 ***PLEASE NOTE: A Blu-ray 3D disc is only compatible with 3D Blu-ray players.*** Tagline: The quest begins From the acclaimed animation studio LAIKA (Coraline) comes an epic original action adventure featuring the voice talents of Academy Award winners Charlize Theron and Matthew McConaughey all in the wonder of 3-D! Kubo mesmerizes the people in his village with his magical gift for spinning wild tales with origami. When he accidentally summons an evil spirit seeking vengeance, Kubo is made to go on a quest to solve the mystery of his fallen samurai father and his mystical weaponry, as well as discover his own magical powers. Kubo and the Two Strings is "a wildly imaginative, magical adventure." - Scott Mantz, Access Hollywood Storyline: Kubo lives a quiet, normal life in a small shoreside village until a spirit from the past turns his life upside down by re-igniting an age-old vendetta. This causes all sorts of havoc as gods and monsters chase Kubo who, in order to survive, must locate a magical suit of armor once worn by his late father, a legendary Samurai warrior. Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Martin Liebman, November 16, 2016 Kubo and the Two Strings marks the directorial debut of Travis Knight, who previously worked with Laika Entertainment on Coraline, Pranorman, and The Boxtrolls. The film is a technical success to be sure but more than that a dramatic wonder and a film packed with relevant thematic purpose and depth. Its surface sees a meshing of complexity and fluidity and a blend of creativity and detail usually reserved for the best animated pictures. A Pixar-quality film in all but the label above the title, Kubo and the Two Strings is a wondrous experience that blends dazzling animation with incredible depth of story, resulting in one of the more unforgettable films of its kind to come along in some years. Kubo (voiced by Art Parkinson) is a boy on the verge of adulthood who has lived his life with one eye. He and his mother (voiced by Charlize Theron) share a cave outside of town. His father is deceased. He entertains local townsfolk with music and magic and has been warned not to stay outside after dark, lest his sisters stalk him to take his remaining eye. One evening, staying out late in hopes of communicating with his departed father, he stays out too long and is chased. His mother rescues him and magically whisks him away with instructions to find his father's magical armor. He's joined on his quest by new friends, Monkey (also voiced by Theron) and Beetle (voiced by Matthew McConaughey), who aid him in his quest and are closer to him than he knows. Kubo walks that very fine, and rarely traversed, line between accessible children's fare and dramatically dark and perilous adult-oriented Action and Adventure film. The movie can be as bleak as it can be hopeful, as dark as it can be bright. It begins with a baby Kubo, washed ashore with his mother after barely surviving a harrowing storm at sea. The baby's face is partially wrapped in a bloody bandage, obviously the victim of some trauma to its eye. The film explores dark themes through Kubo's maturation to adulthood on his quest, but at the same time it builds a story of hope and heart, honest and soulful characterization, and detailed action that's ornate and complex yet not too scary for kids who are likely in it more for the raw materials than the substance below. The film finds that middle ground effortlessly and fully throughout, saying quite a bit about life and its adventures while building around blossoming cultural icons and identities as well as more universal concepts of life and what it means to both live and understand it. Kubo and the Two Strings is a beautiful film, but its beauty extends well beyond its core and to its superficial support elements. Superficialities define much of the film. The attention to detail is astonishing. The movie is about as fluid as is possible for a picture of this type, and the dedication to craft and precision is obvious from the outset. So much care went into the movie that a typical day of shooting consisted of capturing less than ten frames. That's not ten shots, scenes, or sequences...frames. At the average of 24 frames per second, one can only imagine the intensive labor of love to not only shoot it, but to craft everything that went into each frame to define characters, environments, and even finely hone all of the detailed support pieces that have been meticulously researched, crafted, and conformed to fit in the movie's stylistic needs. Even as the story soars, the superficialities are most spectacular; the film is worth multiple watches if only to fully absorb story in one and style in another. Kubo and the Two Strings walks that very fine line between accessible children's entertainment and deep, dark adult drama extraordinarily well. Extremely well made, thoughtful, entertaining, well paced, and nicely vocally performed, it's practically a Pixar quality film in every way but the name in front of it. Universal's Blu-ray release boasts terrific video and audio to go along with several good supplements, highlighted by a must-listen commentary track. Highly recommended. [CSW] -3.9- This film was fantastic. The stop motion animation was absolutely brilliant. The editing, lighting, production design, costume design, character design, all beautiful. The sound was smooth and crisp, and the music sounded great. This is amazing storytelling at its best. "If you must blink, do it now." So fittingly opens the stop-motion fantasy Kubo and the Two Strings, against a black screen soon to be filled with a 90+ minute roller coaster of cinematic emotions. Kubo is masterful filmmaking that far exceeds typical family-friendly animated features, or most others for that matter. Unlike most of what we get in theaters these days, Kubo has the audacity to be something that exists outside of our cultural subconscious. Its originality and tone give it the potential to have a Guardians-of-the-Galaxy-esque effect on audience. It's the story of a boy with a life-giving guitar and a mysterious past, forced upon an adventure with a beetle-man samurai and a wonderfully wry talking monkey. Under its character-based humor and blistering action, it makes powerfully pointed statements about the inevitability of death, and love's ability to almost musically unite people in overcoming fear. Even if you are completely against stop motion animation this is a must see film. The Storytelling is pure magic. [V4.5-A5.0] MPEG-4 AVC - D-Box Cast Notes: Charlize Theron (Monkey [voice]), Art Parkinson (Kubo [voice]), Ralph Fiennes (Moon King [voice]), George Takei (Hosato [voice]), Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Hashi [voice]), Brenda Vaccaro (Kameyo [voice]), Rooney Mara (The Sisters [voice]), Matthew McConaughey (Beetle [voice]), Meyrick Murphy (Mari [voice]), Minae Noji (Minae [voice]), Alpha Takahashi (Aiko [voice]), Laura Miro (Miho [voice]), Ken Takemoto (Ken [voice]), Aaron Aoki (Villager [voice]), Luke Donaldson (Villager [voice]). IMDb Rating (03/10/17): 7.9/10 from 63,081 users
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