Directed by : Travis Knight
Written by : Marc Haimes, Chris Butler
Starring : Art Parkinson, Charlize Theron, Matthew McConaughey, Rooney Mara
Release Date : August 18, 2016
The very impressive and absolutely beautiful stop motion animation work by Laika for "Kubo and the Two Strings" should be enough reason alone to see this movie. It doesn't rest on just that achievement however, and proceeds to also have this fantastic epic adventure story to share with us as well. Plus it's filled with wonderfully creative sequences and characters, that successfully brings it's imagination to life on screen. Visually amazing to watch. Engaging story to see play out. Memorable scenes and characters to entertain us with. So much praise, you'd think I'm talking about a masterpiece of a movie. Maybe I actually am.
This movie is about story telling, in a metaphorical sense, and in a plot sense as well. It seems obvious that the creative minds behind this movie have much love for Asian mythology, culture, and fantasy tales, because it shows. From magic origami, a talking monkey, and a samurai beetle person, all combined in a quest for mythical items, to defeat an all powerful enemy. It may be the tried and true "the heroes journey" story formula that structures the plot, but it stands out because of how imaginative they are in telling that story. There are admittedly some plot conveniences and conceits tossed in there, but they don't distract from the story telling that much.
One of the biggest strengths of this movie is the teaming up of Kubo, Monkey, and Beetle. The interactions between Kubo and the Monkey, or the Monkey and Beetle, are all fantastic. The three of them on screen together are just very enjoyable to watch. Of course part of the secret formula there are the voice actors of Art Parkinson as Kubo, Charlize Theron as Monkey, and Matthew McConaughey as Beetle. I would actually have preferred if this was a longer movie, because I simply wanted to see more of these three characters.
Visual eye candy, and a compelling premise, there's simply a lot of praise that I can give to "Kubo and the Two Strings." It's definitely an animated movie that needs to be experienced.
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