Review: ‘Kubo and the Two Strings’ is another beautiful stop-motion animated film

Posted on August 26, 2016

By MARK VIOLA

Although we’ve had several animated films set records at the box office this year, one medium within the animation field which remains somewhat of a dying art is stop-motion animation.

In fact, there really is only one major domestic studio still working exclusively in the medium, and that is Studio Laika. Fortunately, if stop-motion animation was going to have a standard bearer, I couldn’t think of a better one. Through its first three efforts, “Coraline,” “ParaNorman” and “The Box Trolls,” the studio has given us films featuring strong and compelling storytelling along with downright beautiful animation, and its fourth film, “Kubo and the Two Strings,” easily continues this tradition.

The movie is set in ancient Japan and is told as if it is a legend of old, although the story itself is an original creation of the screenwriters. Still, the film imbues that mythological quality into its storytelling and it seeps into the characters and the unfolding events.

The story focuses on a young boy named and Kubo (voiced by Art Parkinson, “Game of Thrones”), who lives in a cave alone with his mother. He has the ability to control paper, molding it into origami-like shapes with the help of a musical instrument. Kubo uses his ability to tell stories to the neighboring villagers, earning enough money to support himself and his mother, who urges Kubo to always return home before dark, because they are in hiding from the Moon King (Ralph Fiennes, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”).

The Moon King eventually finds them  and Kubo must set out on a quest of his own–mirroring the stories he used to tell the villagers–to find a mystical set of armor that might protect him. Along the way, he is joined by a talking monkey (Charlize Theron, “Mad Max: Fury Road”) and a beetle warrior (Matthew McConaughey, “Free State of Jones”).

Based on that summary, it might not sound like this would be a well-written and emotionally powerful story. But it is, and I found the film entirely compelling and entertaining. I say that, however, with one major caveat when it comes to the story. There is one fictional archetype that I simple don’t like, mainly because they so rarely work in film, and that is what I call the scavenger hunt, in which our hero must set out and find a certain number of items that combined will help him or her vanquish the villain.

In “Kubo,” this scavenger hunt is the weakest part of the story. Fortunately, in this case, the quest itself is also probably the least important part of the story and not at all what I took away from the film.

What matters instead is the emotional journey our three heroes go on and what they learn about both themselves as well as why the quest began in the first place, and how that knowledge changes them. There really is a lot of nuanced, well thought out storytelling in this movie and that’s what sets this film above many of its animated brethren.

Elevating even further are performances of the cast, especially those from Parkison, Theron and McConaughey, in his first ever voice work. They really inhabit these characters, bringing to them both emotional depth as well as some much needed comic relief.

Of course, it almost goes without saying the stop-motion animation is beautiful, even though I’ve already said it, but I need to mention it again. Everything from the sets to the character designs to Kubo’s magical ability is painstakingly captured one frame at a time using models and puppets. The end result is almost unbelievable.

Based on its first weekend box office returns, “Kubo and the Two Strings” will be seen by far fewer than many other family-oriented films released this summer. And that frankly is a shame. If you have an interest in beautiful–there’s that word again–animation or powerful storytelling the entire family can enjoy, be sure to give this one some consideration next time you head to the theater.

The film is rated PG for thematic elements, scary images, action and peril.

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