The Legend of La Llorona

Along with the previous one, this one was also part of my childhood and I still watch it a lot, because its always passing on TV and I still cant be objective critizing it. There are a lot of improvements from the previous one, mainly the animation, it is really impressive how much it improved, now it does look made by a professional studio, everything is smoothier, characters have more movement, their designs are more consistent and overall the animation is improved in every single way. The jokes are also a big improvement, now they are much more fleshed out, they have better timing and on a first watch most of them caught you off guard and make you laugh. The story is also more fleshed out. Now, you dont feel like youre just going from room to room meeting new characters, the goal is much more clear, the villain is more threatening, now all characters have something to do, everything is better in all aspects. Still, its not perfect but it is a very special movie for me so I like it a lot and I overlook some problems it has, but overall, a good movie, with good characters and a good story that could be improved to be even better.

I teach high school Spanish, so I am sure to be biased. But this movie Rocks! As a Spanish teacher, there is no better resource to use in my classes than the movies from this series, which also includes La Leyenda de la Nahuala.

The improvements in animation, story, and humor in between this movie and the Nahuala are great! They really nailed the story of the Llorona. I laughed out loud, was decently scared, and started to tear up. And this is all when I watched it alone. My Spanish classes love it! It showcases Mexican culture, including indigenous and Spanish influences, and integrates it seamlessly into the storyline. It's funny, scary, and heartfelt. Perfect for celebrating Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).

Im going to be honest with you guys, only watched this sequel just for nostalgia purposes. As younger i did dislike it a lot, and now surprisingly i found it better to the first film in many ways? Why is that? And did it improved it on everything? Well, lets see... Also its bed time here, so sorry for the word spit, lol.

The overall presentation and the way to told the story was hugely overhaul. Although the first 5 or 10 minutes of the film are honestly... unbearable and so damn cringy... Again, we're talking about forced "funny" Mexican phrases shoved in your face while the movie is trying at the same time to act all dark and moody. I though this movie was going to be a Nahuala 2.0. I was honestly going to turn it off/rage quit, much like Errementari. Fortunateeeeeeely, the entire movie keeps a good rhytm after that mess. First of all we can see the new animation style, mixed up with 3d CGI, and while the CGI part its to be honest... incredible dated, like almost from the PS1 days (and being low budget isnt an excuse for this level of fidelity), much like Nahuala, it doesnt overstay its welcome.

I do admit the more raw style had its charm, but it also made it feel like it was made for Kindergarten... Here the work is clearly more professional and its noticeable everywhere.

I do find the changes in character designs to portray their personalities much better. Especially Leo. Leo is much more brave in this film, and although it really makes him easier to connect with as a character, it does create a bit of a plot hole, as the sequel kicks off literally hours after the first movie, so how is that Leo suddendly became prepared for this mission? I know that he defeated Nahuala in the previous film, but that was mostly because of his luck and doing what he was told. Here Leo seems extremely confident, to the point he seems a different character. Other than that... he is an improvement for the sole fact that he is less annoying (this movie overall gets rid of most of the annoying characters... mostly, i would get to that...) and he gets more moments of development. Previously in Nahuala film, we knew that he lost his parents when he was younger, but it really didn't mean much to the plot or the character, other than being a mere anecdote. Here, Leo starts to feeling more emotional and finds some kind of a mother figure on Kika mother.

The movie itself is more emotional than the first, but having removing most of Mexican stereotypes means the plot has more time to shine overall. However there is a problem and is that there is also not as much comedy as before, and when its here... Its maybe even worse...

Something i found it weird was splitting up the group after an accident. Leo (which works together with Kika to solve the mystery) and the secondary characters of the first film: Don Andres, Alebrije, Teodora, and the Sugar Skulls.... First of all... What damn Teodora is doing here?! She is so annoying and does nothing to the plot! She is even worse than the first film, becuase while in the first she was just your typical strict rich girl but with standards (basically poor mans Rarity), here is just ridiculous. He seems to despise the entire group of characters, and is very selfish or jealous. Why she is here?! Only to being a bait for La Llorona? Same with Kika, is just too annoying and does exactly one irrelevant thing to force a emotional conversation.

I think they could had remove Teodora and Kika and brought back Xotichlt instead, which, while she wasnt too prominent in the first film as much as i would like it, she had some relevance and she clearly was intelligent enough about the "other world" so to speak. It would had been a perfect companion to Leo and Kika mother could had still work out the same role as before without any changes, being one of main motivations of Leo, while Xotichlt being the intelligent. I know that she is probably going to appear in the third film according to the ending, but it was still a bad decision to throw to trash one of the few good characters of the first film both in terms of personality and design.

Speaking a bit more about the plot, i really like that they put time to explain what is going on (though, to be fair, they dump most of the info up front and then call it a day). La Llorona is a good villian overall, although it doesnt make too much sense that she tries to kidnap other family childs or even adults, just to bring her mind some peace, but later Leo requires her to check out her childs graves. Did she just... forget they existed? Who knows, and i honestly couldnt care a damn.

However going back to the character split, much like previous film, El Alebrije, Don Andres and the Sugar Skulls are here just to be comic reliefs and not good ones. Their entire scenes are fighting with the puppets (that are practically irrelevant to the main plot) and getting back to were Leo is, but after that what? The feeling of camaraderie fades. What seemed like a cooperative plan disappears. And they become cannon fodder because it's better than leaving them there doing nothing... They dont help Leo in any way. What a waste of cast.

Thats my main problem with "La Leyenda De La Llorona". The plot is much more interesting than the previous film, and everything is better told, with less "Mexicanisms", but i also feel this movie could had worked with a much smaller cast. Hell, not just Teodora, but many more could had been removed. Leo, Kika, Kika Mother and La Llorona were already enough. And like i said Teodora could had been reemplaced with Xotichlt that would be a much better reemplacement for her role of "spiritual guide". The overabundance of characters makes at least a quarter of the movie felt like padding.

But other than that, they do what they wanted to do (which is picking up real life myths and adding some elements of mystery and adventure to the mix) much better than previously. Is just a shame that some flaws still persist. It doesn't know how to introduce new conflicts without stretching the main gum, and its idea of comic relief usually boils down to either stereotypes or flat-out annoying characters.

Would "The Legend of the Mummies of Guanajuato" be the classic everyone says? The one who made this series so popular? Or is just another overrated film? Well, we would find it... Soon.... If im not ded.