vmj_media_thoughts | Entries tagged with animation

For those of you who don’t know The Book of Life is a movie produced by Guillermo del Toro and it was directed by Jorge Gutierrez. It is an animated comedy that follows a young man named Manolo who is struggling between fulfilling his family’s expectations and following his heart. We follow Manolo through three fantastic worlds where he must face his greatest fears. (paraphrased from a summary written by 20th Century Fox).

Now I had seen a lot of trailers for The Book of Life and I couldn’t have been more excited. For one reason it was because it was centered around Mexico and the Day of the Dead. This is a topic that I haven’t seen explored in too much american media so it was nice and fresh. The other reason is because of the animation, which is beautiful and very distinct. I believe it’s from the same people who gave use the cartoon El Tigre and if you’ve ever seen that show then you’ll be able to see the influences.

What’s missing from that paraphrased synopsis is the part about the love triangle. Now, love triangles are kind of hit and miss in media. They can either be well written or completely unbearable. Here…I thought it was cute. There was no point in the movie where I was rolling my eyes because the love triangle was getting in the way of the story. I also found everything else easy to follow, the character’s actions were understandable and I was never scratching my head at any other their actions.

Okay…so I was scratching my head a bit at the mayor’s, Maria’s father, actions but I rolled with it for the sake of the movie.

I love most of the characters. Manolo was a sweet heart and always tries his best. Joaquin can be seen as a bit of a jerk but you really get the sense that he cares about Maria and his friends. Maria is a cool character. She reminds me a bit of Fiona in some aspects but she’s still lovely.

All in all this movie was thoroughly enjoyable and I think everybody should go watch it.

My Rating: 4.5/5

[ As seen on my tumblr: link ]

Personally I wasn’t too interested in seeing Big Hero 6. The movie looked fun and entertaining enough but it didn’t call me to go out and see it. Good thing it was Veteran’s Day and I had to watch my siblings. Haha.

This first thing I want to say is that the animation is beautiful. I think Disney has made progress with their 3D animation. I can’t really explain it but the animation feels less…fakey than it looked in Tangled and Frozen. All of the characters looked nice (reused character designs aside) and the backgrounds were lovely. The flying scene was simply beautiful.

The story is pretty simple I think. The protagonist, Hiro Hamada, is out to capture for revenge the person responsible for his brother’s death with the help of Baymax the nurse-bot and a group of friends. That’s the basic plot and it’s fine. Some of the pacing was a bit off, too fast in places but it mostly fine. Hiro’s relationship with Baymax is the core and it works really well. How these guys make you fall in love with a robot is beyond me (it’s for toys I know), but god I want a Baymax. Tadashi and Hiro’s relationship, what little we see, was also well handled and I found myself wanting a bit more of it.

The other characters fall kind of flat. They don’t go beyond their stereotypes but were still fun to watch and I wasn’t rolling my eyes at anyone’s antics.

This movie was a fun time, the animation was beautiful and I’m glad I got to see it. I recommend it to all.

My Rating: 4/5

[ As seen on my tumblr: link ]

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Movie Review: The Book of Life

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