Rich visuals and gripping story

Often with animation films, they look great but the story fails to engage, being either too pop culture-reference heavy or dully predicable.

 

KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS

Director: Travis Knight
Cast: Art Parkinson, Charlize Theron, George Takei, Matthew McConaughey, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Brenda Vaccaro, Rooney Mara, Ralph Fiennes
Rating: (PG)
Five stars (out of five)

 

Kubo and the Two Strings (Rialto) manages to get both elements right; it looks stupendous, in fact so sublime in places there really is no other reason needed to see it.

Normally, I have little interest in the technical side, but I have to say that Kubo and the Two Strings was filmed using stop-motion animation so flawless  there is no betraying judder. 

If the visuals are rich, the story is equally gripping.

Kubo (Art Parkinson) is a special child. 

His mother was the most magically gifted of the Moon King’s daughters and his father was the samurai she had been sent to kill. 

Furious at his daughter’s treachery, the Moon King plots to steal Kubo and turn him against his human side.

For 11 years his mother has hidden him from her father’s gaze but finally the inevitable happens and Kubo stays out after dark letting the Moon King see him. 

The village that sheltered him is destroyed, his mother killed and Kubo is alone in the wilderness with just the guidance of a magical monkey (Charlize Theron).

Their only  hope is to find Kubo’s father’s armour.

Soon they are joined in their quest by a man-size Beetle (Matthew McConaughey) but, as Monkey points out, that hardly evens the odds.

One  warning: because the quality is so high the scare factor for  young children is also high.

- Christine Powley

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