Plot

Manolo, a young man who is torn between fulfilling the expectations of his family and following his heart, embarks on an adventure that spans three fantastic worlds where he must face his greatest fears.

From producer Guillermo del Toro and director Jorge Gutierrez comes an animated comedy with a unique visual style. THE BOOK OF LIFE is the journey of Manolo, a young man who is torn between fulfilling the expectations of his family and following his heart. Before choosing which path to follow, he embarks on an incredible adventure that spans three fantastical worlds where he must face his greatest fears. Rich with a fresh take on pop music favorites, THE BOOK OF LIFE encourages us to celebrate the past while looking forward to the future.—20th Century Fox

Mary Beth, a museum tour guide, takes a group of school detention students on a secret museum tour, telling them, with wooden figures, the story of a Mexican town called San Angel from the Book of Life, holding every story in the world. On the Day of the Dead, La Muerte, ruler of the Land of the Remembered, and Xibalba, ruler of the Land of the Forgotten, see Manolo Sánchez and Joaquín Mondragon competing over María Posada. They strike a wager: if María marries Manolo, Xibalba will no longer interfere in mortal affairs, but if she marries Joaquín, La Muerte and Xibalba will swap realms. However, Xibalba cheats by giving Joaquín his Medal of Everlasting Life, which grants the wearer invincibility.

While visiting a museum, a group of five troubled youth, on detention, are won over by their tour guide, Mary Beth. Part of what wins them over is the story she tells from the Book of Life, which contains all the stories of the world, both true and made-up. The story she tells centers on the Day of the Dead in San Angel, Mexico - the center of the universe - of three childhood best friends, strong-willed María Posada, Joaquín Mondragon Jr., who likes to show he's a man by sporting a fake mustache without truly knowing what it means to be a man, and guitar-playing Manolo Sánchez, the offspring of the town's general, a deceased military hero and a bullfighter respectively. Even at this age, both Joaquín and Manolo are in love with María, each knowing he would like eventually to marry her. They are separated when María's father sends her to Europe for school to learn to be a lady. By the time María returns to San Angel as a young woman, Joaquín has become a military hero like his father, and Manolo has become a bullfighter like all his Sánchez ancestors, male and female. While Manolo showed his aptitude for bullfighting at a young age, his heart still remains music, singing and playing his guitar, and not with bullfighting. Each still pines for María as his wife. What they are unaware of is that two leaders of the afterlife, estranged wife and husband, La Muerte, ruler of the Land of the Remembered, and Xibalba, ruler of the Land of the Forgotten, long ago made a wager on which of the two will marry María, the outcome which will have a profound effect not only on María, Joaquín and Manolo's joint lives, but the course of San Angel, which is constantly under threat by evil Chakal, and the world. What La Muerte is further unaware of is that Xibalba is taking underhanded measures to win, which also affects María, Joaquín and Manolo's live and possible deaths.—Huggo

A museum chaperon named Mary Beth (Christina Applegate) takes a group of troublesome and rowdy children on a tour and tells them about the famous legends and myths of Mexican folklore. She proceeds to tell them the story of the Mexican town of San Angel from the Book of Life, which holds every story in the world. The Book of Life holds the story of how the ways of their world were shaped. She opens a box of dolls that represent the characters of the story.

The spirits La Muerte (Kate Del Castillo), ruler of the Land of the Remembered (where the spirits live on with their memories kept by their loved ones) and Xibalba (Ron Perlman), ruler of the Land of the Forgotten (where the forgotten souls decay into oblivion), appear at San Angel's Day of the Dead festival where they set up a wager after seeing two boys, Manolo (Diego Luna) and Joaquin (Channing Tatum), competing over a free-spirited girl named Maria (Zoe Saldana).

