Concept Art for ‘The Book of Life’: Finally!

It seems that we have been waiting with bated breath for quite some time for many of the studios to release some of their concept art for their upcoming feature animated projects. Thanks to The Hollywood Reporter we finally have the first two pieces from Reel FX’s The Book of Life. 

About the story: Set on the Mexican holiday the Day of the Dead and tells of a young man named Manolo who is torn between what he wants to do (play guitar and win the heart of the girl of his dreams) and what his family wants him to do. He ends up traveling across three different worlds to find himself.

The Book of Life is being produced by current Hollywood favorite Guillermo del Toro, and Directed by Jorge Gutierrez and the studios are Fox Animation and Reel FX Animation Studios, the latter of which gave us nothing to be thankful for last Thanksgiving: Free Birds. So this raises some red flags. Well that, and coupled with some of the voice actor line up, Channing Tatum and Ice Cube among others could be troubling. Then again, there are some fan favorites in the bunch including Danny Trejo, Cheech Marin and Gabriel Iglesias. So, until a trailer comes out, we’ll have to continue speculating and staring at the undoubtedly beautiful concept art they have released.

The Book of Life will be released later this year on October 17, 2014.

What are your thoughts? Will Reel FX be able to pull it off? Will Guillermo del Toro be as big of an influence on the film as we hope? What will this do to Pixar’s Day of the Dead feature? Sound off below!