Laika/Focus Features
Kubo and the Two Strings is the latest stop motion animated film from the studio that brought us The Boxtrolls, ParaNorman, and Coraline. Featuring the voice talents of Charlize Theron and Matthew McConaughey, Kubo tells the story of a young boy on a quest to find magical items and defeat an ancient foe.
At its heart Kubo is a story about storytelling. From the opening narration till the very end of the credits this film tells stories in a number of ways. The sheer number of times storytelling weaves its way through the plot is impressive and just subtle enough not to hit you over the head.
Much like the other films from this studio (Laika), Kubo is, if nothing else, a beautiful spectacle to behold. While I haven’t seen The Boxtrolls, I have seen the other films they’ve produced and have always been impressed by the visuals. In this film they achieved levels of animated beauty I haven’t seen before. Keeping in theme with the Japanese setting, everything maintains a distinct feel of classical Japanese art while feeling still in line with Coraline and the rest of their features. There are shots in this film you want to pause and just soak in the art design. You could easily see a frame of this film blown up and hung on a wall, that’s just how beautiful this film is.
The beauty doesn’t stop there though. The story that drives this film has two things going for it. Its simplicity and how touching it is. When I say simple I mean bare bones, almost predictably simple. The funny thing was that where such a familiar story frame would be a detriment ninety-nine percent of the time, instead here I felt a sense of familiarity and comfort. There’s a quest and a kid who has to complete said quest. Along the way we meet colorful characters and while we only know them a brief time, by the end it feels like you’ve been with them a long time. The villains are frightening in a way that leans on design and atmosphere rather than cheap scares, and while there is suggestion of violence the vast majority of the actual violence happens off camera, yet you still feel like you’ve seen it.
While it in no way is an apples to apples comparison, I kept thinking of eighties films like Labyrinth and The Secret of NIMH. Back when kids movies weren’t afraid of being a little scary, a little weird. Also when there was a sense of adventure but it didn’t pull punches on hard life lessons for children. Something I would love to see more of from other animation studios (not Disney, those guys are killing it too).
I repeatedly had to remind myself that this was a stop motion animated film as I watched. While there are obviously some CG enhancements throughout, the physicality of the figures really came through. Helping with that effect, the press screening for this film was presented in 3D. While I can’t say it was amazing enough to demand you spend the extra cash, I will say that the three dimensionality of the sets and characters really read well in the format. Nothing really pops out but it just gives you that feeling of depth and realness.
All that combined with the incredibly touching story made this one of the most viscerally emotional experiences I’ve had in a theater all year. Also let me go back to that simple story. About midway through the film I thought it was just cute but way too predictable. Between that midway point and the end I had fallen in love. Simple stories can be stupid and predictable, yes. You know what else are simple stories? Fables, legends, oral histories passed down generation to generation, and that is the feeling you get when watching Kubo and the Two Strings, like you’re hearing an ancient fable for the first time.
Even the credits feature beautifully rendered old school two dimensional animations and a time lapse of one of their large set pieces being built. I can’t remember being so riveted during the credits of a film before. The featuring of Regina Spektor’s cover of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” works as well over the credits as it did in the films trailer, i.e. very.
In fact the music is another area that just blew me away while watching. Integrating the music into many scenes, mainly through Kubo’s titular strings, everything just flowed, meshed together perfectly.
One of the most original well done animated films I’ve seen in a long time, while still feeling familiar and comfortable, Kubo and the Two Strings is a great film for your children, your family, and anyone who enjoys beautiful filmmaking. What could easily get overlooked with such a bad release date has the potential to become a new modern classic.
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