A young storyteller, Kubo (Art Parkinson), lives the truth of his stories as he must find an ancient suit of armor to fight against the vengeful Moon King (Ralph Fiennes).

A Dying Art

Stop-motion animation was the original go-to for Visual Effects in movies. From the early days of King Kong (1933), to the Imperial Walkers in Star Wars, it provided a way to make fantasy a physical reality. While technology has shifted more to animatronics and computer generated techniques, stop-motion is still foundational to great artistry in film making.

You may know the production company Laika from films like Coraline (2009) and Paranorman (2012) that are those weirdly delightful stop-motion films that we all turn to when Halloween comes around, but this company has so much more to it’s repertoire that is often overlooked when not in the blatantly spooky realm.

Enter Kubo and the Two Strings. It is a fun, family adventure about a young boy who has to follow the footsteps of his samurai father when his aunts and grandfather come to corrupt his soul. Despite the doom and gloom nature of his journey, it is a very sweet story, highlighting the strength of family and community.

The thing that hits me the most about this movie since I watched it upon its release was how snubbed it was when award season rolled around. Sure, it was the year Zootopia and the live-action Jungle Book came out–which were the winners for animation and VFX–but nothing came close (or in my opinion has EVER come close) to the production quality of this movie. It was also considered a box-office flop since it made $77 million worldwide on a $60 million budget. Watch the movie first, but then you must watch this behind the scenes footage to understand how they made this incredibly detailed film, and why it is so devastating that they didn’t receive what I think they deserved.

And while I call this art “dying,” it is still fighting for survival. Laika has a new film “Wildwood” releasing next month. To avoid what happened with Kubo, I strongly believe that it’s important for us all to see this movie in theaters so these kinds of projects can get the fiscal and popular attention this sort of work deserves, done by artist who are passionate about their craft. Watch the trailer here and we’ll discuss more on April 25th!

Parent’s Guide: Rated PG

There is some violence involved as sword fights ensue, and characters die from these fights. Also, in true Laika fashion, the aunts are super creepy, so this may not be the best film for younger audiences.

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