so turns out if you watch Coraline and Paranorman bc it's Spooky Season you're also legally mandated to watch Kubo and the Two Strings as well (don't fact check me on this)
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These are the Sisters from Kubo and the Two Strings in modern outfits! This is in collaboration with my friend Benny (h0mowhatever on instagram). Silly did the sketch and outfit design, and I did the lineart and colors. I'm really happy with how this turned out!
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Genre: Samurai
Setting: Feudal Japan
Mood: Lighthearted, action-adventurey
Plot
Commentary: 9/10 | Interesting and unique ideas about family and its role, sins of the father, breaking free, and kindness.
Characters: 10/10 | Compelling, distinct characters with phenomenally well-done interactions and genuinely fantastic dynamics.
Coherence: 10/10 | Consistent, coherent, and thematically stable throughout the whole film.
People
Acting: 10/10 | Wonderfully well-acted with a lot of very difficult lines delivered effortlessly.
Casting: 10/10 | Each voice suits the characters perfectly, playing into the cartoonish style just enough without removing the humanity of them.
Charisma: 10/10 | The charisma of the voice actors shines through and amplifies each and every character.
Personality
Intrigue: 10/10 | Provides genuine "what are they going to do?" moments without being actually confusing, the mark of flawless suspense-building. Instantly gets you engaged with Kubo and his story, and holds your attention throughout.
Catharsis: 10/10 | Finishes the story without falling away from its themes for a moment, with an incredibly satisfying conclusion.
Uniqueness: 10/10 | A genuinely fresh look on the "samurai fighting for his family" idea that takes it in a new and very good direction.
Presentation
Visual appeal: 10/10 | Oh my god this movie is gorgeous. The stop-motion animation style lends a sense of humanity to it, the art is just beautiful, and every single scene is incredibly well-made visually. Just a masterpiece.
Storytelling: 9/10 | Wonderful storytelling cut through with humor, helping to highlight the contrast between the stakes of Kubo's journey and his own lightheartedness.
Design: 9/10 | Excellent design work, each character and set feels unique and distinct (except the aunties from each other, but that's on purpose, obviously).
Personal Favor: 10/10 | Tied with The Secret of Kells (review eventually) for my favorite movie.
The last time I saw this movie was when it was in theaters, so it was a good film to revisit. After all, LAIKA makes fantastic art with their stop-motion films, and this is one of the more ambitious and impressive movies.
Also, it took me years to figure out that the song played during the credits was a cover of a Beatles song.
Kubo and the Two Strings tells the story of Kubo, a young boy with a magical talent to bring paper to life with his music, which he uses to tell the stories his mother told him to the people of the local village. His mother is the runaway daughter of the Moon King, who left after falling in love with the mortal warrior, Hanzo–and both she and Kubo bear scars from her escape. His mother is slowly fading away from a head injury, while Kubo has one eye, as the Moon King took his other one when Kubo was a baby.
When the Moon King finds Kubo again, the boy has to go on a quest straight out of his stories. With his magic, the aid of a monkey doll brought to life by his mother, and a samurai cursed to look like a giant beetle, Kubo must find the armor and weapons with which he can defeat the Moon King once and for all.
So for starters: this movie looks darn amazing. I fully understand why most studios don’t go for stop motion animation; it takes a very long time to do, after all, and it’d be so easy to get it wrong. But LAIKA makes it look so, so good. Alright, yes, I know that there is also some CGI, for certain things that can’t be done with stop motion. But overall, a lot of it is really beautiful to look at.
And there’s a giant skeleton!
Now I don’t know how well this was received in Japan; TV Tropes says it was received very well, but outside of that I don’t have any hints. The cast is stacked with big names, and I’m a bit frustrated that none of the lead roles are played by Asians, considering the setting. They’re a great cast, and do a great job, for the record, but I think it would have been good to include more Asians in the core cast. The same year this came out, we had Moana, which made a point that every role, other than some singing voices and the chicken, is filled by someone of Pacific Islander descent.
Also the ads emphasized that George Takei is in the cast, and he has maybe two lines in the movie? That seemed like a rip-off.
Another question: the mythology? I believe that the kami of the Moon in Shinto mythology is not a friendly guy, but I don’t think he quite fits with how he’s characterized in this movie, either. Supposedly the script names the Moon King ‘Raiden’, which, uh, he’s clearly not–he’s not associated with thunder in this movie, so that doesn’t make sense. That doesn’t make the movie bad, if it doesn’t follow folklore or mythology, it just felt a bit strange.
There is a bit of a twist part of the way through the story, towards the end of the movie, and I don’t think it’s really a twist to anyone that’s been paying attention. Which isn’t bad; a story isn’t ruined if you know where it’s going. At the same time, if you really like to have unpredictable stories, uh, this one’s not going to do it for you.
But you know what will? The action. Dear Lord, there is a surprising amount of action in this kids’ movie. There are duels to the death. The Moon King’s daughters proudly proclaim that they’ve fought cosmic battles before. Yes, there are plenty of family films that have action, but this one felt serious–it wasn’t afraid to tell you that characters are going to die, in gruesome ways, even if it wasn’t going to show you exactly how all the blood spilled. I appreciate that, because that is the kind of story kids actually like.
Which means that I find this movie really, really cool. It’s a film that doesn’t talk down to its audience, even though it’s intended for kids, and isn’t afraid to have real, violent stakes for its characters. Heck, the main character had his eye removed from his head by his grandfather. When he was a baby. What the EFFF.
It’s a pretty great movie, and I wish more people saw it. I wish I had seen it more often than I have. Beautiful animation, a great story, action scenes throughout…what else do you want from a movie?
