A couple of new players enter the animation arena!
And they mean business!
You're watching Beyond The Trailer's review of The Book of Life!
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Back when Walt Disney was alive,
and pioneering the medium,
animated movies were a painstaking process that took years to complete.
And at every level you needed, more or less,
someone who could DRAW.
Now just ask any comic book publisher today,
and they'll tell you that's a very small talent pool.
I mean, you don't just have to be able to draw,
but you need to able to animate motion!
It's like everyone can draw a comic book cover,
but very few can draw sequential art
in other words, tell a story.
And the reason I need to use comic books as an example
is because hand-drawn animation has basically become extinct!
Audience selection has chosen computer animation
and thanks to video games
and the copious amount of electronic devices we use in everyday life,
there are far more people who are handy with a mouse than a pencil!
Computer animation is a very unique process
and not every step requires someone who can draw
for a better look I hope you'll click here to check out my behind the scenes tour of Blue Sky Studios
and how they go about making an animated movie.
So with a much bigger talent pool,
we now have many more players in the animation game!
At this point you're familiar with them all!
Pixar, Dreamworks,
Disney Animation
Blue Sky Studios, Sony Animation
and Illumination Entertainment.
Pretty darn crowded.
But then just earlier this year,
Canada's ToonBox Entertainment in partnership with South Korea
had a big enough hit with The Nut Job
that The Nut Job 2 is slated for January 2016!
And just a few months earlier than that
Reel FX got on the board with Free Birds
now while there's no Free Birds 2 in development
Reel FX is now back with The Book of Life
and it's looking like a pretty solid entry.
It's got an all star voice cast
with Diego Luna, Channing Tatum and Zoe Saldana
Behind the camera is Jorge Gutierrez
moving up to feature films from television
the Nickelodeon show "El Tigre The Adventures of Manny Rivera"
just as Genndy Tartakovsky
moved up from Dexter's Laboratory and Samurai Jack
to Hotel Transylvania for Sony Animation
And producing the film as well as adding even more star power
is celebrating Mexican filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro
Hmm, while Walt Disney was a friend to South America himself
back in those days Hollywood would never tailer a film to such a specific foreign demographic
however
not only has Hollywood become a far more global business
with Mexico itself a top market
but the latino audience in America has grown
why just recently
Eugenio Derbez's Instructions Not Included
became the highest grossing spanish language film ever in the US
with around forty-five million!
Not bad!
So, does the book of life represent where Hollywood animation is headed?
Or is it just a nice try?
Visually, The Book of Life is a stunning film
and I had heard the director, Gutierrez,
say that his goal in making the book of life was to create a film that was as beautiful as the concept art for it
and I think he has 100% achieved that goal with the film.
I also think this is a wonderful valentine to Mexican culture.
I finally understand The Day of the Dead!
And why it's such a popular and respected holiday in Mexico.
Of course I'd heard of it before
but I never quite understood exactly what was going on
and this movie does a fantastic job of introducing it and celebrating it.
And I also have to wonder, if just like China did with Kung Fu Panda from Dreamworks Animation
if the Mexican film industry isn't going to look at this film
and say "Hey, why didn't WE make that?"
I also thought that the voice acting here was very, very good.
Now, of course, everyone did a good job
but the real stand out was, I have to say, Channing Tatum
because this role allowed him to do so many things that you would THINK would be outside his comfort zone
but totally are in his comfort zone!
He just really goes for it, he has no ego, no fear of looking foolish
and as a result he doesn't come off as looking foolish at all!
Now of course Diego Luna and Zoe Saldana, to be fair
have more serious, straightforward roles
they're our hero and heroine
so they don't have as much room to play as Tatum does
so that's why I think maybe they don't stand out quite as much - it's just because of the material.
But despite those three things
the visuals, the Mexican culture and the voice work
for some reason The Book of Life didn't totally click for me.
And I thought about it and thought about it
and I decide the reason
is because it skews very young.
Now for very young viewers
it's a wonderful film because it has so many great lessons.
Lessons I think you'd want any younger viewer to be exposed to
in many different areas!
It covers a surprising number of life lessons in one single film
but I guess it is called The Book of Life.
And again as I said those visuals are so good
and it's so nice to see another culture celebrated by Hollywood
that older viewers who happen to see the movie
will certainly have something to distract them from a very
traditional and simplistic story.
Now as some of you I'm sure will bring up
I had said that Frozen skewed pretty young as well
but that was popular with people of all ages!
And again both films had, I think,
what are very important messages
and I'm curious to see if the messages incorporated in this movie
will help it maybe do better as well
even though the storytelling might not be up to par.
But at the same time
the messages here, I think, aren't as groundbreaking as those in Frozen
which had a lot to do with girl power.
There are some girl power elements here
but in the more traditional sense.
But I think the big difference between Frozen and The Book of Life
is the music.
I think we can all agree that Frozen owes a great deal of its success to its music
and while there are a handful of original songs here
they are - none of them are showstoppers in The Book of Life
and none of them are even memorable!
In fact, as someone who's not a big music fan
well I enjoy music obviously
but I'm not - I don't have a lot of knowledge about music
so I couldn't even pick out all of the original songs for you
because they do use some other famous songs
they re-use them
y'know almost like a cover band
and when they did that, when I could recognize a popular song
that had originated somewhere else
it even went so far as to take me out of the story.
So very close - The Book of Life comes very close to greatness
and it is very good on multiple levels
but I don't think it's an instant classic.
I would say that Pixar can go ahead and still make that
Dia De Los Muertos movie they have planned
I think that's still something they can pursue
especially since I think it will be much darker and more sophisticated
which is kind of Pixar's specialty at this point.
However, I would like to point out
that because there's so much talent obviously now in the animation pool
thanks to computer animation
that everybody has to step up their game
across the board
including unfortunately this movie
because the bar is just getting really high.
So, Book of Life,
if you have younger viewers
that you have, y'know, in your family
or that you know of that you'd like to take to the movie
I think this is going to be a great thing for you to go and do
If you're interesting in Mexican culture
be it your own or something you want to be exposed to
this is also a fantastic movie to go see.
And also by the way,
I recommend the 3D!
Animation continues to be where 3D is best utilized
the picture stays bright
and they do a good job having things pop out of the screen
but it's a breathtaking beautiful movie
I just wish the storytelling was little more mature and sophisticated.
Alright, so that's my review of The Book of Life
if you've seen the film, I hope you'll leave your own thoughts down below
thank you so much for tuning into my review
and you can check out some more episodes right now!