Both boys are in love with Maria, but she does not wish to be claimed by anyone. Manolo comes from a family of bullfighters, but his real passion lies in music. Joaquin is more adventurous, hoping to avenge his father after he was killed by the sinister bandit Chakal

Disguised as peasants, La Muerte, as an old woman, asks Manolo for a piece of bread. He gladly gives her a whole loaf. Xibalba, as an old man, asks Joaquin for some, but he is more hesitant. Manolo and his father, Carlos Sanchez, remember his mother Carmen (Ana De La Reguera). La Muerte bets that Manolo will marry Maria, while Xibalba bets on Joaquin. If La Muerte wins, Xibalba can no longer interfere in mortal affairs, but if Xibalba wins, he and La Muerte will switch domains. However, Xibalba cheats by giving Joaquin his Pin of Eternal Life, which renders the wearer invulnerable. This is something Chakal is after as it can protect him from death.

Later, Maria sets free a herd of animals due to be slaughtered (after seeing a cute baby pig and fearing that he would be killed by the butcher), much to the chagrin of her father General Posada (Carlos Alazraqui). A wild boar comes into town and nearly gets Posada, but Manolo manages to lure the boar like a bullfighter with the red cape. He gets the boar to crash into a wall, but Posada, who was unable to see anything, thinks it was Joaquin that saved him, ignoring Manolo in favor of him.

Posada sends Maria away to a private boarding school in Spain to learn to behave. While seeing her off, Manolo gives her a baby pig, Chuy (Carlos Alazraqui) whom she wanted to save, while she gives him a new guitar which has "Always play from the heart" engraved on it.

Years pass as Manolo is trained by his father Carlos (Hector Elizondo) to become a skilled bullfighter while Joaquin becomes the town hero with the help of the Pin of Eternal Life. On the day that Maria returns, a celebration is held in town culminating in Manolo's first bullfight. Manolo is set to fight a bull, but he has qualms over killing it. Although he is able to make it crash into the wall, he is told by Carlos to kill it, but he refuses. Everybody boos him, but Maria applauds him for his compassion. Somebody throws Manolo a guitar to his head, knocking him out. When he comes to, his father expresses his disappointment, saying he is not a real Sanchez.

That night, Maria learns her father is arranging her marriage to Joaquin so that the hero would stay and protect San Angel from the bandit Chakal (Dan Navarro) (who previously owned the Pin himself), but she is conflicted by her feelings for Manolo. Joaquin suggests that Maria ought to be with him so that he can make her happy. This does not go over well with Maria, who tells him off and leaves.

Meanwhile, Manolo gets his Mariachi band friends, the Rodriguez brothers (Gabriel Iglesias, Cheech Marin, and Ricardo Sanchez), to help serenade her. The brothers play some tunes (like Biz Markie's "Just A Friend"), none of which impress Maria. Manolo serenades her with a song from his heart, which even moves all the townspeople.

Joaquin proposes to Maria. Their marriage would keep San Angel safe from Chakal and his bandits. Manolo arrives and fights with Joaquin over Maria, which she thinks is foolish. Manolo later tells Maria to meet him at dawn.

Maria and Manolo secretly meet and profess their love for each other, but they are interrupted when a snake, sent by Xibalba, slithers into the area. Maria pushes Manolo out of the way, getting bitten by the snake. She dies instantly. Manolo screams in rage. He carries Maria's body back to San Angel, where both Joaquin and General Posada blame him for Maria's death.

Despondent, Manolo is tricked by Xibalba who offers him a way to see Maria again, as he summons a two-headed snake to inflict a double bite which kills Manolo.

Manolo travels to the Land of the Remembered where he reunites with his family. The captain of the land comes by and learns Manolo is part of the Sanchez family. He escorts Manolo to meet them. He meets his famous ancestors, including Carmelo (Jorge R. Gutierrez), who never used capes to fight; Jorge (Placido Domingo), who fought with one arm and leg, and is a skilled singer; and Luis (Danny Trejo), Manolo's grandfather who is upset with Manolo for dying so soon. Manolo is taken to meet his mother, Carmen. She is happy to see her son, but not happy that he is there so soon.

