Green Goblin Reviews: Kubo and the Two Strings
I don’t know much about the origin of Laika studios. By that, I mean that I don’t know about the ins and outs of the studio itself. Their inspirations or origins. I know that I remember seeing a trailer for Coraline at some point in 2008 and being immediately down for what they were throwing out there. I got my ticket and saw the film in an empty theater by myself and loved every minute of it. ParaNorman garnered similar interests with me and I loved it even more. The BoxTrolls was…..less enticing for me. I finally saw it when I got the “Studio Laika 3 disc combo pack” Blu Ray, but I still enjoyed it as well (albeit, to a lesser extent than the other two). The point is, that I, like most people, love the hell out of this animation house and their unyielding need to make kids cry with scary imagery.
Needless to say, I went in to see Kubo and the Two Strings with high expectations. How refreshing it is to have the bar set so high and have the film still manage to clear it. I can say without pause that it’s one of the best films of the year. A marvel to witness, in terms of both scale and vision that doesn’t forgo charm for the sake of either.
Kubo is a one-eyed boy who lives in a cave off the edge of a simple village, where he tells stories to the townsfolk as a means of helping to take care of his mentally ill mother. He has a strange gift that comes to life when he plays his Shamisen (yes, I had to look up what the instrument is called; shut up): He can essentially create life in the form of Oragami creatures to aid him in his endeavors. Due to unforseeable reasons, Kubo triggers an event that forces him to leave home in order to seek the tools necessary to survive pursuers that will not rest until they remove his remaining eye (for magical reasons that would spoil the plot). Along the way, he is accompanied by Monkey (a hardass guardian charm his mother gave him, come to life) and Beetle (a cursed amnesiac soldier who fought with Kubo’s deceased father’s army) as they lead him to find 3 golden pieces of armor and weaponry that would allow him to take on this malovolent threat and win.
Now, if it sounds like I’m being intentionally vague, it’s because any more of the plot that I’d give you (including the backstories of the antagonists) would spoil things that should first be experienced when you first see the film. If on the other hand, it sounds like the movie I’m describing sounds very generic, well….that’s because it is. But that doesn’t mean that the film is bad. This is without a doubt a “Hero’s Journey” kind of film and a lot of the beats you can check off pretty easily. But how you get there makes all the difference in the world. The writing is great, as is the voice-acting and character development. The atmosphere and particular story beats just ooze with eastern influence in both aesthetic and narrative. The set pieces and fight choreography would be amazing even with CGI (that I am even mentioning FIGHT CHOREOGRAPHY in a stop-motion film should tell you that this is an animation nerd’s dream). The fact that I had to stop and remind myself on multiple occassions that this film is stop-motion animation is INSANE. And because you connect with the trio of characters, you’re that much more invested when you see them in peril. One thing that I always like about Laika productions is that they always include some scenes that just seem designed to scare the crap outta kids, sort of like how Don Bluth films did in the 1980s. And the monsterous creatures in here are right up there with the Other Mother’s final form or Aggie Prenderghast. Multiple times, I heard crying in the theater as parents had to comfort young children through the films and that’s kinda what I want. Don Bluth himself said “it doesn’t matter how dark a story is; if it has a happy ending, kids will be able to take it.” I want more film makers to embrace this philosophy.
I don’t believe in a perfect film. I grade on a scale based on whether or not a film is worth the price of admission. Depending on where it falls on the scale, it could be anything from “don’t air this film next to an open flame” to “why aren’t you ordering the tickets RIGHT NOW?!?!”. This film falls hard in the latter category. This is a film that needs to do well. We need more like it.
10/10. See it in theaters, recommend it to friends, buy the Blu Ray.