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  • 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!

  • This Halloween...

  • Whoa!!!!

  • Please help me reunite with the love of my life.

  • Stay here with us!

  • We have epic fiestas everyday -

  • and all you can eat churros!!!

  • Comes an adventure...

  • You so strong, Joaquin!

  • Thanks, I work out a lot.

  • Unlike anything you've ever seen!

  • Tchkal is here!!!

  • Why don't you pick on someone your own size?!

  • 'Cause no one's that big, man!

  • Haha! Hey buddy...

  • 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