They travel to La Muerte's castle, but find it now occupied by Xibalba who explains the bet and that the snake only gave Maria enough venom to put her into a coma, but it gave Manolo enough to kill him. Once Maria awoke, she learned of Manolo's death and decides to accept Joaquin's proposal for the sake of the town.

Manolo, Carmen and Manolo's grandfather, Luis (Danny Trejo) travel to the Cave of Souls in order to reach the Land of the Forgotten. There, Manolo is thrown into a labyrinth where three large boulders roll around trying to crush him. Manolo evades all of them, to the surprise of the spirit guardian. The guardian takes a gigantic form and swings down a huge sword onto Manolo, which shatter upon hitting him. Realizing he is pure of heart; the guardian allows Manolo to pass on through After accomplishing a pair of dangerous tasks, Manolo's pure heart allows him and his family to enter the Cave, where they meet the Candle Maker (Ice Cube), who oversees the lives of everybody in the living world.

After seeing that Manolo's story in the Book of Life is empty (due to Xibalba's meddling) and can be rewritten by Manolo's own actions, the Candle Maker takes the group to the Land of the Forgotten. There, Manolo finds La Muerte and exposes Xibalba's cheating. La Muerte angrily chastises Xibalba for betraying her again. Manolo then offers a wager himself. If he wins, Xibalba must let him return to the human world, and La Muerte adds that he may never interfere with the affairs of the living ever again. Otherwise, Xibalba may rule over both realms. The wager is set.

Xibalba agrees to give Manolo life again if he can face his greatest fear, which Xibalba has manifest as every single bull his family ever fought. La Muerte convinces Xibalba to offer the wager by offering him both kingdoms should Manolo lose.

In the living world, Chakal learns that Joaquin has the Pin of Eternal Life and leads his army of bandits to San Angel on the day of the wedding. Carlos sacrifices himself in a fight against Chakal to buy time for San Angel, and he arrives in the Land of the Remembered in time to see Manolo's fight. The bulls come together to form one giant bull. Manolo, realizing his fear is actually of being himself, refuses to fight and instead sings an apology to the bull, appeasing it and touching the hearts of everyone present (including Xibalba and Carlos). Even as the giant bull nearly kills him, he keeps singing, bringing the bulls to peace, and surprising his family. La Muerte and Xibalba, impressed by Manolo's will, grant him his life back and send him to the living world just in time to fight back

The three spirits decide, since it is the Day of the Dead, to have some fun by summoning all of Manolo's family to fight back against Chakal. Maria rounds up the whole town to fight back as well. Manolo and Joaquin make amends and decide to fight against Chakal together. Chakal grabs Maria and climbs the top of a tower. With the help of his forefathers, including a now proud Carlos, Manolo is sent up to the tower to face off Chakal. With Maria, they fight the bandit and knock him off the tower, also sending them falling as well, but they land safely. Chakal then lights up the bombs on his belt to take the whole town down with him. Manolo and Joaquin push Chakal beneath a bell and tie him up. Manolo knocks over a column to bring the bell down on him and Chakal. He tells Maria not to forget him. The bell traps them both as the bombs go off, killing Chakal, and supposedly Manolo. However, Manolo emerges safely, after Joaquin gave him the pin to stay alive. Joaquin now realizes that a true hero is selfless

General Posada gives Manolo his blessing to marry Maria. The two are wed, with Manolo's family proud of their boy. Manolo and Maria then sing a song and dance with everybody. Xibalba apologizes to La Muerte for betraying her, telling her he loves her. They kiss.

Back at the museum, Mary Beth ends the story as the children must leave. They leave excited after hearing the story. As the bus is set to depart, the kids wave goodbye to Mary Beth, who takes the form of La Muerte, to the joy of the kids. The security guard appears as Xibalba. They kiss again. The story ends, and the Candle Maker closes the Book of Life, reminding us all to write our own stories.