KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS review.

I’ve been a fan of Laika ever since Coraline came out in 2009. Coraline was directed by Henry Selick who also directed NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS and JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH with his team as well as doing freelance work for movies like CORPSE BRIDE before they started making motion pictures in their signature stop-motion style. So far, Laika is batting 1.000 for me. CORALINE was incredible. PARANORMAN was a movie that was made for me. And THE BOXTROLLS didn’t have that same captivating magic to it, but it’s still a solid movie. In December of 2014, Laika announced they were doing a new movie in the style of Japanese folklore, I knew I had to see it. I’ve been excited ever since. Now that KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS is finally here, I wasn’t disappointed.

KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS is a gorgeous film. The stop-motion animation is beautifully done. Laika is probably the only studio keeping this format alive. And KUBO waists no time showing off the capabilities of this team. The opening scene sets the tone and the stakes and immediately gets you attached to the main character.

Something that’s fun about KUBO is the way they treat the mythical elements of the story. This story is loosely based in ancient Japanese folklore so when magic happens it’s just treated as normal. There’s no explanation for the magic and it’s just accepted as reality. I really dug that element.

I’ll get the two main flaws of the movie out of the way before I get back to singing its praises. First, the story itself is pretty thin and, for the most part, predictable. It’s a hero’s quest, or a video game story, moving from one object to the next with a boss fight right at each of the 3 main quest items before going to the big, bad final boss. There’s also a reveal which doesn’t come as much as a surprise especially after the first one is shown. And because the movie is so compact they do a lot of telling rather than showing for some key details.

Secondly, the main villain is just kind of there. The Moon King is talked about from the opening scene of the movie, but we never really get to see him until really late in the movie. We mostly spend time running away from the two henchmen, the Moon King’s two daughters (I’ll talk more about them in a little bit), but the big, bad guy just kind of felt like he was there. Other than being responsible for the hero to be in the situation I never really got a sense of why I should be fearful of him until he shows up in the final act. And for a film that leads up to the “final boss” it should have spent a little more time building him up. Also, it was a bit too reminiscent of THE AVENGERS… You’ll know when you see it.

Having said that, the two main villains, the sisters, are fantastic. They’re not really developed, but they are menacing. Every time they come on screen it feels like something terrible can happen. And almost every scene they’re in, something terrible does happen. Right at the turn from the first to the second act, when the sisters make their appearance, it is immediately tense. They are creepy as hell. At times it feels like they could just wipe out Kubo in an instant but decide to pull as much enjoyment from the torment they cause as they can.

Laika has made nothing but PG films, but they do not shy away from putting disturbing and dark imagery on screen. I love that about them. They treat their audience, especially the children, with a level of respect most studios don’t even put in their hard-R films. Yes, a lot of what happens in KUBO is scary. But they believe you can handle it. Without actually showing scary or bad things happening we can’t truly appreciate the consequences, both good and bad. And we grow more attached to the characters because of this.

While the plot and story of KUBO is on the weaker side, the characters were a lot better. The three main characters, Kubo, Monkey, and Beetle, were all interesting and different. Kubo, of course, gets a lot more development and set up than the other two being the main character. Monkey shows up right at the beginning of the second act. She’s cold at first. Keeping Kubo on track and making sure he stays on track for his quest. But she has a lot of these small gestures to Kubo that show that beneath all that she does truly care about him. Beetle comes in around half way through the movie and every moment he’s on screen is fun. Very straight forward character, mostly there for one-liners. He doesn’t get much development at all, but he was really fun to be around. The play between Monkey and Beetle may seem annoying for some, but it was a nice break from “main quests” seriousness. It does actually lead somewhere, whether or not it feel like it will. And while it wasn’t as satisfying as the movie may want it to be, it is nice.

Whether or not you get invested in the story or characters, one thing’s for certain, the visuals will keep you interested if nothing else does. Laika’s animation department, all done in painstaking stop-motion animation, is masterful. The amount of detail in each shot is nothing short of incredible. Whether it be magical origami to the guitar strumming, or an intense sword fight in a storm, the choreography and shot composition grabs your attention and won’t let go. Each of these set pieces also adds to either the story or the characters. Each scene is also very unique. The world built by this team is fascinating.

Probably a big part of what makes everything feel so engrossing is the music by Dario Marianelli, who also did the music for Laika’s previous film THE BOXTROLLS. Whether it be the magical shamisen (traditional 3-string Japanese guitar), the background music to a magical duel, or the subtle lingering notes when our characters are having an emotional moment. Every musical beat hits the right emotional note.

I was captivated from start to finish with KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS. Even clearly seeing the flaws didn’t take away from my enjoyment. It hit all the right emotional notes for me as well as being the most visually stunning movies of the year. And while the final, big, bad boss didn’t carry the weight that it should have, the movie takes a really smart turn with the climax. I love the ending to KUBO. It’s kind of hard to talk about why I love this ending so much without talking about spoilers. But without giving anything away, the movie both deflects the expectations of how it’s going to be resolved while doing a nice callback to a scene in the first act. There’s a moment where Kubo as this revelation and I just warmed up inside. Then to see the rest of the film play out and get to the final shot was about as satisfying as any final shot could be.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Original post HERE