(A tale packed with adventure, The Book of Life celebrates...)
A tale packed with adventure, The Book of Life celebrates the power of friendship and family, and the courage to follow your dreams. To determine whether the heart of humankind is pure and good, two godlike beings engage in an otherworldly wager during Mexico's annual Day of the Dead celebration. They tether two friends, Manolo and Joaquin, into vying for the heart of the beautiful and fiercely independent Maria, with comical and sometimes dangerous consequences. This volume is an inspirational behind-the-scenes look at the making of the animated feature film The Book of Life, from visionary producer Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth) and director Jorge R. Gutierrez (El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera).
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1616555335/?tag=2022091-20
Born in Mexico City and raised in Tijuana, Gutierrez has completed various films, cartoons, illustrations and paintings exploring his love of Mexican pop and folk culture. Gutierrez attended the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), where he received his BFA & MFA in Experimental Animation under Jules Engel.
In 2000, Gutierrez worked under animation legend Maurice Noble, for the art direction of Chuck Jones' Timberwolf for Warner Bros. In 2001, he began creating , an animated web series for Sony Pictures. Gutierrez has also done character design on many animated series including Nickelodeon's , as well as WB's , and Disney's for which he was nominated for a 2006 Annie Award in character design.
As a writer, he's worked on Scholastic's as well as Disney's. He animated some of the sketches in Cartoon Network's Mad. In 2012, Gutierrez directed at Reel FX a computer-animated adventure feature film with a Romeo and Juliet style love story set against a Mexican "Day of the Dead" backdrop.
The film, with the official title , was co-produced with 20th Century Fox Animation and was released on October 17, 2014. It was released theatrically in Mexico on May 10, 2015, and is due for a direct-to-video release in the United States sometime in the future. “Working with the amazing Mexican artists at Ánima Estudios was a blast!," he said in an interview with Cartoon Brew.
"This film is yet another encouraging sign of the endless talent currently brewing in my beloved Mexico.” In February 2015, Reel FX and Gutierrez announced a multi-year, multi-picture deal. The terms and length of the deal were not immediately disclosed, but the first of the new films was announced as a "Untitled Kung Fu Space Western.".
There he created the 3D short Carmelo, which won the 2001 Student Emmy Award in animation and was screened at various festivals around the world, including Kodak's Emerging Filmmakers Program at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival. Gutierrez won two Annie awards (Best TV Animated show & Best TV Character Design) and one Emmy (Best TV Character Design) working on his passion project for Nickelodeon, El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera, along with his partner, muse and wife, Sandra Equihua. He earned his first Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Animated Feature Film in 2014, only to lose the award to How to Train Your Dragon 2.
(A tale packed with adventure, The Book of Life celebrates...)
Quotations: “Working with the amazing Mexican artists at Ánima Estudios was a blast!,".
