How Director Jorge R. Guttierez Based ‘The Book of Life’ on His Own Life

By Jorge Carreón.

“Hola, tocayo…”

So began my conversation with “The Book of Life” director Jorge R. Guttierez. We sat down for our first one-on-one in August at the Reel FX Studios in Dallas to discuss the origins of his animated feature debut. It became clear that his passion for storytelling was not just visible on screen. When you hear Gutierrez speak about “The Book of Life,” it is hard not to find your own imagination spark and catch fire with the descriptions and images he spins with such fervor. Gutierrez literally is his movie.

Born and raised in Mexico City, the 39 year-old filmmaker knew from a young age that he wanted to be an animator. Inspired by the cartoons and the Golden Age films of his childhood, he honored the lesson given to all burgeoning filmmakers: write what you know. Crafted with his love of country, its culture and traditions, “The Book of Life” may appear as the ultimate fantasy. But underneath its exquisite artistry lies a very personal tale of honor, love and family.

The eagerly anticipated animated fantasy-adventure is such a bold endeavor, it is practically designed for hyperbole. But the proof can be found in Gutierrez’s vision, one packed with an artistic wallop so strong, it may be a game changer in the competitive world of animation. It is an auspicious feature film debut for Gutierrez, whose passion for the art of animation would inspire filmmaking powerhouse Guillermo del Toro and stars Diego Luna, Zoe Saldana and Channing Tatum to add their chapters in this vibrant “Book.”

So, how do you go about creating a fairy that doesn’t go by the book? Yes, you have the noble hero and dreamer who embarks on an unforgettable journey to several magical worlds to not only find his true love, but defend his village. But when you have two not so typical Prince Charmings vying for the heart of a not so typical princess, the result is a not so typical fable for the modern age. In creating “The Book of Life,” Gutierrez knew remixing the most venerable themes of the animated film was not enough. This “Book” needed to speak to the world we live in today.

QUESTION: Manolo, the young hero of “The Book of Life,” must complete several tasks in order to reach is true destiny. What task does this movie complete for you and the other artists that created this special filmed experience?

JORGE GUTIERREZ: I’ve been working on this thing for 14 years now. I’m about to turn 40. That’s a big chunk of my life to have been on this movie. It’s my lifelong dream to make it. This is me telling my dad, “All those times I screwed up? I’m good, Dad. I’m going to be good!” This same thing for my son, who was born in the US I’m letting him know, “Son, yes. You come from this incredible culture. Love it, admire it, but don’t let it drag you down if you don’t agree with it. Be yourself.” As for the crew here? Everybody just poured their hearts and soul into it. Everybody projected either a loss in their lives or things they felt good about. We may be a big animated feature, but we’re kind of an indie film that way. As an artist, if I never get to make anything more and this is it, I’m happy. I’m pretty good with this.

QUESTION: When did “The Book of Life” become real for you?

JORGE GUTIERREZ: I think writing the first draft of the script. I already had drawn the characters with my wife and I had a vague idea of what the story was going to be. I work with a co-writer, and I usually write the first draft. He does a pass and then we do the back and forths. I had never written a movie before, so writing that first, bloated, 140 page draft was epic. I was in my apartment in Burbank, my wife was asleep and I finished writing. I just started crying. I said, “If we can make this, this is going to be amazing.” I started crying and I was so tired. It was one of those moments where I thought even if I never get to make this, there’s something really good here. I don’t mean good creatively, I just mean good for humanity. There’s goodness in this idea that I get to pass on to non-Latino people and non-Hispanics. They need to know what’s happening out there. We live in such troubled times and Mexico is notorious in the news for really bad things. This is a huge reminder that there’s beautiful stuff down there, too. There’s a beautiful country that should not be remembered for the bad stuff.

QUESTION: One of the film’s key themes is how it is important for all of us to write our stow life stories. Why did that theme resonate so strongly with you while writing the screenplay for “The Book of Life?”

