Impressive Cavalcade of Characters and Voices in "THE BOOK OF LIFE" (3D)
Director Jorge
R. Gutierrez's love for family, tradition and storytelling created a truly
singular, a first of its kind animation in "The Book of Life" where it
will reveal never-before-seen characters and will take the audience in three
fantastical worlds - the town of San
Angel, The Land of the Remembered and The Land of the Forgotten.
"The Book of Life" is
also about remembrance and cherishing memories composed of a voice cast led by
Channing Tatum, Diego Luna and Zoe Saldana, along with multi-talented actors
Christina Applegate, Kate Del Castillo, Ice Cube and Ron Perlman. In the movie,
following Maria’s (Saldana) return to San Angel, she is reunited with her best
friends Manolo (Luna) and Joaquin (Tatum) at the bullfighting arena, where
Manolo is preparing for his first match.
Manolo, like all the Sanchez men who preceded him, battles bravely and
skillfully. But unlike his forebears,
when the moment comes for Manolo to finish the bull, he refuses. The whole town turns on Manolo, including his
father who feels terribly let down.
Moreover, Manolo fears he may have thrown away his chance to woo Maria.
As if bucking family tradition
wasn’t enough of a barrier to Manolo’s romantic pursuits, two other principals
have thrown themselves into the romantic triangle, and they’re betting it all
on who ends up with Maria’s hand. The
battling husband-and-wife deities La Muerte (Del Castillo) and Xibalba
(Perlman) have made a wager, and the stakes for all of them couldn’t be
higher. Resolute in her belief in the
fundamental goodness of mortals, La Muerte puts her faith in Manolo. If he succeeds in winning Maria’s hand, then
La Muerte will remain the beloved ancient god who oversees a wondrous world
called The Land of the Remembered, and Xibalba must stop his meddlesome ways
with humans.
Whe the La Muerte and Xibalba's
wager started, Manolo gets swept up in the parade of his ancestors, who to
Manolo are superheroes he’s been hearing about his entire life. But his joy is
tempered when he discovers that Maria is not there – and indeed never made the
journey to The Land of the Remembered.
With the support of his ancestors, Manolo embarks on an extraordinary
mission to find La Muerte, who is the only one who can help him return to San
Angel.
But first, he must travel to a
portal, the Cave of Souls, between all the magical lands. There, Manolo meets
another spirit, the Candle Maker. With
a body made of wax and a beard made of clouds, the Candle Maker is a larger
than life – and kind of nutty – ancient god.
He makes billions of candles, with each candle representing a life. “The Candle Maker looks over – and geeks out
over – humanity,” says lead animator Eric Dobrile.
Though he’s supposed to be
hands-off with mortals, the Candle Maker bends the rules a little to help
Manolo. “He sees something special in
Manolo,” says Ice Cube, who makes his animated feature debut voicing the Candle
Maker. “The Candle Maker has never seen blank pages in The Book of Life, so
this is an exciting thing for him. Also,
it’s The Day of the Dead, which provides some license for him to break a few
rules.”
Manolo’s feisty and quick-witted
great-grandmother, known simply as Grandma (voiced by Grey Griffin), is sure to
become another audience favorite. Short in stature but long of whisker and
tough to boot, Grandma is more than a match for the men in her family – past,
present and future. “Grandma’s kind of
seen it all and been through it all, and she’s kind of our Peanut Gallery,”
says producer Brad Booker, who adds that she’s his favorite character in the
film.
"The Book of Life" (2D
and 3D) opens nationwide in cinemas on October 16 (Thursday) from 20th Century
Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.
Post a Comment