![\"kuboandthetwostrings\"](\"https:\/\/cinemacocoa.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/09\/kuboandthetwostrings.jpg?resize=202%2C300\")
\nAhhh. That nice feeling of watching something original.<\/p>\n
\nAhhh. That nice feeling of watching something original.<\/p>\n
Kubo is a young son of a warrior who is maimed as a baby by The Moon King and is raised by his mother as a storyteller. Now older he lives in isolation, with his injured mother, hiding from the Moon King’s servants who wish to take his other eye. But he cannot hide forever…<\/p>\n
Laika Studios make gorgeous stop-motion animation. 2009’s Coraline<\/em>, 2012’s Paranorman<\/em> and 2014’s Boxtrolls<\/em>, are all exceptionally well crafted animation and frankly appeals to this reviewer far more than any “computer generated animation”.<\/p>\n Well, the short film\u00a0Piper<\/em> at the start of Finding Dory<\/em> is definitely an exception…<\/p>\n And all of those films are surprisingly dark in tone,\u00a0Boxtrolls<\/em> a little less so (it is\u00a0my least favourite of their incredible filmography) and Kubo and the Two Strings<\/em> is no different. Parents beware, Laika makes stories that actually challenge your child. <\/em>We start off with Kubo as a baby being rescued by his mother across the ocean during a storm, and we see his mother’s head being dashed against the rocks! Woah. Blood within the first five minutes!<\/p>\n What follows is a very beautiful and very mysterious hero’s journey story, with a focus on feudal Japan and origami paper-folding. Kubo has\u00a0a gift of telling stories, and magically animating paper and creating origami characters by playing a\u00a0shamisen, and one of his first companions is a little origami samurai warrior. Unfortunately, this film is going to drop like a brick with general audiences. Poor advertisement, it died in America, and the cinema I had viewed it only had about ten people, and no one<\/em> was interested. Phones came out, children were restless. I wanted more, and that isn’t a bad thing per se.<\/p>\n It is a beautiful movie with jaw-dropping stop-motion effects and is definitely worth a watch! Spend a nice quiet evening with the\u00a0family, turn the phones off<\/em>, watch Kubo and appreciate some top quality animation and design work.<\/p>\n [youtube https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=vex0gPFnBvM]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ahhh. That nice feeling of watching something original. Kubo is a young son of a warrior who is maimed as a baby by The Moon King and is raised by his mother as a storyteller. Now older he lives in isolation, with his injured mother, hiding from the Moon King’s servants who wish to take… <\/p>\n
\nJoining him on his journey though is a talking monkey, voiced by Charlize Theron, and Beetle – a samurai warrior cursed into the form of a humanoid beetle, voiced by Matthew McConaughey. They battle together against horrific monsters like a massive skeleton and the Moon King’s assassins; masked and\u00a0robed in black.\u00a0The design work is stunning and the animation is gorgeously haunting at times.\u00a0The key word also being “battle”. Laika are getting good at stop-motion combat<\/em>. We have bows and arrows, swords, chain weapons, incredibly difficult concepts for stop-motion and yet it is all very convincing.
\nFor as dark and unsettling as it is, there is a good through line of humour. After all, it is a young boy traveling with a talking monkey and a beetle-man! There are some good chuckles to be had.<\/p>\n
\nI can’t stand it.
\nBut\u00a0Kubo’s<\/em> story doesn’t do it any favours either. It is very ambiguous with motivations and overall intent and drive. This is literally a journey movie, and while there is a good harmony and meaning (the titular Two Strings<\/em>) I found myself very confused by the actual menace and threat that was so heavily pushed on our heroes. Coupled with an unconventional ending, Kubo and the Two Strings<\/em> feels like a bigger, darker tale streamlined down.<\/p>\n![\"cfdb7-4-0\"](\"https:\/\/cinemacocoa.files.wordpress.com\/2014\/09\/cfdb7-4-0.png?resize=260%2C50\")
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