Kubo and the Two Strings

2016 "The quest begins"
7.7| 1h42m| PG| en| More Info
Released: 19 August 2016 Released
Producted By: Laika
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://kubothemovie.com
Info

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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Director

Travis Knight

Production Companies

Laika

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Kubo and the Two Strings Audience Reviews

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Hellen I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much
Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.
TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.
Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
kate-stuart Another solid film from studio Laika. It's really unfortunate that this technically tanked at the box office. It's Laika's highest rated film...yet made less than its previous three films. I'm hoping it finds some life on home video and the award buzz surrounding it helps out. The film is about a young boy named Kubo (Art Parkinson) who tells stories to the villagers in the small village beneath his home where he uses magic from his guitar to make origami characters appear. One night he is attacked by the Sisters (Rooney Mara) which leads him on a journey to find the three sacred items that will allow him to destroy the Moon King (Ralph Fiennes) and restore peace to the land. Along the ride for him is Monkey (Charlize Theron) a guardian who has a deep dark secret. Then there's the clueless Beetle (Matthew McConaughey) who doesn't exactly remember everything. The film itself is beautiful. Stop motion at its finest and it weaves together a wonderful tale about loss and memory, but also deals with healing and love. It's great and I can't recommend it enough. I will say the only gripe I had with it was the film ended and I had a few questions that never get answered. Overall, solid animated film good for the whole family give it a look!
Turfseer Kubo and the Two Strings is Travis Knight's animated stop-motion fantasy adventure film set in a feudal Japan voiced by a coterie of prominent actors. The overall effort is disappointing as so much excellent work went into the visual side of the film but little into the dialogue which can best be described as sophomoric and simply not funny. Don't plan on taking your kids to see this as the story as it has an undercurrent of nasty characters who might be a little too scary for children. When we're first introduced to Kubo (Art Parkinson), the young protagonist, he already has had his eye plucked out by his evil grandfather ("The Moon King" voiced by Ralph Fiennes) and his two aunts (a Japanese variation on the bad witches from the "Wizard of Oz") who are out to kill his mother, Sariatu (Charlize Theron) who was cast out by the family after marrying Kubo's now missing dad, Hanzo. Soon enough, the aunts (i.e. the witches) kill Kubo's mother and Kubo learns he must find three talismans to assist him in eventually defeating his grandfather. They include armor, a sword and a breastplate. Just as in the Wizard of Oz, Kubo is assisted by three characters who protect him from the wrath of his aunts. First there's "little Hanzo," Kubo's own Origami creation, who resembles his father, a Samurai warrior, along with a Monkey who comes to life from Kubo's monkey amulet given to him by his mother (the monkey is also voiced by Theron) as well as a Beetle/man hybrid (Matthew McConaughey). It's soon revealed that the Monkey and the Beetle are manifestations of Kubo's parents but hardly approximate their grandeur. The Monkey's lines in particular are quite grating, as she spends most of her time insulting the Beetle, who comes off as foolish and ineffectual. Nonetheless, the two manage in the end to sacrifice themselves and kill the aunts, so that Kubo can have his final confrontation with the evil grandfather. As I mentioned at the beginning, a great deal of thought went into animating this enterprise and most of it is quite impressive. However, when it comes to the animation of the grandfather's spirit (which takes the form of an ordinary dragon), one must conclude that the film's animators could have created a more interesting and compelling (final) monster/adversary for little Kubo. The ending is at least appropriate as Kubo uses the strings from his Shamisen (banjo-like instrument), culled from his mother's hair, which enables him to neutralize his grandfather's powers and transform him to a feeble old man, on whom the villagers (from Kubo's nearby town), take pity. Despite the impressive animation, the film's inappropriate comic tone undermines the filmmaker's serious intent, and relegates the overall effort as a lame attempt that patronizes the adult audience while at the same token, ends up scaring its base of young children.
charliekusiel Stop motion animation has always been one of my favorite filmmaking techniques, from Aardman Productions to even the ATATs in Star Wars. "Kubo and the Two Strings", deserves to be among the titles when you list "the great stop motion movies". The story had me hooked from the beginning, and the animation was superb. Kubo and the two strings tales place in a world where magic and humans live together, inspired by ancient Japanese culture, where a boy sets out on a quest to restore peace to his family. The cast was really good, I thought, and I especially loved Charlize Theron's performance as Monkey. The color palette of the film made me not want to take my eyes of the screen and, combined with the animation, was breathtaking. Even though this movie was aiming for the enjoyment of kids, the jokes still landed for me and I still felt the emotion conveyed, especially at the end. The characters The Sisters even made me feel a bit creeped out at times, which was great. In the battle scenes, I felt threatened and in the emotional scenes, I felt sad. This movie, I thought, really did well with conveying emotion. Although I loved the story this movie told, I thought the plot felt rushed at times. This is understandable, though, as they had a pretty low budget and claymation takes a lot of time for not very much product.
Tweekums In the opening scenes a woman crosses a sea in a small boat with her small, one eyed child. As they reach land she is injured when she hits her head on a rock. Years pass and she is clearly unwell thanks to her injury. The child, Kubo, is now twelve and looks after her. He earns money telling stories which are magically animated by origami characters as he plays a shamisen. One story in particular tells of a samurai who confronted the Moon King… little does he know but the story isn't as mythical as he thought. His mother warned him that he must always be home before the sun sets or his grandfather will find him and take his remaining eye.Inevitably one day he stays out too late is confronted by his two aunts who intend to take him to his grandfather and his mother helps him flee. When he wakens he is in a snow-covered landscape with a talking snow monkey, which claims to be the charm he carried given life by his mother's magic. If he is to survive unharmed they will have to find three magical items; a sword, breastplate and a helmet. On their way they meet 'Beetle', a samurai who has had his memory taken and been turned into an anthropomorphic stag beetle; he joins them in their quest. As they travel on their quest they must face various threats, including his aunts, before Kubo must ultimately face his grandfather.As with other films from Studio Laika there is a darkness about this animation. The opening scene gives a hint of this as we see blood when Kubo's mother bashes her head; then there is the fact that Kubo's grandfather has taken one of his eyes and plans to take the other… with this and 'Coroline' Laika clearly have a thing about taking children's eyes! This doesn't mean it is a bad film, far from it, but it might not be suitable for younger children.I really enjoyed this film; the animation is fantastic and the story is a lot of fun. There are some nice little surprises along the way. The central characters are a lot of fun with Monkey and Beetle providing plenty of laughs as well as poignant moments… they certainly aren't just comedy sidekicks. There are lots of creative flourishes; I loved the way the origami animated Kubo's stories and later he used leaves in a similar way to make a boat. The voice cast, which includes plenty of familiar names does a fine job, playing the characters straight rather than getting too hammy. Overall I'd definitely recommend this; especially to anybody who enjoyed Laika's previous films.