I loved this film, for the most part. The animation and character designs were gorgeous, the setting was vibrant and unique, and most of the characters were very well-written and charming. The songs are nice enough, if a bit distracting (I burst out laughing in the theatre when Manolo burst out singing Creep). There was some childish potty humour, but not enough to make the film crass or unappealing to people who don't care for that type of joke. The definite highlights are the lands of the dead and the extended Sanchez family; both are big and bright and lively, and I look forward to seeing more of both in the sequels I hope are coming. The worst parts of the movie, for me, were the framing device and how Maria's character was handled. I found the framing device to be boring and it pulled me right out of the movie whenever it came up. A lot of the "let's go see how the kids react" scenes seemed pointless and unneccesary to me; they were mostly there to tell the audience how to react to what they just saw, which, you know, we shouldn't be told how to do if the film is done right, and this one was. I don't need to be jerked out of an emotional moment to look at a Detention Kid going "Noooo! This is sad!" It actually detracted from the emotional investment of those scenes. I would have found it a lot easier to bear if it was just the first scene framing it, and it wasn't referenced again and again throughout the film. My problem with Maria is that she wasn't very well developed or used as a character. She is just introduced as the Living MacGuffin that both boys want, and never really grows past that. Both the boys get character arcs and develop throughout the film; not Maria. She is introduced as perfect, she stays perfect, all the other girls in town hate her for being perfect. Despite her feminist candy coating, she never becomes anything other than an object the men fight for. She learns kung fu and swordfighting but has very little impact on the final fight with Chakal. I found her to be very much a Strong Female Character, in the Kate Beaton definition of the term, rather than as an actually strong character.
TL;DR, an almost superb film, very well done with a lot of potential, that fell short for me on one or two unfortunately significant fronts.
Great but not perfect
I loved this film, for the most part. The animation and character designs were gorgeous, the setting was vibrant and unique, and most of the characters were very well-written and charming. The songs are nice enough, if a bit distracting (I burst out laughing in the theatre when Manolo burst out singing Creep). There was some childish potty humour, but not enough to make the film crass or unappealing to people who don't care for that type of joke. The definite highlights are the lands of the dead and the extended Sanchez family; both are big and bright and lively, and I look forward to seeing more of both in the sequels I hope are coming. The worst parts of the movie, for me, were the framing device and how Maria's character was handled. I found the framing device to be boring and it pulled me right out of the movie whenever it came up. A lot of the "let's go see how the kids react" scenes seemed pointless and unneccesary to me; they were mostly there to tell the audience how to react to what they just saw, which, you know, we shouldn't be told how to do if the film is done right, and this one was. I don't need to be jerked out of an emotional moment to look at a Detention Kid going "Noooo! This is sad!" It actually detracted from the emotional investment of those scenes. I would have found it a lot easier to bear if it was just the first scene framing it, and it wasn't referenced again and again throughout the film. My problem with Maria is that she wasn't very well developed or used as a character. She is just introduced as the Living MacGuffin that both boys want, and never really grows past that. Both the boys get character arcs and develop throughout the film; not Maria. She is introduced as perfect, she stays perfect, all the other girls in town hate her for being perfect. Despite her feminist candy coating, she never becomes anything other than an object the men fight for. She learns kung fu and swordfighting but has very little impact on the final fight with Chakal. I found her to be very much a Strong Female Character, in the Kate Beaton definition of the term, rather than as an actually strong character.
TL;DR, an almost superb film, very well done with a lot of potential, that fell short for me on one or two unfortunately significant fronts.