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Story: While the story here is essentially a "love triangle" story, it is helped by its "Dia De Los Muertos" theme. It's interesting learning about the culture behind this Mexican holiday and how the film incorporates the beliefs into this simplistic story. The film does start out slow, but once the film gets to the "Land of the Remembered", it really begins to pick up. This movie does have nice morals about remembering your loved ones who passed away, fighting for what's right for the good of the people, writing your own stories, etc., but the whole "animal cruelty is bad" message feels out of place here. Overall, this predictable story does rise up a bit thanks to its theme and morals. 6/10

Animation: This is one of the most uniquely animated films I've ever scene, especially for an American released CGI film. The character designs are well crafted and detailed to look like wooden puppets (except the humans in the real-world, they look generic), the backgrounds, especially in the "afterlife" are gorgeous and colorful, and the scenery is a pleasure to see. Just like with the story, the "Dia De Los Muertos" theme helps the animation be better than what it already is. This is a must-see if you're a sucker for eye-candy films. 10/10

Characters and Comedy: Just like with Rio 2, the film suffers from too many characters which unfortunately limits the amount of character development and screen-time certain characters get. Manolo I thought was a great leading man who you can sympathize with as he tries to win the love of María who I also thought was a fine love- interest. Joaquín was also an OK love-rival/friend who gets more developed and like- able towards the end. I also like La Muerte and Xibalba (the female and male gods respectively) and their dynamic as they wager who marries María. But the rest are just too much of pain to remember their names (I suck at naming foreign people) and they don't get enough screen-time or development to be remembered (Manolo's dad was fine though). The comedy was also nice enough to raise this category up a bit. 6/10

Sound: I liked the score that was here along with their Latino covers of certain popular songs. The biggest highlight of the songs was hearing Diego Luna sing some of the ballads as Manolo. He does have a nice singing voice. 8/10

Acting and Casting: Everyone did a fine job with the performances, although, I wasn't all that impressed with Zoe Saldana's performance as María except for a few scenes. I really liked Diego Luna's role as Manola and Channing Tatum's role as Joaquín. They both did a great job with their character roles. The rest were fine, but not really impressive. 8/10

Verdict: If you're interested in learning more about Mexican culture and Dia De Los Muertos but you're too lazy to watch a documentary on them, give The Book of Life a try and you might learn something new about Mexican culture while also being entertained along the way.

Rating: 7/10

Story: The story here suffers from too many subplots, and a lack of focus. It also doesn't help that all the subplots here are generic. This would would kill a film......if it was made by someone like Pixar or Studio Ghibli. But since this film's plot isn't the main focus, or why audiences watched the 1st Rio, then the bad story doesn't really hurt this film as much as it could've been. But it's still a bad story nonetheless. 4/10

Animation: It's beautiful, gorgeous, colorful, and worth watching on Blu-ray or Blu-ray 3D. 10/10

Characters And Comedy: All characters here follow standard archetypes we all know of, but Nigel and Gabi serve as the most original and most entertaining. Comedy is solid with some funny moments in the film. 6/10

Sound: Good score and amazing soundtrack. Love the songs here more than Frozen, but none really hit the heights of Hot Wings from the 1st. Although some of the songs do come close. 9/10

Acting And Casting: All actors/actresses do a good job voicing their roles, especially with Jesse E. as the voice of Blu. I'm also surprised Bruno Mars didn't suck. 7/10

Verdict: Don't watch this film for the story. Watch it like you would a Madagascar film and just sit back, relax, and enjoy an entertaining family film with some beautiful animation, good comedy, and amazing songs.

Extra: +1 for being a sequel I enjoyed.

Rating: 8/10

For a more in-depth review (stupid 1000 word limit), check out my Metacritic review: http://www.metacritic.com/user/DemonicSoul?myscore- filter=Movie