Gutiérrez takes this idea and gives it a Russian-doll spin – a story within a tale, within another story kept in a book where all the stories are written, be they true or made-up.

The same can be said of the soundtrack, composed by Oscar-winning Argentine composer Gustavo Santaolalla (Brokeback Mountain, Babel), who more than once nods to adult viewers with unexpected ‘Latinised’ versions of songs such as Radiohead’s Creep.ĭel Toro’s dictum has always been that stories are what moves the world. And although it’s essentially a love triangle with a woman at its centre, María is far from being the princessy type.Ĭharacters are not just well-rounded on the page but almost tangibly three-dimensional María and her suitors were made manually out of wood, the baddies out of metal, and the evident craft and attention to detail pays off, giving the different worlds defining textures.

Gutiérrez co-designed the characters with his wife Sandra, and it shows women here match (or surpass) men in all spheres, be it wit, courage or intellect. The theme of taking charge of your own destiny is given a distinct feminist slant. It’s an inventive, funny and genuinely touching tale about growing up, finding happiness in the happiness of others and, above all, the importance of family and carving your place as an individual within it. With such a setting, it’s perhaps not surprising that the first name in the opening credits is that of co-producer Guillermo del Toro, the Mexican filmmaker whose involvement in this project has been characterised by Gutiérrez as that of “a very loving but strict professor”. They will all have to find their true selves before they can find each other. One of its stories concerns a love triangle between three amigos: Manolo, a bullfighter by family tradition but a musician at heart María, the courageous and smart daughter of San Ángel’s town mayor and Joaquín, a valiant soldier-to-be with a good heart yet undeniably self-centred. Everyone’s lives are documented in its pages. It is on this very day that a group of ‘difficult’ kids is taken on a museum tour by a beguiling, mysterious guide who introduces them to the Book of Life that gives the film its title. Her wicked (and wickedly charming) estranged husband Xibalba rules over the Land of the Forgotten, and both these worlds come together once a year during the famous celebrations of Día de los Muertos, when Muerte is the queen of life for a day.

Thus, as per Mexican tradition, La Muerte is no pale, black-clad man brandishing a scythe but a dazzling, intelligent female who cares for everyone equally as she reigns over the Land of the Remembered.

The book of life movie