Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)
Directed by Travis Knight
Kubo mesmerizes the people in his village with his magical gift for spinning wild tales with origami. When he accidentally summons an evil spirit seeking vengeance, Kubo is forced to go on a quest to solve the mystery of his fallen samurai father and his mystical weaponry, as well as discover his own magical powers.
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31 films that influenced Kubo and the Two Strings
What critics say influenced Kubo and the Two Strings
“Kubo and the Two Strings” was made by Laika Films, the outfit behind such quirky and visually arresting pictures as “Coraline” (2009) and “ParaN orman ” (2012).
Like “Coraline,” “ParaNorman” and “The Boxtrolls,” which collectively announced Laika as a vital and distinctive creative force in the increasingly competitive field of big-budget animation, “Kubo and the Two Strings” brilliantly updates stop-motion, a venerable yet time-consuming mode of film production cherished for its hand-crafted, herky-jerky aesthetic.
The film from Laika, who also produced the excellent “The Boxtrolls,” “ParaNorman,” and “Coraline,” begins on an ocean, in the middle of a storm, in the dead of night.
The adventure fantasy “Kubo and the Two Strings” is seamless stop-motion storytelling, from Laika, the independent animation studio that gave us the darkly entertaining “Coraline,” “ParaNorman” and “The Boxtrolls.”
Laika , the independent studio behind morbid enchantments like “Coraline” and “ParaNorman,” has already established itself as a formidable bulwark against the ever-accelerating onslaught of computer-generated 3D cartoons, but “ Kubo and the Two Strings ” makes even the most painstaking of their previous movies feel like a trial run.
In that moment of this latest offering from the folks at Laika Entertainment -- that previously created the stop-motion animated films "Coraline," "ParaNorman" and "The Boxtrolls" -- the 12-year-old title character has found himself in a cave, along with those accompanying him on his journey (a talking monkey and a former samurai turned man-sized beetle), confronted by an enormous skeleton that's come to life.
After such fascinating movies as "Coraline" (2009), "ParaNorman" (2012) and "The Boxtrolls" (2014), Laika has created its greatest masterpiece: "Kubo and the Two Strings," a richly detailed and heart-aching story steeped in the powerful imagery of Japanese folk tales.
“Kubo” marks the fourth feature film from Laika Entertainment, which most recently delivered “The Boxtrolls” in 2014, but it’s a dramatic departure from that film’s quirky, cheese-obsessed Brits.
Kubo is the fourth film from the Portland-based Laika — a studio specializing in stop-motion that has turned out features ranging from the solid (2014’s The Boxtrolls) to the sublime (2009’s Coraline) — and the first to be directed by the company’s CEO, Travis Knight.
Since forming 10 years ago, Laika’s output has included the creepy fairy tale “Coraline” (2009) and the eccentric comedy-adventure “The Boxtrolls” (2014).
Off-kilter, dark gems like Coraline (2009), ParaNorman (2012) and The Boxtrolls (2014) have made the Oregon-based independent studio the modern-day standard-bearer for hand-crafted, stop-motion animation, and with Kubo and the Two Strings they raise the bar yet again.
Kubo isn't quite as nightmare-inducing as that film, nor as viscerally unsettling as the pungent body-horror fable The Boxtrolls (2014), which was set in a world strewn with garbage and cheese.
In this way, as well as in its nods to legendary Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, Kubo is a Rashomon for the whole family: a tale that examines its own multiplicity and gently reminds us that every story looks different depending on who’s telling it.
It seems his mother (Brenda Vaccaro) has tried to keep him hidden away from her father (voiced by Ralph Fiennes) and evil sisters (both voiced by Rooney Mara) who, in a nod to "Star Wars" and other films of similar thematic ilk, want to bring him over to the dark side.
It’s as if screenwriters Marc Haimes and Chris Butler studied “Star Wars” and decided to trace certain aspects of that pop space opera back to their Akira Kurosawa-inspired roots.
“Kubo” is visually creative and built on the same kind of classic mythological foundation that George Lucas mined for “Star Wars,” and it’s another testament to the quality of Laika Entertainment.
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“Kubo and the Two Strings” carries echoes of L. Frank Baum as well -- and Roald Dahl, and “The Phantom Tollbooth,” and even some of bluegrass legends Flatt and Scruggs in the hero’s Foggy Mountain samisen breakdowns.
However, that film was also bolstered by the involvement of The Nightmare Before Christmas director Henry Selick and the Neil Gaiman source material.
Maybe it's because the first movie I remember seeing in that style was The Nightmare Before Christmas, which threatened to forever paint my view of the genre as creepy.
Adding a historical context to Kubo and the Two Strings is that it draws heavily upon the great films from Japan, namely Seven Samurai and Yojimbo, both directed by Akira Kurosawa (who I consider to be the best director of all time).
Her characters also reminded me of Thunder, Rain, and Lightning in Big Trouble in Little China, which was cool.
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The film does feel startlingly personal, and much like the great Grave of the Fireflies (1988) and Pixar’s Up (2009) before it, Kubo and the Two Strings treats its audience with utmost respect, taking them on an exhilarating adventure while shining a light into the darkest corners of the human experience.
HiT or Miss: No, “Ben-Hur” won’t replace Charlton Heston’s blockbuster in our hearts and minds.