The Book of Life celebrates Day of the Dead in style.

Source by KRISTIAN LIN in Film

Hollywood doesn’t put out many movies about Latinos that are pitched toward a general audience, let alone ones that are aimed specifically at families. The last such films that Hispanics could hold up with pride to their non-Latino friends were Robert Rodriguez’ Spy Kids movies, which happened long enough ago that the girl who starred in them is now a married woman. So it’s refreshing to have The Book of Life, an animated movie geared toward the holiday of Día de los Muertos. Its mere existence is remarkable, but fortunately, this glorious-looking and cleverly scripted film has lots more going for it than just historical value.
Set in the mythical past in a Mexican small town called San Ángel, the movie centers on María (voiced by Zoë Saldana), the mayor’s willful daughter who returns from boarding school in Spain to find two close childhood friends now competing to marry her. Observing from the afterlife, the rulers of the underworld — the kind La Muerte (voiced by Kate del Castillo) and the devious Xibalba (voiced by Ron Perlman) — wager on which husband María will choose. Xibalba backs the brave but narcissistic soldier Joaquín (voiced by Channing Tatum), while the death goddess bets on Manolo (voiced by Diego Luna), an aspiring musician whose family pressures him to join their proud line of bullfighters. READ MORE.