I love anything to do with fairy tales, Latino folk art and Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) and look to these for design inspirations. As part of my 3-day film fest, I watched The Book of Life, a highly imaginative and colorful CGI animation with a fantasy folk tale story. I honestly have mixed feelings about the movie. According to the Director, Jorge Gutierrez, they had a low budget to make the film so I guess with unlimited funds and time it could have been done better. I really did appreciate the heart and soul that went into it. There was just something about some of the character designs that were strange like floppy pig noses on humans and blocky shapes that weren't quite three-dimensional looking. I wasn't sure if they were going for an abstract Picasso style, who is Spanish not Mexican, or not. And some of the musical choices were really odd. I would have liked to have heard more original songs rather than a few pop songs thrown in to "sound cool" that were just too far out of context to work. I also watched some of the DVD extras to better understand the design choices that were made. I could see that the artists were passionate about their work and deliberate in their execution so don't want to be too critical. So I'm thinking the movie will grow on me over time. But it definitely was a visual feast for the eyes.
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