Legend Quest: The Legend of La Nahuala

I like the movie a lot. It really outlines some of the traditions in Puebla. It mixes mystical with laugh. Very good for kids, not violent, a little scary. But when you are seeing the movie, is like you are getting transported in time. When it gets translated to English, I recommend to see it. I love the Veracruz character, it makes the movie a little humor spicy. On the other hand, mixes the Spaniard system of beliefs with the native Mexican way of exorcism, and combined they achieve a common objective in the fight against evil. There are some peculiarities in the film which will remote you also to your childhood and your family relations. Enjoy.

I went today to see this movie, i didn't know what to expect, since i had not seen any publicity, yet it surprised me, the animations were OK, since they are not the best cartoons ever, but definitely you will be happy to see them as a well-built Mexican characters, however it combines perfectly 2D and 3D animation, the story is great, it knows how to appreciate all our legends and our history, there parts where you will jump of your seat, but after wards you will laugh, there are jokes with double meaning, so both children and adults can laugh, the environment, feels like if your were really there, so many of our traditions, i think there should be more movies of this kind, we should support our Mexican animated movies, instead of spending our money seeing worthless American animated movies ("vacas vaqueras", "tierra de osos", etc.) We should not expect the Mexican movies to be like them, colorful but bored.

I'm a big fan of several of the big name actors (Mexican) that lent their voices for characters in this movie and went into the theater with high expectations.

I couldn't believe how bad this movie was. Voices were OK, but the movie is definitively geared toward kids not a day over 4 years, and then it may prove scary for them. Jokes were dumb and animation seemed cheap to the point of not being funny anymore.

People who remember that old TV show "Cantinflas Show" may remember that type of animation as interesting when it was done... 25 years ago, not today.

Definitively not funny, not entertaining and not even worth the 30 minutes I spent before leaving the theater.

Ignacio

I really enjoyed this movie so much that i can't keep writing without stating this in the 1st place: The most terrible flaw of this film is its lousy animation, despise its huge budget, which you can appreciate compared to most Mexican -dare i say Latin American?- animated features, the film still fails big time when compared to world animation standards -like US' or Japan's- or whatever you're used to watch. Being that said, everything else about this film is pure magic, but let's start with the storyline (loosely based in an horror legend from the state of Puebla in Mexico) it's smart and fun, plus it has a few twists and connections that makes it really enjoyable, it has some annoying segments, like the "contest" one, near the end, but just when you were starting to get bored, the movie happily ends, so the run-time of the film is perfect. Characters are terribly fun and eye-candy (you gotta love the fat lady from the bakery and her silly dog) plus characterization and vocal voice from the actors make it just perfect. Music is good, yet not my cup of tea, it's a strange blend of your everyday symphonic soundtrack, with traditional wind bands heard all over Mexico and folklore tunes. Did I mention the lovely representation of architectural style of the city? You just have to check some pictures of Puebla on the internet to see how accurate they are. In short the movie is fun and quite a pleasure to watch, i laughed a lot more than with other supposedly triple A features from the season and is to date, one of my favorite animated features so far!

Even if it is not a state-of-the-art animation, being traditional 2D drawings, later computer-colored, the movie is funny, most of the humor being rather idiosyncratic, and portraits the city of Puebla very accurately, from the San Francisco Church to the Palafoxiana Library. The movie also shows many Mexican and Novohispan traditions, such as the "merengueros", the "balero" game, the "calaveras" (sugar candy) and the "Día de Muertos" (All Saints), everything set just 3 years before the start of the Mexican Independence War.

The production was done completely in Puebla, Mexico, and it was premiered during the Festival International de Cine de Morelia (FICM).