Adorably Macabre Movie Gives New 'Life' to Mexican Day of the Dead Brian Truitt - USA Today
go to original October 14, 2014

The Book of Life Official Trailer #2 (2014) (MOVIECLIPS Trailers)

In America, skull imagery is connected primarily with Halloween, horror movies and gothic-inspired fashion.

Head south, however, and they become a key aspect of the Mexican Day of the Dead holiday (Día de Muertos), which is the canvas on which director Jorge R. Gutierrez paints his animated feature The Book of Life (in theaters Friday).

Observed Oct. 31-Nov. 2, the holiday culminates in Day of the Dead, a time when people honor those in their life who have died, from decorating their graves and creating altars in their houses to donning their loved ones' clothes and wearing makeup for various celebrations.

It's so important to Gutierrez that he even married his wife Sandra Equihua on Day of the Dead, he says. "It's a holiday that I live every day and I try to honor those who came before me. I'm hoping this movie lets the whole world know what Day of the Dead is all about."

The husband and wife appear with their 5-year-old son Luka — in animated forms — in a cemetery scene in Life, which takes young musical matador Manolo (voiced by Diego Luna) on a journey through the colorful and lively Land of the Remembered and to the bleak and desolate Land of the Forgotten in order to win the heart of his love Maria (Zoe Saldana).

Read the rest at USA Today

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