The Book of Life

This actually makes the visual style seem halfway decent,
by putting the blander characters front and center.

The Book of Life
20th Century Fox
October 17, 2014
Fantasy, Historical Comedy, Children's
DVD
F

This is quite possibly the worst movie I've ever seen.  First of all, despite all the raves it got for its visual style, it is glaringly ugly, many of the characters more physically unpleasant than Ren & Stimpy, and pointlessly so because some of them are just very minor characters.  Secondly, I didn't care about any of the characters, including the "gods" having a bet about the marital prospects of three children who look to be about nine at most.  (I wanted someone to ask, "What if Maria doesn't want to marry either boy?  Or any boy?  Or anyone?")  Thirdly, I think the movie is meant to be a celebration of Mexican culture, but I've seen more nuance and wokeness in Speedy Gonzales cartoons.  Fourthly, what's with the ham-fisted framing device of the "detention kids" getting a secret special tour at the museum?  I could only stomach fifteen minutes of this, and only because that's my self-imposed rule, and I guess I wanted to see how low they could sink.  Jorge R. Gutiérrez directed and co-wrote and I'm going to give him all the blame that the animation crew doesn't get.