Kubo and the Two Strings

We've all seen animated flicks a plethora of times--typical animated, Claymation and now we have one produced in the stop-motion format in the form of "Kudo and the Two Strings". This is sort of the "Hidden Dragon, Crouching Tiger" of animated films, and with that, it has a clear message that we all can learn from in life.

This epic action-adventure centers on clever, kind-hearted Kubo (Art Parkinson) who ekes out a humble living, telling fantastical stories to the people of his seaside town. After accidentally summoning an ancient spirit, Kubo becomes separated from his mother and embarks on a journey to discover the truth about his late father. Through a kind-hearted monkey (Charlize Theron) to guide and protect him, and a beetle (Matthew McConaughey)
they encounter along the way, he must retrieve the magical suit of armor worn by his late father who was a Samurai warrior in order to defeat the vengeful Moon King (Ralph Fiennes) and two evil twin sisters (Rooney Mara) with Kubo's Shamisen, a magical stringed instrument.

Others to round out the cast are George Takei as Hosato, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Hashi, Brenda Vaccaro as Kameyo, Meyrick Murphy as Mari, Minae Noji as Minae, Alpha Takahashi as Aiko, Laura Miro as Miho and Ken Takemoto as Ken.

Although Travis Knight, the director of this film, only has this film to his directing credit, he has plenty of animation supervising experience on several other films. With this other experience, he has proven he can handle the director's chair with ease. His pacing and staging are concise and methodical. He will go far. It is creatively written by Marc Haimes and Chris Butler based on a story by Shannon Tindle and Haimes. As with the directing, the two writers of this, Haimes and Butler have only one other film each to their credit in the feature film experience, and other than a couple of places of slowness and choppiness, this screenplay was better than most seasoned screenwriters out there today. In fact, when I was doing my research for this review, I was stunned to realize of these writers limited experience. Again, these guys will go far as with the director. I would be interested to see what they will write next. The animation done by Laika Entertainment was absolutely seamless. The stop-motion animation was incredibly done with expertise.

This film is executed so well that I wouldn't be surprised it being nominated for best animated film come Oscar time. If you're an animation affictionato, you will be in heaven, and who else would even bother to go to this genre of film than those who appreciate animation? Even with some flaws in script, this film has so much to offer--heart, action, self- awareness and redemption all in less than a 2 hour time slot.

Out of 4 Stars: 3.5                                  Rated: PG                                    102mins.