KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS review

(Reviewed by Melody Werner)
Kubo and the Two Strings is the latest stop-motion effort from Laika Entertainment, well known for Coraline and the excellent ParaNorman. Directed by Travis Knight (who has since gone on to direct 2018's Bumblebee) and featuring the voices of Art Parkinson, Charlize Theron, and Matthew "Holy shit he's in another legitimately great movie" McConaughey, it was released last year (that's 2016 for any time travellers) to critical acclaim and moderate box office success. Despite technically being a "kid's movie," Laika once again shows how family flicks don't have to be mindless garbage and can have actual substance to them.


Now I've always loved stop-motion animation, ever since Nightmare Before Christmas, but Kubo might just be the best in terms of visuals out of any of its predecessors. It's a gorgeous looking film and this is improved by just how imaginative it can be when it comes to exposition and the setting. Not only that but the character designs and backgrounds are also wonderful and pop off the screen. The fight scenes can be pretty dope but aren't always thrilling. The voice acting is fantastic. A common problem with live-action actors doing voices is that many without good voice directors can feel lost and thus give bad performances (see: Peter Dinklage in Destiny). Thankfully, this isn't a problem in Kubo. The music in Kubo is forgettable but good.


In terms of writing, while Kubo's premise sounds "cardboard cut-out family-friendly adventure", it holds up due to a solid execution, interesting twists (if predictable for someone like me who looks for patterns and such), genuinely heartfelt moments, and smooth exposition and world-building. Not too mention, it's a fun adventure which never drags its heels--it's fast-paced and does not even threaten to crawl once. Even in quieter moments, things are developing or the filler is still very entertaining and short.


The film can be very serious but not too much, as there's a fairly liberal usage of comedy throughout the film. This is done almost entirely through banter and humorous character actions, which it does quite well. It's charming--not exactly "laugh your face off" hilarious, but it'll make you grin and I think kids would like it a lot. The dialogue is quite good, though there are also quite a few platitudes which seep through.


Then there are the characters: so the big side characters are by far the strongest. Namely Theron's character Monkey and Holy shit he's in another legitimately great movie's Beetle. They're decently complex but also enjoyable and they steal every scene I think. Kubo himself is above average. He's not annoying or bland but he's not given much time to shine so I was never really rooting for him. At first he's got a lot going for him but later he just loses the show to Beetle and Monkey. The antagonists are boring big bads with cliché motivations, no development, and zero complexity. They're well-designed visually but they aren't very intimidating or intriguing. Compared to Aku or Megatron, they're really dull. The climax is a good, bitter sweet book-end. Not stunning per se, as the villain is lackluster and Kubo wasn't as strong enough a protagonist to make it truly shine, but it was satisfying enough and clever.


Kubo and the Two Strings is a fantastic animated movie which is very engaging. While I don't think it's just as good as ParaNorman, it's another brilliant entry into Laika's portfolio and well worth checking out. It's also great to see a one and done new IP, with no sequels, reboots, remakes, midquels, spinoffs, or prequels planned, though that's commonplace for Laika come to think of it. Kubo and the Two Strings gets a 9/10.

Excellent

Summary:
A wonderful stop-motion animated movie with gorgeous and creative visuals, exceptional voice acting, a compelling story, good dialogue, stellar pacing, good humor, decent music, good main characters, and a neat ending. It struggles to have anything more than mediocre villains and there are things which could've been improved, but as a whole Kubo is a film very much worth seeing.

(originally posted: 4/19/2017)

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