In a Nutshell. Mini reviews of movies old and new. No fuss. No spoilers. And often no sleep.

Friday 21 October 2016

KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS [2016]

Laika Studios makes a remarkable return with their forth jaw-dropping stop-motion animated film, Kubo and the Two Strings.
Kubo, with the aid of a snow-monkey & a giant beetle-man, searches through Japan for a magical suit of armor to defeat some nasty spirit folk from his past.
With it's themes of loss, grief and loneliness, Kubo isn't always the fast-paced adventure the kiddies will be used to so it's obviously not meant for the real young ones.  However for the older crowd you get a rich, timeless story filled with awe-inspiring visuals and one the best scores of the year from composer Dario Marianelli.  Perhaps it's weakest link is the core voice cast that don't seem to conjure up a whole lot of chemistry together and hurt some of the more dramatic moments.  However, it's a wholly original film, which is a rarity in this day and age, so it's no wonder not many people took the risk and actually saw this masterful work of imagination.

4 paper lanterns out of 5

3 comments:

budarc said...

I loved this one. It was one I forgot to add on my preliminary top 10 of the year.

Laika is seriously stepping their shit up.

cuckoo said...

It was absolutely amazing animation.

Did you know that skeleton thing was actually 16 feet tall?!?!?!?!

budarc said...

Nope, that's pretty cool.

I think Coraline is still my favorite film of theirs though. There was something so weird and offbeat about that one. The soundtrack by Bruno Coulais is amazing.