day of the Dead celebration.   

The idea of teaching and learning also manifests in the film's framing device which involves a museum docent (voiced by Christina Applegate) telling the story to some mildly delinquent kids who are on a field trip. 

The movie also happens to be quite visually stunning with a saturated color palate and nods to Mexican folk art and Dia de los Muertos imagery. 

The characters are stylized to look like wooden puppets and a few even bear a resemblance to Picasso's cubist paintings.  

I also quite like that the female characters are strong and capable and there to push the action along rather than just needing to be rescued all the time.   Maria is fiercely independent, an animal rights activist, and skilled at both word and sword play.   La Muerte is a badass anthropomorphic personification of death and her wager is most definitely an inciting incident. 

My only real complaint involves the interpolation of pop songs into the early 20th century setting of the main story, which I found a bit irritating.    That being said,  yay for Diego Luna doing his own singing in the film.   

Overall, The Book of Life tells an engaging story and works well as a gateway to learning more about the Day of the Dead as well as aspects of Mexican culture in general.   It's worth watching if you are a fan of holiday films and gorgeous animation. 

RigbyMel's rating: 

.5

3.5 sugar skulls 

Free Birds

Premiered November 1, 2013.

"We're going back in time to the first Thanksgiving...to get turkeys off the menu!"
-Jake
 
A turkey named Reggie  (Owen Wilson) lives on a poultry farm.  He discovers that the farmers are fattening turkeys up just to turn them into meals.  When Reggie informs the other turkeys about their fate, they cruelly oust him from the barn to fend for himself rather than listen.   Reggie's misfortune winds up being a windfall as he is chosen to receive the President's annual Thanksgiving  turkey pardon.

Reggie is chosen as the Pardon Turkey

Reggie is taken in as a pet by the President's daughter (Kaitlyn Maher) and and will live with her at Camp David.

Reggie enjoys cheese pizza and telenovelas

While enjoying the good life, watching Mexican soap operas and ordering lots of pizza, Reggie meets a wild turkey named Jake (Woody Harrelson) who (more or less) kidnaps him.   

Jake is fanatically devoted to a prophecy he received from "The Great Turkey"

Jake claims to be the president of the "Turkeys Liberation Front" and says that they must save turkeys from Thanksgiving.  In order to achieve this, they must (naturally) time travel back to the first Thanksgiving to prevent turkeys from ever becoming the main course of the holiday meal.  

Jake says he knows where they can steal a time machine from a military base conveniently located near Camp David.  (Said time machine is called S.T.E.V.E and is voiced by George Takei!) 

Reggie and Jake travel through time

They arrive in Plymouth Massachusetts in 1621, 3 days before the first Thanksgiving feast.  Reggie and Jake find themselves in the middle of a turkey hunt led by Miles Standish (Colm Meaney). 

Standish threatens Governor Bradford

They're saved by local wild turkeys, Jenny (Amy Poehler) and Ranger (Jimmy Hayward)  and taken to the wild turkeys' hideout. 

So our heroes find themselves embroiled (pun intended?)  in the turkey clan's struggle for survival against Standish who is determined to find their hiding place at any cost and the rest of the Pilgrims who are just plain HUNGRY.   

Can Reggie and Jake save future turkeys from their annual thanksgiving holocaust?  

Here is the official trailer for your perusal:



J.A. Morris says:

I'm not the intended demographic, but I thought Free Birds was okay.  Some reviewers have called it Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, but with turkeys" and that's an accurate description.  But the voice actors are top notch and Reggie is a likable protagonist.
  

Jenny & Reggie observe Earth from the time machine.

I generally enjoy the work of Owen Wilson, Amy Poehler and Woody Harrelson.  And Keith David brings his "voice of God" to the role of Chief Broadbeak.  George Takei is great as S.T.E.V.E., the voice of the time machine.  He even gets to drop his signature "Oh My!" catch phrase.  Colm Meaney makes a good villain as Miles Standish.

The "kids" love Reggie.

I don't want to spoil the plot, but there is a serious (for a kids movie) death scene that might upset younger viewers.  The subsequent turkey funeral scene was actually very moving, you might find yourself tearing up (like I did).  

The real, historical Miles Standish was noted for using excessive force at times, and that's on display here as well. If this blog was a scholarly journal article, I would suggest that turkeys are standing in for Indians who were victims of Standish's brutality...but it's not, so I won't.

Tukeys prepare to battle the Pilgrims.

But it feels longer than necessary.  There's an opening segment that shows how Reggie is a bit of a misfit, which feels like padding.  The movie could have just opened with his Thanksgiving pardon and the story would've worked just as well.  There are also some "fight" scenes between Ranger and Jake that don't seem to serve any purpose. 

Reggie arrives at Camp David

Like other recent animated features, Free Birds has pop culture references that aren't likely to age well.  We even hear the turkeys called "angry birds" at one point.  

If you're a big 3D fan like me, don't bother seeing the 3D version.  I didn't notice anything that was particularly enhaned by the 3D technology.  This was disappointing, since Free Birds was shot in "real" 3D, not just "retrofitted".  

With Christmas movies (and countless new tv specials) released every year, Thanksgiving films are comparatively rare.  So Free Birds is a nice addition to Holiday seasonal programming.  And I imagine it acting as a "video babysitter" during Thanksgiving Dinner preparations in the next few years.  It's a fun, harmless movie, but it's no classic. 

J.A. Morris' rating:

2 and a half pumpkin pies.

RigbyMel says:

I generally agree with what J.A. Morris has to say about this film.  It is an agreeably goofy, but somewhat forgettable holiday offering.   The voice talents are great and the computer animation is very good.   However, the story, while appealing in concept, is rather lackluster in the execution, which is a shame.    If one is going to do a movie featuring time traveling turkeys,  I feel one should make more hay out of the possibilities for paradox inherent.  (Did they think the concept would be too difficult for kids to understand?)

Free Birds is not a complete "turkey", but it is probably not something that will become a perennial favorite.  

RigbyMel's rating:

2 pumpkin pies