Review of Kubo and the Two Strings (2016) by Ohurra_Banwajee — 07 Sep 2016

This movie was nice. I loved it like a sibling whose health and well-being I have utmost concern about, and for whom I’d willingly overlook the need to run errands as a mild inconvenience that comes with siblinghood. For whom I’d loan a hundred dollars under the understanding that it IS a loan, then forget about it because that, too, comes with the territory. For whom I’d pick up from their home to drop off, wait for, and return home from the supermarket without asking for gas money (not to mention the unquantifiable compensation for time).

But I wanted to love it more like a child whose needs I feel obliged to meet without question; whose well-being is not just important, but necessary; whose bright future shouldn’t just be a concern, but assured. I wanted to love it more than I did, but I couldn’t. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good movie, but to me, it was one of those that was good enough to be better. It was ‘generalistic’ enough that it could fascinate younger audiences, it was deep enough that it could resonate with the more mature, and it was thought-provoking enough that it could appeal to the very cerebral. So why, in the end, wasn’t it even better than it was?

Kubo himself took centre stage early on, with wails that brought his spent mother to his side. The story goes on to keep him in the spotlight, and throws in a few sidekicks that are as varied, capable, and witty as a light-hearted movie of this nature is intended to be. However, despite the occasional flash back or real-time dialogue, it never gets beyond superficial explanations of anything, leaving you to answer your own questions about everything - if you even bothered to ask. In my opinion, character development could have been deeper, and though I liked the art style, I couldn’t help but wonder if this wasn’t one of those that would have received more critical acclaim if only the sidekicks and the effects alone were CG.

In the end, it’s a smooth ride at a casual pace with enjoyable music that could put the driver to sleep. Kubo and the Two Strings makes for a fun romp but not a must-see. It brings to an end a summer of non-blockbusters, causing me to postulate that depth is being traded for effects. It delivers an action animated movie with a nebulous storyline that makes me wonder why it wasn’t performed by real characters in the first place! The strumming of the guitar and the telling of the stories might have been a sight to behold if it were performed in person by Neel Sethi or the likes. But alas, it was nice, and in the absence of overwhelming choice, I’ll settle for nice.