The Book of Life (2014 animated movie)

Smashgoom202

Smashgoom202

Dry Bowser
Retired Wiki Staff
Sorry for the Wikipedia-esque title, BTW.


The only name I recognize from this trailer/production is Guillermo del Toro, and he's just a producer (out of 4 producers, including him). That aside, though, I LOVE the visuals, it's colorful AND stylized! the movie comes this October 17 (holy crap... the year's just going by so quickly, isn't it?). I'll be sure to try and remember to see this movie!

After all, while it's great to watch the latest Disney or Dreamworks movie (I'd say Pixar as well but lately... eh...), but other animation studios deserve this kind of love and support as well, especially if they make such a unique movie like this!

There doesn't seem to be any other relevant movies coming out around that time (except Paranormal Activity 5 the week after, which I guess is the new Saw/scary movie that comes out every October), so let's try to show it some love before Big Hero 6 swallows it up come November.
 
Re: The Book of Life (2014 film)

yeah i've been seeing a lot about this on the internet

i think the animation style is amazing and i really love the spanish influence. that said, the story (or at least what we know so far) kinda seems to suck, but i'll reserve judgement since trailers often do a terrible job of selling a movie
 
Re: The Book of Life (2014 film)

Saw a trailer yesterday.

I think the "Land of the Dead" concept is interesting, and the voice actors look promising, but the art style looks cheap as fuck. Though then again, Reel FX is a "cheap as fuck" kind of studio...
 
Re: The Book of Life (2014 film)

Toad Eightyfive said:
Saw a trailer yesterday.

I think the "Land of the Dead" concept is interesting, and the voice actors look promising, but the art style looks cheap as fuck. Though then again, Reel FX is a "cheap as fuck" kind of studio...
Click to expand...
first of all it's "land of the remembered" and "land of the forgotten". the dead world has two parts, which i think is cool

but like. what's wrong with the art style. i think it's great. it's original and it's vibrant and it's spanish and it's just great
 
Re: The Book of Life (2014 film)

Incidentally, I just found out that the director of this movie, Jorge Gutierrez (a Mexican animator), created the Nicktoon El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera. That show had a distinctive style and a genuinely interesting concept, IMO. Here's hoping this movie can pull off at least that much.
 
Re: The Book of Life (2014 film)

No-Face said:
first of all it's "land of the remembered" and "land of the forgotten". the dead world has two parts, which i think is cool
Click to expand...

Thanks for reminding me on their specific names. I almost forgot.

No-Face said:
but like. what's wrong with the art style. i think it's great. it's original and it's vibrant and it's spanish and it's just great
Click to expand...

first of all, original ≠ good

i found the animation rather choppy and half-finished, and the color selection looked too vibrant imo. which i get they're going for a story book paper-mâché style like coralline or paranorman but the way it's executed is just unpleasant.

also, mexican ≠ spanish. two different continents. sorry to nitpick, but still.
 
I'm mixed on the art style. It's really colorful and really reminds me of Guacamelee, but on the other hand sometimes it looks a little... videogamey? As in it doesn't look as real due to the way the characters are moving.

That's an odd complaint to have about an animated movie, I know, but there's still something about it that bothers me.
 
I find the art style interesting because I did it does a great job at capturing the "Paper-machete" style, and makes it feel more connected to the traditions of the movie and everything. It might not be the best (heck, far from it), but I think it at least captures a lot of things.

Now, I don't really think I'll be that intrested in the movie. Like, the movie's plot seems lackluster and while I do find the art style interesting, it probably would be annoying look at it for 90 minutes or however long the movie will be.
 
Re: The Book of Life (2014 film)

Smashgoom202 said:
Incidentally, I just found out that the director of this movie, Jorge Gutierrez (a Mexican animator), created the Nicktoon El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera. That show had a distinctive style and a genuinely interesting concept, IMO. Here's hoping this movie can pull off at least that much.
Click to expand...
I KNEW THAT STYLE LOOKED SO FUCKING FAMILIAR.
 
Sylveon said:
Smashgoom202 said:
Incidentally, I just found out that the director of this movie, Jorge Gutierrez (a Mexican animator), created the Nicktoon El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera. That show had a distinctive style and a genuinely interesting concept, IMO. Here's hoping this movie can pull off at least that much.
Click to expand...
I KNEW THAT STYLE LOOKED SO FUCKING FAMILIAR.
Click to expand...
That fact sort of makes me more interested too.
 
Walkazo said:
No-Face said:
it's spanish
Click to expand...
I thought it was Mexican...
Click to expand...
oh okay thanks
Toad Eightyfive said:
No-Face said:
first of all it's "land of the remembered" and "land of the forgotten". the dead world has two parts, which i think is cool
Click to expand...

Thanks for reminding me on their specific names. I almost forgot.

No-Face said:
but like. what's wrong with the art style. i think it's great. it's original and it's vibrant and it's spanish and it's just great
Click to expand...

first of all, original ≠ good

i found the animation rather choppy and half-finished, and the color selection looked too vibrant imo. which i get they're going for a story book paper-mâché style like coralline or paranorman but the way it's executed is just unpleasant.

also, mexican ≠ spanish. two different continents. sorry to nitpick, but still.
Click to expand...
idk what you mean by choppy and half-finished

maybe your browser is lagging or something, because it's very smooth and polished. i mean i guess some of the actions are fast but i wouldn't say it's "choppy"

as for paper-mache, it looks a lot more wooden to me. maybe you mean to say stop-motion? because coraline and paranorman weren't paper-mache either. i mean i guess paranorman looks a little paper-mache-y. (they're both made by 3d printing, though)
 
No-Face said:
as for paper-mache, it looks a lot more wooden to me. maybe you mean to say stop-motion? because coraline and paranorman weren't paper-mache either.
Click to expand...

that would be a better description, yes. i was drowsy last night and couldn't find the proper description.
 
Dr. Javelin said:
I'm mixed on the art style. It's really colorful and really reminds me of Guacamelee, but on the other hand sometimes it looks a little... videogamey? As in it doesn't look as real due to the way the characters are moving.

That's an odd complaint to have about an animated movie, I know, but there's still something about it that bothers me.
Click to expand...
Whenever I say something "looks like a video game", it's usually referring to how smooth and semi-real the movements are, like a real-time cutscene or something. I'm actually very annoyed the way people refer to how movies "looks like a video game", because it's almost always exclusively used as an complaint/critique, as if implying some kind of default superiority of movies over video games.

That being said, I understand what you say. I'm the kind of person who doesn't care much for "reality", and the movements in this trailer look fine to me, or at the very least, don't seem too sloppy or uncanny valley-y for me to be that bothered by it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back