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Kubo and the Two Strings




Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)

The newest film from animation company Laikia.

The film centers around a young boy named Kubo who lives in a cave with his mother. Kubo makes money in town by using magic to tell stories with origami figures. But one night, Kubo is forced to flee his village due to circumstances I don't wish to spoil, and he is forced into an adventure to find the three pieces of his fathers armor, which will help him stop an evil force. He is accompanied by a monkey and a samurai beetle on the adventure of a lifetime.

MY GOD THIS MOVIE IS FREAKING AMAZING!

I would like to start with thanking the MPAA for not being pansies for once. This film is rated PG, and it's real PG. There was a moment in this film sent a real cold shiver down my spine, so be ready for that if you plan to take a child to the film.

I guess I'll start with this, the characters were really good. Kubo, while simple at times, feels like a real kid and a likable one at that. He's learning ways to take care of himself and his mother in his own way. and when he's faced with danger for the first time, he doesn't act like an idiot, he runs.
And there's Beetle, who was more or less the comic relief character. Take notes people, this is how you do a comic relief character. He was funny, but still very helpful and not annoying in the slightest.
And we have Monkey, who kind of stole the show for me. While Beetle is the comic relief character, Monkey has a lot of really good lines as well. But she is more of the no nonsense get stuff done person in the group, but she's never overbearing and she doesn't try and make things less fun. And there is a twist involving her that I didn't' see coming that adds an entire layer of complexity to her character.

The animation is beyond beautiful. This is quite possibly the best stop motion animation I've ever seen in my life, and it fuses so well with the bits of CG animation throughout. The characters move so naturally and fluidly that it adds to the illusion that they're really alive.

This film also has some really exciting action, I have never seen such good action in an animated film in a long time.

Literally, the only flaw I have with the movie is that the villains over all motivation is kind of weak, however, he still does have motivation, so that's something.

What else can I say about this film, the story was very well told, I legitimately didn't foresee plot developments, I wanted to know more about the world they were in, I wanted to know what happened to the characters, and I had an all around fun time with this movie.