Quick Review: The Book of Life (Patreon)

Even if you're not into the story, The Book of Life is well worth seeing just for how fantastic the art direction is. Part of the reason it's so great is that it's different. Like with Guacamelee, by embracing a different culture's iconography and mythology, it stands out from the usual fare. Which is kind of sad to consider that worth calling out, but that's where we are so the movie gets lots of kudos for that. It stands on its own though and was really well done and gorgeous to watch. For so much of the movie, I just wanted to play a video game in that world. There are even two "boss" characters that would be right at home in a game and would be a ton of fun to face off against. The villain doesn't just have a grappling hook arm, he has two! Also, I now totally want an entire movie or game focused on Manolo's soldaderas cousins. They were awesome and I adore their designs. The story is disappointing in parts with a stereotypical “two best friends fighting for the same lady's heart” parts but everything else is so charming that you can overlook those bits. The only thing that really bothered me was the princess herself. “Princess” isn't really the right term since she's just the daughter of the town leader but that's basically her role. She's super annoying. They made her little more than the cliche of the strong sassy princess and it was totally unnecessary. The movie is filled with great female characters that are awesome without the need to constantly point out that they're female and being awesome without men, so to have the princess constantly fall back on the "Ugh, men!" lines made her really grating. If they just had the princess out there fighting alongside the other characters without ever calling out that she is, in fact, a lady, she would have been so much better. That aside, it was still a good movie, great for an all-ages group, and worth supporting for doing something new and interesting.