“If you could be any kind of tree in the whole wide world, what…” “I stole a car!… I mean, a sycamore tree”.
Kubo and the Two Strings
I am taking too much time to shovel out my reviews of movies. I saw Kubo and the Two Strings ahile ago. This review is way late. It should’ve come out immediately after the film to make you want to go and see it. It is out of theaters now, and you missed it.
Kubo and the Two Strings comes from the stop motion animation studio, Laika. They have become my favorite studio because stop motion is so analog and they make it look digital. Even in this film, the animation is amazing. It is hard to believe that most of it is puppets.
The story is a tale of Kubo who is fatherless and with a mother who is catatonic during the day. At night she wakes up and regales him with stories of his father using origami as visuals. Kubo also has the origami touch. Along with his shimasen he animates origami tales for the villagers.
It turns out his mother and him are on the run from his grandfather, the King of the Moon, who wants to turn Kubo into another cold, heartless follower and heir to the moon throne. Chased by his scary aunts, Kubo must find the pieces to put his father’s armor together to defeat his family.
The story is said to be the weakest part of the film. I would watch it for the visuals — the origami art, the gigantic skeleton battle, the scary aunts, the water. You would wonder how this is stop motion. The story also appropriates Japanese symbolisms. I wonder if they meant it too. The company did show gratitude to the Japanese organizations and people who they worked with. I didn’t hear too much about the ‘yellow-washing’ in this film.
It is a shame that it wasn’t as big of a hit as possible. I guess because it isn’t CG no one wants to watch.
4 of 5 stars.
