The Book of Life (Jorge Gutierrez, 2014)

What's it about? A fairy tale about the rivalry between two friends, Manolo and Joaquin, for the affections of the lovely Maria. Things are somewhat complicated when the quarreling immortal spirits La Muerte and Xibalba have a wager on which suitor will emerge victorious.

Is it any good? Some wonderfully imaginative animation and visuals on display here, inspired by dolls and artistry from the Mexican Day of the Dead festivities. It's colourful, entertaining fare with good musical sequences, which makes up for a fairly conventional love triangle plot, albeit one that takes us through the worlds of the living and dead, accompanied by various mythical rulers of the underworld. So maybe not that conventional, come to think of it. Also, for a film dealing with divisions between life and the afterlife, I would have liked to see a little more poignancy in the sections dealing with death and family loss, which might have given the film more heft. Still, it all looks absolutely fabulous and it's hard not to like a film featuring stampeding pigs, a skeleton fire-bull and a Latin-American rendition of Radiohead's Creep.

What does the Fonz think? Juan thumb up!

Buy it on Amazon