JORGE GUTIERREZ: I see it everywhere in culture now. Honestly, video games have taken kids away from creating their own worlds with their toys. I hate to say it, but Twitter has ruined narratives. I also feel there was a time where we used the arts to convey things. Now, in this “American Idol” culture, it’s all about the performance and not about the creation of the song. Storytelling is dying and studios are afraid of different types of stories. Growing up, I remember my favorite times were not watching TV. My favorite times were sitting with my grandpa and hearing him tell me stories. It was the same thing with my dad and it’s the same thing I do with my son. Every night I will read him a storybook and then I will come up with a story for him. I want to pass on that tradition. My dad said ever since I was a kid…he’d put kind of a big Catholic guilt trip on me. He said, “When it’s all said and done, and we’re reading about you, what do you want people to read? You’re going to have to write your own story by the way you live. Jorge, if you’re not better than me and your story’s not better than me, I failed. I failed as a writer, so it is up to you to have a better life than me. Your son has to do the same or our family history goes down. We want it to go up!” So, it was one of those things.

QUESTION: Is the story that unfolds in “The Book of Life” directly related to your family narrative?

JORGE GUTIERREZ: You’re seeing when I was an artist how I wanted to win the heart of my wife, Sandra. Her family hated me because they were all doctors. My dad is an architect and he had to win the heart of my mom. Her father was a Mexican general, so he had to deal with the artist versus the Army. Pretty much all the conflicts in the movie are things that happened to us. The proposal scene is based on when I proposed to Sandra. My dream is to one day go to the Land of the Remembered and be reunited all my loved ones. This movie’s so unabashedly earnest that I’m terrified. I really hope people get it and I really hope people can just get past the cynicism of the world and let it happen.

QUESTION: “The Book of Life” is fueled by so many elements, comedy, drama, action and music. That’s quite a balancing act for a first time filmmaker.

JORGE GUTIERREZ: Well, as a lover of films, I definitely said, “What are my favorite action movies where I feel something? What are my favorite comedies where I feel something? What are my favorite animated movies where I feel something?” I think it’s in that foundation of these characters feel real. The flaws are what makes us, so throughout the film, our characters are very flawed. That’s what connects you to them. The main character in this movie is the character who suffers the most and that’s Manolo. I know traditional Hollywood is all about character arcs, but our movie’s different. Not only is our hero not going to change, he’s going to change the world, so the arc will be everyone around them. That’s why Mexico is the center of the universe. I remember when I wrote that line, I said, “This will be the moment where people will know this is a comedy. Sure enough, when we show it, people laugh out loud at that line. It was one of those things where the four quadrants are hard, man. All the clichés are true. What boys like are what little girls hate and what little girls love, boys hate. When we tested the movie, girls loved the kissing, boys hated the kissing, girls wanted less action, boys wanted more action. Parents want the movies to have a message, but not so over the top or so obvious that it feels dumbed down. You have to really balance everything.

QUESTION: Why did you choose a folkloric aesthetic instead of a style that was more realistic?

JORGE GUTIERREZ: That was a very graphic way for me to distance myself, not only from the look of other movies, but also to say, “Okay, if I want to tell a story about 1910 Mexico.” The question was more of how do we get away from guns and blood and all those things? I like folk art. When you see a Day of the Dead skull, they’re very stylized. I’m going to give you an artisan’s version of Mexican history and Mexican revolution. We were able to get away from all the sort of realistic things about it by making the good guys made out of wood. Audiences will see in the movie that the bad guys are made out of metal, so metal can hurt wood. When you go to the Land of the Remembered, you turn into stone. All of the objects and the materials become really important.

QUESTION: Was it difficult to create a film that could walk the line between what is culturally correct and commercially viable for a broad audience?

