MovieChat Forums > Coco (2017) Discussion > Book of Life

Book of Life

posted 10 years ago by otterprods
7 replies | jump to latest

How did I not know about this other project, the Book of Life, until now?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2262227/

Considering that that movies is now slated of major release in 2014 and this one is still years away, are we getting any word of Unkrich's project continuing at all now> I know that Bugs Life followed Antz, Nemo followed Sharks, etc… but these two just seem WAY TOO SIMILAR, regardless of story points. How do 2 movies about Dia de los Muertos get green lit by different studios at the same time anyways? I guess the brightness of the holiday's colors and the weirdness of its visuals had something to do it, but it's like having 2 burning man cartoons in dev at the same time. Suspicious..

Otterprods, to keep those aquatic Mustelidae in line.

[–] David_Estes 10 years ago

Hadn't heard of this either until now. Odd how these similar stories keep happening. Must be a conspiracy!

[–] otterprods 10 years ago

Apparently it's slated to be a pretty big release from Fox, with Guillermo del Toro producing and some pretty big names in the cast. And its due out in October 2014, WAY before we'd ever hear any real news about Unkrich's Muertos project. So if they're nearly as similar as they sound I'll be surprised if Unkrich goes forward with his at this point. Of course, the precedent was said with Ants/Bugs, Nemo/Shark and arguably Shrek/Monsters, so they may proceed anyways, but two movies about Day of the Dead within a couple years of each other just seems dubious at best, or yeah maybe a conspiracy!

Otterprods, to keep those aquatic Mustelidae in line.

[–] rillegas08 9 years ago

I only heard about this movie last week, but it raised a huge red flag to me, not just because of the similarity to Book of Life. The main characters' names are similar (Manuel/Manolo), the plot is similar (taking place on Day of the Dead and meeting with dead ancestors). The biggest red flag for me, however, was the fact that Book of Life was pitched to every major animation studio and rejected by every major animation studio, and yet here's one of the major animation studios with basically the same story, which is sure to be a bigger hit simply because it's a major animation studio.

[–] David_Estes 9 years ago

You are not incorrect in the similarities, but it is completely random.

Lee Unkrich was working on this film back in 2006. He was pulled off it and put on Toy Story 3. This delayed this film and allowed Book of Life to come out first.

[–] mec_os 9 years ago

edit: i had to redact what i posted.

[–] leo-hork-na 7 years ago

The kid in Coco is named Miguel not Manuel.

[–] Diegok5 7 years ago

I remember reading about Disney trying to trademark the Day of the Dead. I think this had something to do with the delay. http://www.latintimes.com/book-life-review-why-disneys-mistake-was-foxs-greatest-win-269711