Rating: PG
Genre: Action / Animation
Runtime: 1 hour, 41 minutes
Content Warnings: Animal Harm (fish), Eye Trauma
Full lists:
– Gen Triggers: https://www.doesthedogdie.com/media/13023
– Parental Guide: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4302938/parentalguide
| From the studio behind Coraline and ParaNorman, Kubo and the Two Strings tells the story of a boy who wants to know more about his father: a fallen samurai who died protecting his mother from her own grandfather. Kubo hears fate calling when his mother’s evil twins try and steal Kubo from her. She sacrifices herself in order to keep Kubo safe, and now he must complete the ultimate quest to defeat his mother’s tyrannical family and find the most powerful thing in all of Japan: his father’s invulnerable battle-suit. |
The Visuals: Utterly gorgeous. Like all studio LAIKA films, Kubo is an absolute delight to look at, with so much love and care put into every model and scene. The smoke? The adorable origami samurai? The huge skeleton?? Absolutely jaw-dropping. The animation is so smooth that you would never know it was stop motion if it wasn’t for how real everything feels.
The Music: Listen, there’s a shamisen cover of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” That alone is amazing, but the music moments of the movie really help to give it a real theater feel — like you really waiting with bated breath as the storytellers on stage lay out their plot. I dunno man, its hard to notice in all the best ways, only calling attention to itself during dramatic moments where it truly adds something. Its beautiful, beautiful.
The Plot: I get so absorbed in it. It’s such a big story, and even though the twists are something that you can pretty easily predict, it makes you feel like shouting at the screen as if the models are actors that can hear you. Rather than feeling cheated, it somehow makes me feel like a clever part of the show. By the end, I’m always a sobbing mess and it feels like so many plot elements are tied up so neatly together… barely any loose ends (none at all that I notice, actually). And it sticks with you too, making you wonder how it all worked out, whether Kubo as an adult will ever claim a place among the stars, whether Grandfather will regain his memories… I think its a great story and its an entertaining one too. I’m never bored and I never felt like checking anything else except to open up the group chat and exclaim over the action and the character development and the love in every detail.
Overall Opinion: A movie I am proud to have in my collection, and one that I would be happy to share with any of my friends! Seriously, if you haven’t seen it and you love a good story, you should check it out.