JORGE GUTIERREZ: It was super, super difficult. This movie would not have been able to be made five years ago, honestly. I think the explosion of the Latin audience is crazy. No one saw it coming! I got lucky that I’m making this right now just when the studios are starting to realize the sleeping giant is waking up and we got to have stuff for them. Early on, I will say it was difficult to explain to the studios, “Look, this is a very Mexican thing, but it’s for the whole world!” It’s very universal. I don’t care where you grew up and what you believe in, what faith you are, you believe in those who came before you, right? You have a father and a mother. You more than likely have grandparents. It fits everywhere. I think the studios in the beginning were scared. Day of the Dead? Immediately, everyone thinks it’s a zombie movie. I really believe growing up on the border allowed me to see what happens to US culture when it goes south and what happens to Latin culture, specifically Mexican culture, when it comes up north? I really felt I got to make sure this works for everybody. I think there’s a duality in the border where people are defined by where they’re from, but they’re also defined by how they see themselves in a different place. I think this movie sort of talks about that. Manolo’s a type of character who loves where he’s from, loves his family, loves the traditions that came before him. But, he wants to be himself and sometimes that means not doing those things. I hope that people are going to understand what that really means. It’s also talking about first generation, second generation and honoring their parents and being able to say, “Dad and Mom, I love you, but I want to do this and that doesn’t mean I don’t love you.” I’ve seen a lot of Western movies where it’s one or the other. Here I’m trying to say you can have both.

QUESTION: Living the immigrant experience, when did you realize you were “different?”

JORGE GUTIERREZ: I grew up in Mexico City until I turned nine years old. At that point, being in the largest city in Mexico, I didn’t know I was Mexican. [LAUGHS] I didn’t know there was anything else. When we moved to Tijuana, that was my first glimpse at the US and I started going to school, that’s when I found out I was Mexican. I got to have the immigrant experience. As I went to school and I started working on my own stuff, I had two types of teachers. Ones who would say, “You keep doing all this Mexican stuff, you’re never going to get a job. No one wants to see this stuff. It’s beautiful, but there’s no commercial value to it.” Then there were other teachers who would say, “No one’s doing this stuff. Keep doing it and you’ll get to make a living doing it.” When I first started pitching stuff, I was told the same thing. “We can’t make this stuff. There’s no audience for it.” I remember someone telling me, “You know who’s going to hire you? You.” Pitch your own stuff and then you’ll hire yourself.” That’s kind of how I got started. When we made “El Tigre” at Nickelodeon, again, it was a show about a Latin kid. I’d never seen a cartoon before. I want my son to be able to watch this and think it’s normal. It’s not a crazy thing that there’s a Latin kid. At that time, I felt there was a whole generation of kids who saw “Dora the Explorer as something normal.” “The Book of Life” is for those kids who now are a little more grown up.

QUESTION: Was there ever a desire to downplay the ethnicity of “The Book of Life?”

JORGE GUTIERREZ: When the movie started getting developed, I presented what I saw in this world and immediately there was a little bit of “white guilt.” People would say, “Does everyone have to have a mustache?” I would say, “Well, in this world, mustaches are a symbol of machismo. Our hero is the only character in the movie without a mustache because he’s a rebel. If you take the mustache away from anybody else, it makes them less unique.” They’re there for a reason. Same thing with the sombreros, right? In the beginning, “People would also ask, “Why do they have to have sombreros?” and I would tell them, “It’s 1910 Mexico. This is post-revolution. This is how people dressed back then.” Same thing with the character of Maria, “Does she need to be so feisty? I’m like, “Well, she’s based on my wife and my wife designed her. If you want to tell her to be less feisty…? [LAUGHS] This is not a documentary. This is my personal version of Mexico. So, if anybody has a problem with it, it shouldn’t be a problem with Mexico, it should be a problem with me. It’s coming from an honest, truthful place. These are things that I lived and experienced. If someone’s going to tell me that I’m appropriating my own culture, yes. This is who I am.

QUESTION: Audiences will never forget their first view of the Land of the Remembered in “The Book of Life.” How do you envision yourself in that world? What do you want people to remember about you?

JORGE GUTIERREZ: I hope it has a healthy mustache! [LAUGHS] I want to be remembered for telling my family’s stories. That would be my dream. I don’t want my sob to go into the world of animation and films. It’s too hard. I’ve suffered my enough for you, son. [SMILES] I want him to go into something easier like medicine or politics. [LAUGHS] As artists, you want to leave a mark. You want to leave a little sketch on the tree of life. I really hope this movie is it and that people remember me by this.

“The Book of Life” opens nationwide on Friday, October 17.