The Book of Life (movie)

The Book of Life is a 2014 animated romantic comedy movie. This movie is about being torn between family expectations and following the heart of one. Christina Applegate plays teacher Mary Beth. Ice Cube plays a Candle Maker. Channing Tatum plays Tatum.

The movie was released on October 17, 2014.

Plot

The story begins with a group of five boys who were in a museum. The 5 boys get off the bus and a museum guide is in charge of giving them a tour. She shows them a secret room, inside which is "The Book of Life." She tells them a story from the book that revolves around a love triangle between the three friends Manolo, Joaquín and María.

La Catrina, ruler of the Land of the Remembered, and Xibalba, ruler of the Land of the Forgotten, appear at the Day of the Dead celebration in the town of San Ángel, where they watch Manolo, Joaquín, and María playing. Xibalba proposes to La Catrina to make a bet and each one chooses a boy as their champion. La Catrina bets that Manolo will marry María, while Xibalba bets that it will be Joaquín. If Catrina wins, Xibalba will stop interfering in the affairs of men, but if he wins, they will exchange kingdoms. However, Xibalba cheats by giving Joaquín a medal of eternal life, which makes the wearer invincible. The next day, Maria releases a herd of animals, which stampede through the square causing a commotion, which infuriates her father, General Posada, and he decides to send her to a convent in Spain to become an educated young woman. When the day of his departure arrives, Manolo gives him a baby pig, Chuy (one of the animals that Maria had tried to rescue), and Maria gives him a new guitar with an engraving that says "Always play from the heart", while Joaquin is left with nothing to give or receive. As the train pulls away, Manolo and Joaquin run after it, saying goodbye to Maria.

As the years go by, Manolo is trained by his father Carlos to become a professional bullfighter in the Sanchez family tradition, while Joaquin becomes the hero of Saint Angel, saving towns everywhere with the help of the medal of eternal life. The day Maria returns, Manolo's first bullfight is held. During the event, Manolo impresses Maria with his skills, but when it comes time to finish off the bull, the latter says no as usual. This disappoints Carlos and the rest of the audience, with Maria being the only one who applauds and supports Manolo's decision.

That night, during a party in honor of Maria's return organized by her father, she learns that he is planning her marriage to Joaquin so that he will remain in San Angel and protect them from the bandit Chakal (who had been in possession of the medal of eternal life before Xibalba recovered it). However, Maria is conflicted due to her feelings for Manolo and her duty to her people; and Joaquin's sexist attitude irritates her to the point that she decides to leave the party and go to her room. Manolo arrives and composes a serenade for Maria, in which they almost kiss; but she does not intend to make things easy for Manolo. She goes downstairs to give Manolo his guitar back when she finds Joaquin, who proposes to her, with the guests as witnesses. Manolo immediately enters, and there they have a small fight where Joaquin ends up leaving. Suddenly, a child warns of the arrival of the bandits, and once again the town hero appears to fight. In the confrontation, one of the bandits realizes that Joaquín has the medal of eternal life, so the troop retreats to warn Chakal (who has been obsessively searching for said medal for years), and he announces an invasion of San Ángel.

Joaquín accompanies María to her house and when he says goodbye he asks her to think about the proposal; bringing out a more sensitive side by showing him that he has been keeping a hat that Maria lost the day he left San Ángel, and that she is the reason why he always goes ahead in his task as a hero of the people. Moved, Maria responds with an inexact yes. Later, while María was looking at a photo book with Chuy, Manolo knocks on the window asking her to see him on the bridge at dawn, and says goodbye running. Xibalba realizes that if the two meet he will lose the bet, so he sends a two-headed snake to ruin that encounter. Maria and Manolo secretly meet on the outskirts of San Angel, declaring their love for each other when they are interrupted by Xibalba's snake; who bites Mary. When Joaquín and General Posada blame Manolo for not protecting María, he makes a pact with Xibalba to be able to meet with María, allowing himself to be bitten by the snake's two heads, and dying instantly.

Manolo wakes up in the land of the Remembered, where he is reunited with his mother Carmen and several deceased members of his illustrious family. They guide him to the castle of La Catrina, but he finds that now it is Xibalba who governs this kingdom; he explains his bet with Catrina and reveals that a bite from the snake only puts his victim in a kind of trance; therefore Mary is still alive but asleep. Manolo realizes that he has fallen for Xibalba's deception and very annoyed assures him that he will tell La Catrina.

With the help of his mother Carmen and grandfather Luis Sánchez, Manolo sets out on his way to the Cave of Souls (the only way to reach the land of the Forgotten), but to enter they must face a labyrinth guarded by a stone giant. Manolo is trapped there with three huge stone spheres, which he manages to avoid, in order to get out of the labyrinth. The giant prepares to judge Manolo with a monumental sword, which Manolo pierces, because his heart is pure and courageous. Inside the cave, they meet the Wax Man (the one in charge of maintaining the balance of the kingdoms) and the Book of Life, who lead them to where the Magic Waterfalls that unite all the kingdoms are. Seeing in the Book of Life that Manolo is writing his own story instead of living the one that was written for him, the Wax Man sets out to help him get his life back.

Using one of the waterfalls, everyone moves to the land of the Forgotten, where the Catrina is located. When he finds her, Manolo tells him that Xibalba cheated. Enraged, Catrina summons him and once he appears she complains about what he has done. Since Manolo was deceived, the only thing to do is to bring him back to life, but Xibalba refuses to cooperate. Manolo and Catrina persuade him to convince him and Xibalba creates a new bet: If Manolo manages to beat all the bulls that have died at the hands of the Sánchez family (which according to Luis would be thousands) in a bullfight, he will return to life; but if it fails it will be forgotten forever.

Meanwhile, in the land of the living, Carlos finds himself on the outskirts of the city with Chakal's army. Joaquín was about to marry María (both noticeably sad about Manolo's death), until someone shouts interrupting the wedding, announcing that the bandit Chakal has arrived. Back in the land of the Forgotten, the bulls of the bullfight unite to form a giant bull that tries to destroy Manolo. After the beast crashes giving Manolo the opportunity to kill him, he refuses and decides to play his guitar, singing a song in which he apologizes to the bull for the unjust death of his fellow men at the hands of the bullfighters of the Sánchez family. The bull surrenders and disappears into hundreds of yellow petals (managing to rest in peace). Acknowledging Manolo's triumph, Xibalba joins the Catrina and the Wax Man so that the three of them can revive Manolo.

Joining the battle, in which Joaquín is stripped of the medal of eternal life, the deceased members of the Sánchez family appear to fight. During the battle, they manage to take Chakal's medal. Later, the bell of the church in the town of San Ángel falls, but Joaquín holds the bell about to enclose Manolo, Chakal and him in it since Manolo was on top of Chakal. Then, Chakal lights a bomb as a plan for him to die and destroy the town of San Ángel, but Manolo pushes Joaquín by locking himself with Chacal inside the bell. When the dynamite explodes, the bell is turned over and Manolo comes out without any injury since Joaquín put the medal of eternal life on him, Joaquín hurt his eye to save Manolo. Later, Manolo declares his love for Maria and they end up getting married, and Catrina and Xibalba forgive each other since they were fighting and kiss at the top of the bell tower and singing with everyone from the town and also the deceased.

In the end, the people from the museum visit leave and the guide turned out to be Catrina saying goodbye and Xibalba appears that Catrina receives a kiss from Xibalba. The film ends with the wax man saying that we write our destiny.