Jorge R. Gutierrez
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Filmography
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The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Directed by Henry Selick
influenced The Book of Life (2014)
Visuals Themes
Gutierrez's style is colourful, even freakish: he draws from Mexican folk art, but also from Cubism, stop-motion animation –The Nightmare Before Christmas is a clear inspiration – and underground cartooning.
Just as Henry Selick’s The Nightmare Before Christmas was often attributed to its producer Tim Burton , this rather lovely animation by Jorge R Gutierrez is being flogged as a Guillermo del Toro project.
Death is ‘in’ at the moment in children’s animation, with The Book of Life belonging to a quirky little group along with Frankenweenie and Paranorman (or going back a bit further, The Corpse Bride and The Nightmare Before Christmas).
Though the film makes nice use of notable pop songs—including hits from Radiohead, Rod Stewart, and Elvis—the originals may be what keeps The Book of Life from becoming a modern animated classic, up there with The Nightmare Before Christmas.
**½ Alternately unusual and trendy but always busy with eye-popping color and detail, as if piñatas filled with kaleidoscope crystals were bursting constantly in the background, this computer-animated semi-musical adventure from director Jorge R. Gutiérrez and producer Guillermo del Toro (the Mexican fantasy auteur whose credits include "Pan’s Labyrinth”) was inspired by Mexican folklore and the national celebration of el Día de Muertos: Most of the characters are modeled after painted wooden Day of the Dead figurines, so that they resembled hinged puppets without strings.
Although directed by rookie Jorge R. Gutierrez, the project bears the unmistakable thumbprint of producer Guillermo del Toro (“Pan’s Labyrinth”), with its themes of adolescent expectations and grotesque alternate worlds whose mystical denizens intersect with our own.
Guillermo del Toro has brought us the gorgeous and gruesome horror-filled fable Pan's Labyrinth, the eccentric and eerie superhero story Hellboy, and the stunning sci-fi spectacle that is Pacific Rim.
Director and co-writer Jorge R. Gutierez keeps this simple story on the move, and producer Guillermo del Toro’s “Pan’s Labyrinth” touch is felt throughout.
Inspired by Mexico’s Day of the Dead holiday and produced by Guillermo del Toro (“Pan’s Labyrinth”), “The Book of Life” is a visually stunning animated tale that should appeal to children even if they don’t always understand what’s going on.
I don’t mean the del Toro of Pacific Rim (2013), but the del Toro of Cronos (1993), The Devil’s Backbone (2001) and Pan’s Labyrinth (2006).
Then Perlman brings a thick layer of eager malevolence, reminiscent of James Woods evil underworld ruler in the animate Hercules.
Reminding of a less-inspired variant of 1997's " Hercules ," "The Book of Life" features familiar character types in a story that wears itself down in exposition.
Though undeniably gorgeous, none of this feels terribly original, from the film’s message to the look of the Mexican underworld, which so recently inspired another computer-animated feature, 2014’s “The Book of Life.”
Controversy struck again when fans of the film The Book of Life reacted to similarities between Coco and the 2014 brainchild of Mexican and Mexican-American writers and artists , accusing Disney of idea theft.
Basing a family feature around Mexico's annual Day of the Dead holiday is not entirely novelit was previously explored in 2014's well-meaning, ultimately forgettable " The Book of Life "but it has finally received the gloriously conceived, dramatically sound treatment it deserves.
The Book of Life is not-so-slyly derivative in its romantic themes: a little Romeo and Juliet here, Ghost there and The Princess Bride throughout, with "real" world interruptions by a museum tour guide (Christina Applegate) to increasingly involved children.
The Book of Life is not-so-slyly derivative in its romantic themes: a little Romeo and Juliet here, Ghost there and The Princess Bride throughout, with "real" world interruptions by a museum tour guide (Christina Applegate) to increasingly involved children.
While this makes for a narrative whose originality lags behind that displayed in other areas, Gutierrez wears those influences with blatantly affectionate pride, paying homage to the wide spectrum of art that shaped his own--from Latin, pop, rock, and hip-hop music to folk art to the macabre stop-motion oeuvre of the likes of Henry Selick to Greek mythology to the campy yet earnest melodrama of the telenovela to evergreen childhood fave films like The Princess Bride .
Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Directed by Gary Trousdale
influenced The Book of Life (2014)
Characters
But Joaquin acts so much like Gaston in "Beauty and the Beast," the ending is a forgone conclusion: What heroine chooses a vainglorious soldier over a sensitive songwriter?
Channing Tatum's Joaquin borrows more than a few personality traits from Beauty and the Beast 's Gaston (his idea of a romantic gift is an autographed picture of himself) but he replaces the latter's cruelty with a naïve likeability.
Channing Tatum does lunk-headed well as the burly and egomaniacal soldier Joaquin, who makes the ladies swoon like an imitation Gaston a la Beauty and the Beast.
Along the way and sort of in the same vein, the filmmakers go the "Moulin Rouge!" route by throwing covers of past popular songs into the mix, sung by the characters (such as Elvis' "Can't Help Falling in Love With You," Radiohead's "Creep," Mumford and Sons' "I Will Wait" and Biz Markie's "Just a Friend" among others).
Admittedly, the whole jukebox movie musical approach isn't exactly new, with Moulin Rouge! and, in the animated feature realm, Happy Feet having already gone there.
Obvious cultural points aside, it’s because the last American produced animated feature to be set in any South American country or feature mostly Latino characters was The Three Caballeros back in 1945.
And when Manolo, during his trip to the underworld, encounters the Candle Maker who guards the titular Book of Life, perhaps it's no surprise that this supreme spirit being turns out to be voiced by Ice Cube, in a maneuver that seems like little more than an attempt to give the late Robin Williams's Genie from Aladdin a run for its money.
The supporting cast in Book of Life all do fine work handling their characters’ larger than life personalities, be it Ron Perlman and Kate de Castillo as the sparring immortal lovers and lords of the underworlds, or Ice Cube as another key mystical figure, known as The Candle Maker (he’s to this movie what Robin Williams’ Genie is to Disney’s Aladdin, in some ways).
In those moments, the vibe approaches what Brazilian animator Carlos Saldanha communicated with “Rio.”
For "Corpse Bride," designer Carlos Grangel drew on Day of the Dead imagery more effectively.
Ads hype the production involvement of director Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth), but the film also invites comparisons to Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, whose visuals were influenced by Day of the Dead's colorful aesthetic.
Despite the literally limitless possibilities it presents to filmmakers or, more precisely, artists, feature digital animation has largely been in an ironic visual lockstep the last 20 years, deviating very little, if at all, from the general design model Pixar introduced with Toy Story in 1995.
Director Jorge R. Gutiérrez, known for his work on other animated projects like “El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera” and “The Book of Life,” wants to bring more Latino representation to the screen.
Shortly after Lee Unkrich won an Oscar for directing “ Toy Story 3 ,” Pixar announced that his next project would be about the Mexican holiday Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).
It feels like the playtime story within a story that opens Toy Story 3, derivative yet inventive, and based heavily around a series of toys.
Gutierrez thoughtfully deflects any parental concern about dealing with a potentially morbid subject with a refreshing directness that goes beyond such iconic animated tragedies as the deaths of Bambi’s mother and Simba’s father in “ The Lion King .”
Admittedly, the whole jukebox movie musical approach isn't exactly new, with Moulin Rouge! and, in the animated feature realm, Happy Feet having already gone there.
Besides the original score and songs by two-time Oscar winner Gustavo Santaolalla (Brokeback Mountain, Babel) and veteran songwriter Paul Williams, there are fun, mariachi-flavored versions of such pop hits as Mumford and Sons' "I Will Wait," Radiohead's "Creep" and Rod Stewart's "Do You Think I'm Sexy?" among others.
A number of the character archetypes and tropes in Book of Life resemble those that were commonly found in Disney animated films in the 1990s – something that makes sense as Langdale got his start as a writer on movies like The Return of Jafar and the Darkwing Duck cartoon series – and, as such, feel a bit outdated for an animated feature releasing in 2014.
Sure, movies like Bambi and even Finding Nemo confront it to some degree, but Jorge Gutierrez’s vibrant debut takes the Mexican Day Of The Dead celebration as its launching point to spin a tale of love, loss and lies.