Review of Kubo and the Two Strings (2016) by Michael M — 05 Apr 2017

Kubo was a strange sort of movie for me, and it's not so much to do with the movie but more to do with my expectations. I was a big fan of the book Coraline, but not really a fan of stop-motion animation and I hated Henry Sellick's previous movies (a second look at Nightmare Before Christmas gave a new appreciation, but James and Giant Peach still sucks). So when I went into Laika's first film, an adaptation of Coraline, I was cautious, but I ended up loving it. ParaNorman I had no desire to see. The trailers did nothing for me, and it wasn't based on a property I loved so I couldn't see myself overlooking the stop-motion. But on a whim I rented it from RedBox, and it blew me away. I ended up loving it even more than Coraline. Kubo I had high expectations for. This studio made two of my favorite movies, the trailer looked amazing, and I loved the idea of them exploring Japanese mythology. But when I saw it, I was a bit underwhelmed.

It wasn't until my second viewing that I really gained a new appreciation of it. I watched it for what it was rather than what I expected it to be, and found that while I maybe didn't like it as Laika's last movies, it was still probably on par with them in terms of quality, if not higher.

I have one gripe with the movie, and it is unfortunately kind of a big one. The story and mythos is kind of confusing. This is one movie that probably could have benefited from a prologue explaining each of the characters and their relationship with each other. We get a bit trickled out throughout the movie, and while this is generally the best way to go, I feel like with a fantasy story high on it fairy tale and mythology inspiration maybe we should have had more. The result is that at the end I wasn't totally clear on the villains motivations, or even their relationships with eachother. This is really something that comes down to just needing a couple more lines of dialogue though. I understood the gist of the problem, but not as much why it was a problem.

Even so, while the logic isn't totally their, in a fairy tale way it still sort of works because the emotions are right. I didn't fully understand why Kubo needed to defeat his aunts and fight the moon king, but I still wanted him to win. And while the relationships with the villains aren't the best, the relationships with our heroes is. I also thought it was clever how the film managed to create new characters for his adventure but also (without getting into spoilers) give them history with Kubo as well. Sort of a have your cake and eat it too situation. And it's just simply a gorgeous movie. It sometimes feels a little small just in the constraints of the medium, but they really try to do the most they can. The landscapes are beautiful, the characters are emotive, and it's very interesting seeing action sequences done with stop-motion.

I also have to mention how wide the appeal for this movie really is. In my second viewing, I watched it at my work in an after-school program with a few teachers and a bunch of kids ages 5-10. I will say a weird thing I noticed was that while the older girls weren't into it as much and eventually just started coloring while it was going, the kindergarten girls were completely entranced the whole time. I don't know what that means or what to do with that information, I'm just saying it's something I noticed. The boys however were all really into it. Some were just watching in awe, and others were watching it almost like a football game getting really pumped about it. And then use teachers were all into to, and afterwards we talked to each other about it and how it was made.

Laika is on a crazy winning streak. They always seem to make these movies I love based on tropes I love but they still twist them into their own unique thing. I'd argue they're the most original and creative studio working today, and Kubo's more proof of it.