When dealing with animation, a filmmaker has a chance to create an entire world. They truly do control exactly what the viewer sees on the screen. A live action film uses the real buildings and trees around the actors. An animator can turn everything in service of the story. Kubo and the Two Strings is a stop motion film that transports the story into its own version of a supernatural feudal Japan landscape. It’s easy to get absorbed into this world of the young shamisen player with his magical talents.
Kubo (Game of Thrones‘ Art Parkinson) is a 12-year-old boy who is missing an eye and lives in a cave with his mother (Monster’s Charlize Theron). He’s really into his music and sings songs about Hanzo, his missing samurai father. The local villagers enjoy his music and also his ability to make origami figures come alive and act out elements of his songs. This includes a little figure of Hanzo that can chop up monsters. His mother warns him to never be out after dark because his grandfather is The Moon King (Skyfall‘s Ralph Fiennes). One night, Kubo makes the mistake of being outside after the sun goes down. He encounters his mother’s twin sisters (Nightmare Alley‘s Rooney Mara). It’s not a happy reunion since the twins want to claim Kubo’s good eye. The mother helps him escape and tells him to locate his father’s legendary armor. Kubo is transported to a new realm where he encounters a talking monkey (also Charlize Theron) and a Samurai Beetle (Dazed and Confused‘s Matthew McConaughey). Is Kubo going to be able to prevent his grandfather from plucking out his good eye for an evil plan?
The stop motion animation makes Kubo and the Two Strings feel like an elaborate picture book come to life. The story is enthralling with the action coming off as dream-like as if a tale being sung by Kubo. There’s so much that’s appealing on the screen. Perhaps my favorite element is the Moon King looking like Hammer horror legend Peter Cushing. The moon on his chest looks like the Death Star which ties back to Cushing’s role in the original Star Wars film. The film also features the voices of George Takei (Mr. Sulu on Star Trek) and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (The Last Emperor). Kubo and the Two Strings is a film that’s so deserving getting upgraded to 4K UHD and placed inside a Steelbook so it looks as good on your home video shelf as it does on your 4K TV screen.
The video is 2.39:1 anamorphic. The 4K UHD image really gets you into the textures of the stop motion figures. The audio on the 4K UHD is 7.1 Dolby Atmos. There are also 5.1 Digital Surround dubs in French, Spanish and Japanese. You can listen to the way the movie played in Japan. The audio on the Blu-ray is DTS-HD MA 5.1. French and Spanish dubs are provided in 5.1 DTS-HD Audio. There’s Descriptive Video Services. The subtitles are in English, Spanish and French.
Blu-ray Disc with bonus features.
Audio commentary with Director/Producer Travis Knight. This is his first commentary track, so he asks us to keep our expectations low. But he does a fine job getting into how the film came about. Production was 18 months.
Inside LAIKA: Confronting the Epic Challenges of Kubo and the Two Strings (13:38) goes into the production of the film. How did they make flowing fabrics and hair? How can stop-motion make this happen so it looks naturally. They discuss how they finally cracked the movie magic on the 11 inch high cast with “snakes.” They take us into the workshop to see the technology in action.
Inside LAIKA: Revisiting the Puppets with LAIKA’s Animation Team has the animators showing off the puppets and discuss what they did to make the characters come alive. This includes Little Hanzo (1:54), Monkey (2:02), The Sisters (1:45), Beetle (1:46), Moon King (2:05), Mother (2:13) and Kubo (2:00).
Feature Length Storyboards (92:19) is the animatics of the action before they brought in the puppets. They use the finished audio so it’s really like a second version of the movie.
Kubo’s Journey (28:27) has Travis Knight guide us through how they made an epic journey on a tabletop in a warehouse. He describes it as a stop-motion Samauri movie. George Takei talks of his character.
Corners of the Earth (3:06) shows of the creation of the 80 sets.
The Myth of Kubo (2:33) goes into the story of his journey.
Still Galleries includes Character Art (2:06), Concept Art (2:06) and Behind the Scenes (2:06).
Trailer (1:00) has Kubo learn that he’s not a normal boy living with his mom.
Shout! Factory and LAIKA present Kubo and the Two Strings. Directed by Travis Knight. Screenplay by Marc Haimes & Chris Butler. Starring Art Parkinson, Charlize Theron, Matthew McConaughey, Ralph Fiennes, Rooney Mara, George Takei, Brenda Vaccaro and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa. Running Time: 101 minutes. Rating: Rated PG. Running Time: 101 minutes. Release Date: February 28, 2023.
