Kubo and the Two Strings

The 25 Days of deviantART, Day 18: Kubo and the Two Strings.

From the creators of Coraline, ParaNorman, and The Boxtrolls comes Kubo and the Two Strings, a movie that I've NEVER even HEARD of until last month! In fact, it wasn't until two days before its DVD release that I even knew ANYTHING about its existence! So, with that said, how does it turn out? Well, here's the story:

Taking place in ancient Japan, Kubo (voiced by Art Parkinson [Game of Thrones]) is a 12-year-old boy who lives on top of a mountain with his mother, named Sariatu (voiced by Charlize Theron [The Devil's Advocate, The Italian Job, Mad Max: Fury Road]). Every day, Kubo is a well-known and well-respected storyteller at the village below, and every night, he must go back to the mountain with his mother, never finishing the stories he tells. One night, Kubo encounters his two aunts, collectively known as the Sisters (voiced by Rooney Mara [The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo]), and he is sent away by his mother to another world. One where he meets Monkey, a live being that this little wooden snow monkey charm turns into with the spirit and voice of Sariatu, and Beetle (voiced by Matthew McConaughey [Contact, Amistad, Tropic Thunder, Bernie, Magic Mike, The Wolf of Wall Street, Interstellar, Sing]), a samurai with a curse of being part beetle. With the help of these two, Kubo must set out to find his late father's armor, which is the one and only thing that can protect him from danger.

I heard about this movie the day I was on YouTube and saw the trailer for an upcoming animated film called Rock Dog. I looked in the comments section and saw two people calling it a Kubo and the Two Strings knock off. I questioned to myself what that movie is, because I've never even seen a poster or a trailer for it at that time! So I search it up, found out about its DVD release day (two days away, as mentioned before), and thought to myself, "I must not know a single thing about this until it comes out on DVD!" So, I bought the DVD, got home, and then watched it. And MY GOD was I amazed! The animation is undoubtedly the best stop-motion animation I've ever seen, and I say that as a really big fan of The Nightmare Before Christmas! Everything about it just looks so lively and grand! There is never a time where it l WASN'T amazed at how gorgeous this animation is! And the characters are fascinating, very deep even (especially Raiden the Moon King [voiced by Ralph Fiennes {Schindler's List, The Prince of Egypt, Red Dragon, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Harry Potter (since Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire), The Grand Budapest Hotel, the soon-to-be-released The Lego Batman Movie}], the main antagonist of the film). Also in this movie is George Takei (the original Star Trek series, Disney's Mulan), voicing a villager named Hosato and, at on point, even doing the famous way he says, "Oh my!"

So that's Kubo and the Two Strings, my most favorite stop-motion animated film, and also one of 2016's several animation strong points (alongside Zootopia, Kung Fu Panda 3, The Secret Life of Pets, Sausage Party, Finding Dory, Storks, and Moana)! In an otherwise terrible year full of things I should actually make a few Top 5 worst of lists for, that is... But anyway, if you ever decide to see this, DO SO! YOU WILL REGRET NOTHING!

Kubo and the Two Strings is owned by Focus Features and Laika.

*Up next, The 25 Days of deviantART, Day 19: Gizmo - Gremlins.