With the release of Missing Link not too long ago, I figured it was a good time to look at my current favourite of Laika's animated line-up. While I didn't get the chance to see Kubo and the Two Strings in theatres when it came out, I got the chance to see it on DVD and it was incredible, quickly becoming one of my favourite animated features. But what makes this movie so amazing?
The plot is simple, Kubo and his mother are hiding from Kubo's grandfather, the Moon King. One night, Kubo accidentally stays out past dark and gets attacked by his grandfather's other daughters. After his village gets destroyed, his mother sends him away and enchants a monkey charm to assist him. Most of the movie is the adventure that Kubo and the Monkey guardian have, and what kind of locations and creatures they come across. They get joined by a origami paper doll of Kubo's father, Hanzo, and a beetle like man who is missing his memory, and they must retrieve three pieces of armour to help Kubo in surviving against the Moon King. The movie moves along quite nicely plot wise utilizing the montage very well, and when it's necessary. The plot is cohesive and smooth and let me with no questions after viewing.
The main characters are entertaining to watch, Kubo is very much a child in this movie, emotional, sometimes rude, maybe a bit naive, Kubo is one of the best child characters in animation I've seen. The Monkey Guardian and the Beetle Samurai are entertaining in the way they bounce off of Kubo and each other, and there is a lot of warmth in the side characters. The main antagonists are also really good. Kubo's aunts are really creepy in the way they're designed and how they speak, and the Moon King is rather clever, and I like the design of the beast that he turns into in the end. The characters are entertaining and you do get to understand their reasons for doing the things they do, which makes them more relateable than randomly giving them a single trait or interest like a lot of other movies do.
One thing I don't think I could ever criticize Laika for is how amazing they make their animation look. Like, forgetting the fact that it looks so fluid, the backgrounds and colours of this movie are often amazing, even places like a rotting whale carcass and a burned down village look good. The animation itself, it's incredible, while you can tell a lot of it is stop-motion, it's all so smooth and stylish that you get sucked into it anyway. The one small bit that gets me is when Kubo sets the sail on the leaf-ship he makes. I dun't know, but something about that one tiny clip is just so incredible. I also like how they animated Kubo's hair and other small details that one wouldn't notice on first viewing, like how when Kubo and the Beetle Samurai ask the Monkey Guardian for her story, the paper Hanzo also puts his hands together to beg. Laika does another amazing job with their animation, but what else is new there.
Being a Laika production also means one thing, a twist of horror in the film. These moments are small however, and are mostly used to emphasize the danger of the situation. There is a lot of humour to balance out the slow character moments and bits of horror. Humour wise, a lot of the humour comes from the characters, and rather than having them make painful and unfunny jokes, the humour often fits with the characters themselves, I don't want to spoil a lot of the humour, but while the movie isn't laugh out loud funny, it has it's moments. The humour is mostly there to balance the more serious stuff in the movie, and it's never intrusive or distracting.
I really do think this is Laika's best film so far, the animation was beautiful and spectacular, the humour was welcomed, the characters were warm and engaging, the horror elements were executed perfectly, and the movie as a whole is one of the best animated movies ever made, in fact I'd even go so far as to say it's one of the best movies ever made period. If you haven't given this movie a chance for whatever reason, I can not recommend it enough, Kubo and the Two Strings is a fantastic film for kids and adults.
The main characters are entertaining to watch, Kubo is very much a child in this movie, emotional, sometimes rude, maybe a bit naive, Kubo is one of the best child characters in animation I've seen. The Monkey Guardian and the Beetle Samurai are entertaining in the way they bounce off of Kubo and each other, and there is a lot of warmth in the side characters. The main antagonists are also really good. Kubo's aunts are really creepy in the way they're designed and how they speak, and the Moon King is rather clever, and I like the design of the beast that he turns into in the end. The characters are entertaining and you do get to understand their reasons for doing the things they do, which makes them more relateable than randomly giving them a single trait or interest like a lot of other movies do.
One thing I don't think I could ever criticize Laika for is how amazing they make their animation look. Like, forgetting the fact that it looks so fluid, the backgrounds and colours of this movie are often amazing, even places like a rotting whale carcass and a burned down village look good. The animation itself, it's incredible, while you can tell a lot of it is stop-motion, it's all so smooth and stylish that you get sucked into it anyway. The one small bit that gets me is when Kubo sets the sail on the leaf-ship he makes. I dun't know, but something about that one tiny clip is just so incredible. I also like how they animated Kubo's hair and other small details that one wouldn't notice on first viewing, like how when Kubo and the Beetle Samurai ask the Monkey Guardian for her story, the paper Hanzo also puts his hands together to beg. Laika does another amazing job with their animation, but what else is new there.
Being a Laika production also means one thing, a twist of horror in the film. These moments are small however, and are mostly used to emphasize the danger of the situation. There is a lot of humour to balance out the slow character moments and bits of horror. Humour wise, a lot of the humour comes from the characters, and rather than having them make painful and unfunny jokes, the humour often fits with the characters themselves, I don't want to spoil a lot of the humour, but while the movie isn't laugh out loud funny, it has it's moments. The humour is mostly there to balance the more serious stuff in the movie, and it's never intrusive or distracting.
I really do think this is Laika's best film so far, the animation was beautiful and spectacular, the humour was welcomed, the characters were warm and engaging, the horror elements were executed perfectly, and the movie as a whole is one of the best animated movies ever made, in fact I'd even go so far as to say it's one of the best movies ever made period. If you haven't given this movie a chance for whatever reason, I can not recommend it enough, Kubo and the Two Strings is a fantastic film for kids and adults.
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