Wonderful character development!

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

The animation of Kubo and the Two Strings is stunning, with impressive effects and groundbreaking techniques.That's about all this film has going for itself.The story is unfortunately full of wholes; certain things are out in the open that the characters don't pick up on. The Villain's motive is almost nonexistent. He wants to get to Kubo so he can take his other eye for...WHAT PURPOSE! Is it just because he's a bad dude? This and many other things aren't explained clearly enough.The dialogue is also over-dramatic. It takes itself way too seriously and when they try to add comedy, It just seems out of place.The main problem lies in the casting. While the actors they chose give a good performance, They chose not to cast any Asian actors to portray the ASIAN characters. This film is too recent to be snubbing Minority actors. The only non-white voice actors they hired were portraying very minor characters with little lines. This includes George Takei despite the fact that he was given top billing along with the main cast.This film had potential but the story is flawed and the casting is unacceptable.

Kubo and the Two Strings is Travis Knight's animated stop-motion fantasy adventure film set in a feudal Japan voiced by a coterie of prominent actors. The overall effort is disappointing as so much excellent work went into the visual side of the film but little into the dialogue which can best be described as sophomoric and simply not funny. Don't plan on taking your kids to see this as the story as it has an undercurrent of nasty characters who might be a little too scary for children. When we're first introduced to Kubo (Art Parkinson), the young protagonist, he already has had his eye plucked out by his evil grandfather ("The Moon King" voiced by Ralph Fiennes) and his two aunts (a Japanese variation on the bad witches from the "Wizard of Oz") who are out to kill his mother, Sariatu (Charlize Theron) who was cast out by the family after marrying Kubo's now missing dad, Hanzo. Soon enough, the aunts (i.e. the witches) kill Kubo's mother and Kubo learns he must find three talismans to assist him in eventually defeating his grandfather. They include armor, a sword and a breastplate. Just as in the Wizard of Oz, Kubo is assisted by three characters who protect him from the wrath of his aunts. First there's "little Hanzo," Kubo's own Origami creation, who resembles his father, a Samurai warrior, along with a Monkey who comes to life from Kubo's monkey amulet given to him by his mother (the monkey is also voiced by Theron) as well as a Beetle/man hybrid (Matthew McConaughey). It's soon revealed that the Monkey and the Beetle are manifestations of Kubo's parents but hardly approximate their grandeur. The Monkey's lines in particular are quite grating, as she spends most of her time insulting the Beetle, who comes off as foolish and ineffectual. Nonetheless, the two manage in the end to sacrifice themselves and kill the aunts, so that Kubo can have his final confrontation with the evil grandfather. As I mentioned at the beginning, a great deal of thought went into animating this enterprise and most of it is quite impressive. However, when it comes to the animation of the grandfather's spirit (which takes the form of an ordinary dragon), one must conclude that the film's animators could have created a more interesting and compelling (final) monster/adversary for little Kubo. The ending is at least appropriate as Kubo uses the strings from his Shamisen (banjo-like instrument), culled from his mother's hair, which enables him to neutralize his grandfather's powers and transform him to a feeble old man, on whom the villagers (from Kubo's nearby town), take pity. Despite the impressive animation, the film's inappropriate comic tone undermines the filmmaker's serious intent, and relegates the overall effort as a lame attempt that patronizes the adult audience while at the same token, ends up scaring its base of young children.

Stop motion animation has always been one of my favorite filmmaking techniques, from Aardman Productions to even the ATATs in Star Wars. "Kubo and the Two Strings", deserves to be among the titles when you list "the great stop motion movies". The story had me hooked from the beginning, and the animation was superb. Kubo and the two strings tales place in a world where magic and humans live together, inspired by ancient Japanese culture, where a boy sets out on a quest to restore peace to his family. The cast was really good, I thought, and I especially loved Charlize Theron's performance as Monkey. The color palette of the film made me not want to take my eyes of the screen and, combined with the animation, was breathtaking. Even though this movie was aiming for the enjoyment of kids, the jokes still landed for me and I still felt the emotion conveyed, especially at the end. The characters The Sisters even made me feel a bit creeped out at times, which was great. In the battle scenes, I felt threatened and in the emotional scenes, I felt sad. This movie, I thought, really did well with conveying emotion. Although I loved the story this movie told, I thought the plot felt rushed at times. This is understandable, though, as they had a pretty low budget and claymation takes a lot of time for not very much product.

Every month seems to bring another big budget animated film. I just wish all of them were this beautiful and original. Yes, Kubo finds adventure and laughter, but - more importantly - his journey surprises at every turn. From the moment you first see origami dancing, you know that this movie will be unique. And the happiness you find along the way is richer because it's tinged with a grief that rings true.