Kubo and the Two Strings is an Animated Masterpiece

Kubo and the Two Strings is a great film with stellar animation, an excellent cast, and a story to remember.

This film is about a young boy named Kubo (Art Parkinson) who must go on a quest to collect three powerful artifacts that will allow him to defeat his evil ancestors.

Kubo was an awesome movie for both kids and adults. Other than Parkinson, the film also features the vocal talents of Charlize Theron and Matthew McConaughey, who do an awesome job as well. Among great performances, this film also gives a great visual experience by using stop-motion animation, the act of using items in real life to make a moving picture. Laika, the animation studio behind this film, made some excellent films in the past, like Coraline in 2009 and Corpse Bride in 2005, so it’s no surprise that this film had great visuals.

The movie was directed by Travis Knight, who also made Box Trolls and Paranorman in the past couple years, and comparatively, Kubo is much better than both of those films. To give some comparison, Peter Debruge of Variety magazine had reviews on Box Trolls and Kubo and the Two Strings, which show that Knight obviously stepped up his game with this film.

Another very great aspect of this movie is its score. If it wasn’t obvious, this movie centers around Kubo, who has this guitar called a Shamisen, which composer Dario Marianelli uses in the soundtrack and in an original song by artist Regina Spektor. It’s obvious that a lot of effort was put into making the soundtrack as immersive as possible, and it definitely works.

Although Kubo and the Two Strings excels at animation, sound, visuals and acting, its target audience was uninterested. While watching the movie, kids and infants were crying and screaming by the last fifteen minutes because they were bored out of their minds. Sadly, for a kids movie, it’s just not that interesting to children. Actually, it reminded me of Coraline in that sense, which is another movie I find to be incredible, but was very boring to younger audiences. I think that this movie, and likewise for Coraline, would’ve been much better if they had made it PG-13 and added some minor adult themes, because I certainly enjoyed this movie much more than the kids.

Otherwise, this film was great. Lately, animated features have been cast away from the spotlight, with Studio Ghibli closing down and Pixar becoming a yearly product company. It’s a rare occurrence that a movie like Kubo and the Two Strings comes out. Overall, this movie is a solid 9 out of 10. You must see this film.