“If you must blink, do it now.” A line like that doesn’t make you want to take your eyes off the screen. Laika should be a studio that people must talk about in the later future. Because they release some of the most creative looking stop-motion movies that not many people talk about like Coraline, ParaNorman (my favorite), and The Boxtrolls. Nearly all of them are really great works and Kubo and the Two Strings is no exception.
There’s a lot of momentum told in this and there’s so much to enjoy here. This has a fantastic and original story to follow and the scope of the animation is breathtaking just thinking about how the animators did all of this work.
It also features with great characters with the likes of Kubo (Art Parkinson, Game of Thrones), Monkey (Charlize Theron) and Beetle (Matthew McConaughey), who all worked very well having good banter with each other dynamically. Our main protagonist, Kubo, was a brave boy that absolutely showed courage almost throughout. Moments, where there’s danger, could seem like an impossible task to handle, but he just knows what to accomplish.
Besides the cast work and the animation, the score by Dario Marianelli was stunning. This is one of those animations that are for older kids or adults who’ll understand the mythology behind it all and fully understand what it all means at the end of the journey.
But this is so enjoyable for a kids movie to end the summer that’s never really dual and keeps your eyes on the screen. And this also provided one of the best lines of the year in my opinion, “You are my quest.” The context of what it means was beautifully told.
Kubo and the Two Strings is one of the coolest stop motion movies to come out since 2012’s ParaNorman. Great and magical storytelling, beautiful well-done animation, and so awe-inspiring magnificent.
Grade: A-
DC's Take 