Our movie starts off in the small town of San Angel, Mexico on November 2nd, the Day of the Dead. It was a town of bullfighters, bandits, and the occasional interference by the rulers of the kingdoms of the dead. The first ruler was La Muerte, the ruler of the Land of the Remembered. The Land of the Remembered was where you went after you died as long as someone still remembered you. It is a land of festivity and happiness, as opposed to the dreary and sullen Land of the Forgotten. Xibalba was in power here as he watched countless souls wither away and die. This spurred Xibalba to challenge La Muerte with a wager of love. They had seen three children, a love triangle of sorts. Two boys, Manolo and Joaquin, were in love with the beautiful Maria Posada. La Muerte bet on our main character Manolo, while Xibalba bet on Joaquin. Though there was one problem, Xibalba had cheated by giving Joaquin the Amulet of Everlasting Life to make him seem more desirable. Then they went on a journey where the two boys would later fight for Maria’s affection. It is a story with many great aspects, its greatest being its vibrancy and the lessons hidden within the story.

The most prominent feature of the Book of Life was its vibrancy. This story is full of beauty, music, and awesome parties that express the feelings and state of being around and with the characters. The story portrays many arrays of beautiful colors that strongly stimulate different emotions within its viewers. An example of this was when you got to see the Land of the Remembered as compared to the Land of the Forgotten, it triggered different emotions from the vibrant Land of the Remembered to the sullen Land of the Forgotten. Another way that the story’s vibrancy portrays the story was the elaborate designs and decorations that hang on the walls and add flair and even more emotion to certain scenes. Lastly, the many original songs and other previously written songs added to the flow and made the story more interesting and adds to the feeling of the story. I believe that the song choices and the original songs fit perfectly into the story and went with the mood of the characters very well.

The other, more hidden feature of the story, are its morals and lessons expressed through the story. This story can tell us a lot about things such as honesty, following what we believe in, and also about Mexican culture. One of the mainly expressed ideals in this movie was following in what you believe in. In the story, Manolo is from a family of distinguished bullfighters, thus is his father’s reasoning to make him into one as well. The only problem is that he cannot kill the bull. He thinks that killing is wrong and he sticks to that throughout the entire movie. Another thing that we can learn from this story is to be honest and not cheat, or it may come back and bite you in the long run. In the story, as I mentioned before, Xibalba cheated by giving him the Amulet of Everlasting Life. This was his first offense which Joaquin used to become the town hero and tried to get Maria to marry him. Xibalba’s  second offense was tricking Manolo into thinking Maria was dead and so Manolo asked to be killed himself. This transported Manolo to the Land of the Remembered, and therefore securing Xibalba’s win over La Muerte and Manolo. This would’ve been perfect if he hadn’t been found out and then lost in a wager whereas Manolo one his life back and Xibalba was in a lot of trouble. The last thing that I took away from this movie was a little knowledge about the Mexican view on death and their culture. It’s main premise was that it was Dia de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead, which granted the dead certain privileges that they would not have otherwise. This allowed the first wager to take place.

In conclusion, the Book of Life was my favorite movie of 2014. I loved the way that the movie was put together and I think that this motion picture was phenomenal. I also believe that the characters were portrayed perfectly by their voice actors. The first time I saw this movie, I loved it. It was awesome and I believe that it should be available to be viewed by people of all ages and personalities and I would definitely recommend this movie to anybody.