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 "I never saw myself or my family or my friends up on the
screen in animation," Gutierrez said. "I kept waiting for the
Latina princess to show up, and she never did."
Gutierrez embarked on a 14-year journey to make "The Book of
Life," out in U.S. theaters on Friday, drawing on Mexican art
and wooden puppets to animate a colorful love story rooted in
the Mexican Day of the Dead festivities.
"The Book of Life," a co-production of Reel FX Creative Studios
and Twenty-First Century Fox Inc's Twentieth Century Fox
studios, follows childhood friends Manolo (Diego Luna), Joaquin
(Channing Tatum) and Maria (Zoe Saldana).
The kids become the subjects of a playful bet between the
vivacious La Muerte and the conniving Xibalba, rulers of the
underworld realms, who each pick which boy will win Maria's
heart.
La Muerte reigns over the Land of the Remembered, a never-ending
fiesta town painted in a burst of luminous colors, and Xibalba
oversees the bleak Land of the Forgotten, a world where souls
turn to dust as they are forgotten by the living.
As the three children grow up, Manolo follows his family
tradition of bull fighting but refuses to kill a bull or give up
music, while Joaquin becomes an indestructible warrior with help
from Xibalba. Then there is Maria, the strong-willed beauty who
Gutierrez says is "no damsel in distress."
"There are more Marias out there than ever before," said
Saldana. "Art is beginning to imitate life and have a much more
accurate depiction of real life characters more frequently.
Maria to me is my sisters, my friends, my colleagues, my
neighbors, women that I read about, women that I admire."
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Death has often been a used as a catalyst for a hero's origins in
animated films for children, from "Bambi" to "The Lion King" and
"Finding Nemo."
But it is rarely placed in the spotlight, and Gutierrez said he was
"extra careful" in portraying the Day of the Dead (Dia de los
Muertos), when Mexican families gather at the graves of their
families and celebrate their lives.
"Mexicans have a very different relationship with the concept of
death than everywhere else in the world," he said. "In the history
of (animation), death is something that's always been there but no
one wants to acknowledge it."
At its heart, "Book of Life" captures Mexican culture and traditions
through Gutierrez's eyes, a "love letter" to the world he grew up
in.
"It's not a folkloric postcard, it's truly a modern Mexico that at
the same time loves its roots," said the film's producer, Guillermo
Del Toro. "I think people are going to be immersed into it through
the music, the visuals, and extremely important, the most universal
thing of all, emotions."
(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Patricia Reaney and Steve
Orlofsky)
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