Be Bold. Be Brave. Be Epic...
A
kindhearted young storyteller living in a seaside community
accidentally brings down the wrath of ancient beings prepared to enforce
an age-old vendetta. On the run from these powerful entities, he must
team up with a figurine brought to life by magic & a cursed soldier
with no memory to find three enchanted objects which will allow him to
vanquish the chaos that has found him.
Kubo
is a young one eyed boy who uses the music from his shamisen to animate
paper so he can tell stories but when tragedy befalls his village, he
must go on a quest to retrieve three items of myth. Monkey is Kubo’s
voice of reason on his journey who is his wooden monkey charm given life
by his mother’s magic with a secret that could change his approach to
the quest. Beetle is a cursed soldier who was part of Kubo’s father’s
army with a limited memory of his past before being turned into an
insect hybrid, but has sworn to protect him on his adventure. Raiden the
Moon King is Kubo’s grandfather who wants to take his remaining eye to
make him blind to humanity and allow him to join his aunts in the realm
above humans.
Kubo
and the Two Strings is one of those rare animated motion pictures that
is not afraid to have a melancholy story because it trusts in the
strength of the tale in the unique form it is presenting it to the
audience. The voice cast for this stop motion movie is able to bring
the characters to life in a way that enhances the magic of the timeless
hero’s journey that is being told. Travis Knight’s directorial debut
sets a high watermark for the rest of his directing career which will be
nigh impossible to top but some of the credit for this amazing
production should be given to the very original screenplay by Marc
Haimes and Chris Butler using classic tropes. As I watched this I
could not help thinking of the anime R. O. D: Read Or Die but set in
Feudal Japan instead of modern day yet it surpasses the comparison with
its own distinct style. This groundbreaking 3D stop-motion animated film
is the type of art that may not be recognized for its genius when it is
released but will go on to become a cult classic.
I rate this cinematic
masterpiece a 5 out of 5.
P.S. During
the course of the end credits there is a mid credit sequence that shows
the behind the scene time-lapsed creation of one of the monsters that
was faced on the quest by our heroes.
In Theaters
See other reviews by Rouén HERE.
Rouén Robinson has been an
avid moviegoer since childhood and has been critiquing motion pictures
for almost a decade. He has been a film critic for
The Cinemas on Tempo and was a judge for F
LIFF On Location: Grand Bahama Island, an off shoot of the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival (FLIFF). Rouén lives in Grand Bahama and can be reached at redr1976@icloud.com and on Twitter @thereelrouen
