Review of Kubo and the Two Strings (2016) by Moviefan1970 — 24 Aug 2016

While studio Laika's latest offering contains brilliant detail and painstaking craftsmanship, someone forgot to polish the script and storyline; specifically, there were so many things left unexplained or never fully explained I was left feeling more aggravated than awed. Every time that monkey said "no more questions," I felt like tying her up with unbreakable rope and yelling: "No, PLEASE ask more questions so I could understand what these filmmakers are trying to say!" Some specific queries:

Why was Beetle cursed as a bug in the first place? Bugs were never a part of the story, so why not just leave him a cursed samurai? Or, better idea: MAKE HIM A TINY ORIGAMI MAN (Just imagine how cool it would have been if a giant origami soldier could have bailed Kubo out of trouble with his paper-folding abilities? Doing so would have rendered Little Hanzo obsolete.) Kubo's mother sacrificed herself by saving Kubo by... I dunno... Blasting him to a far-off region of the snow and transforming herself into a monkey? How exactly does one do that??? Why didn't she come back as a wooden talking monkey as opposed to a real one? Why exactly did Kubo's grandfather want his other eye? (The grandfather gave his reasons, Kubo offered a logical rebuttal, but I'm still not sure who was right and who was wrong...) Most frustrating is the fact that grandfather, hyped up as the main baddie, didn't even show up till the end, so instead we were left with two boring witches who looked like they came from Jack Skellington's Halloween Town. The Grandfather, (aka, The Moon King Raiden,) had confusing intentions, and I'm still not sure why he didn't appear more often if he was supposedly after Kubo's eye. Why do some people use magic and others do not? Why was there a magical shamisen? If the shamisen was so powerful, why weren't all the bad guys after it instead of Kubo? Why was the armor split up and hidden into three video-game-like traps in the first place? (Coraline's hide-and-seek plot could get away with this stuff because it took place in an alternate slightly-Lewis-Carroll world, but it made no sense here.) The biggest question of them all that really annoyed me: if this story's theme centered around the importance of family and people remembering ancestral history.... why in the hell weren't the mom's two sisters ever mentioned again or seen as spirits during the lantern ceremony? The old grandfather who was set up as a cruel heartless individual was later humanized, as the townspeople called him "a good man." Ummmm, didn't this guy commit crimes? Why weren't the two sisters humanized? Did they not have souls too? I'm not sure whether this was a plot hole or misogyny.

The visuals were impressive, this much I will admit. With its slightly-exaggerated Japanese inspiration and slightly-jerky character movement, there is great charm to stop motion animation. Laika once again delivers masterful detail and believability with their meticulously-posed dolls and sets. I wish filmmakers would have beefed up the Asian flair, because many backgrounds looked too similar to the far-superior "Coraline." Yet, this complaint is a minor one, as most scenes conveyed a feeling of simultaneous ancient and contemporary, such as the opening ocean wave sequence, (which looked like a devil to animate,) as well as every single dream and story-telling sequence. Occasionally, however, things fall flat: what was Kubo fighting at the end of the film? It looked like a giant leech, or those annoying levitating things destroying New York City at the end of "Avengers." Kubo was, I will admit, the most carefully-planned and likable character in the film, and his actions and mannerisms made him very strong without going overboard in know-it-all attitudes (like Coraline in her film or Norman in "Paranorman.").

The end credits was the final nail in the coffin; a nice original melody would have been much appreciated but noooooo, they settle for a George Harrison oldie. And seeing all that traditional 2D animation made me sick that the entire movie wasn't made in this medium. In the future, Laika should make it their goal to focus their attention, not on building detailed puppets and backgrounds, but script-writing. The studio has been on a downward creative spiral since their first feature "Coraline." (Their last effort, "Boxtrolls," was so story-lite I have a hard time remembering what it was about.) Wherever they locked up Henry Sellick, please let him go so he can go back to directing movies again.