Yesterday we brought you news about the Art of The Book of Life, the new art book that will be released a month before The Book of Life, and today, after sifting through many, many pieces of unrelated articles we found one that finally gives some details about the actual story behind the purposely broad and vague synopses provided by Fox Animation and Reel FX. The original synopsis reads:
The Book of Life is the journey of Manolo, a young man who is torn between fulfilling the expectations of his family and following his heart. Before choosing which path to follow, he embarks on an incredible adventure that spans three fantastical worlds where he must face his greatest fears. Rich with a fresh take on pop music favorites, The Book of Life encourages us to celebrate the past while looking forward to the future.
Thanks to Univision and Variety Latino, we now know that Diego Luna (Elysium, Y tu mama tambien, Casa de mi Padre) will be playing the lead character of Manolo, who is a young bullfighter with the ambitious dream of becoming a musician. Also, as it turns out, the “pop music favorites” won’t be anything as cringe worthy as we might have anticipated. Instead, they will be songs derived from Mexico’s Alternative rock group Cafe Tacvba, and America’s Radiohead. This is a huge sigh of relief!
Now that we can breathe a little easier, we can enjoy the first few clips from the film that were in the Variety Latino news video. Here are a couple of screenshots, but feel free to take a look at the video itself though it is entirely in Spanish. The following screenshots, and the footage included in the Variety Latino video are not in fact from The Book of Life but from a student thesis project from Ringling College. The only reason I can think of as to why their footage made it on to the video is that Variety Latino was scrambling for any images to help move the story along. Hopefully we’ll be seeing official images soon.
Considering this new information, it could be deduced that perhaps Manolo comes from a long line of bullfighters, so he is expected to join in on the glory and honor that is bestowed onto those who make careers out of the sport. And perhaps his heart gets in the way, which leads him to his love interest Maria (Zoe Saldana), and on his life journey he receives guidance from people of the past (Friday Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Maria Felix, Jose Guadalupe Posada, all which were mentioned in the Variety Latino video). Of course this is all personal speculation.
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