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.

'Kubo & The Two Strings' is a stop-motion animation film set in ancient Japan - and it's superb. Kubo (Parkinson) is a young, one-eyed boy who lives outside a small town and tells stories with origami characters that come to 'life' when he plays his guitar - this is amazing to watch and expertly done. When he finds out his Grandfather is the Moon King (Finnes) who wants to steal his remaining eye, he sets out on a quest to find the mystic armour.He's helped by Monkey (Theron), his guardian, & Beetle (McConaughey) a samurai man-sized rhinoceros-beetle - Beetle has the best lines and quips in the film and really adds to the adventure. PG is right - I'm not sure I'd let a child under 8 see this, due to some of the darker scenes and it does deal a fair bit with death and spirits (the 'sisters' (Mara) are particularly scary!). This studio, Laika, is on a roll ('Coraline', 'ParaNorman' and 'The Boxtrolls' - all good), and with 'Kubo', they're starting to give Pixar a run for their money!The plot is essentially predictable, but it's the heart the actors and animators infuse the characters with that makes this film stand out. It looks stunning and there's plenty of imaginative and original things that pop-up throughout. Highly recommended.

Warning: this review contains many spoilers!I was so excited to watch this movie after reading the many many very positive reviews but I felt disappointed after doing that. Visually the movie is a masterpiece but I think the unoriginal story and plot holes ruined it. The story seems Dragon Quest IV, there's a boy (a little bard who plays an old guitar-like instrument) which must destroy a monster (his uncle) by collecting the pieces of a legendary armor (sword, armor and a helmet). He travels through the world with the help of his mother (incarnated inside a body of a monkey) and a weird looking scarab-human warrior (he's his dad but, trust me, it took me few seconds to figure out it was his father). So they found the magic sword stuck inside a huge living monster head (but if the sword is so powerful then why it's stuck inside a monster head and the monster doesn't die?). They found the armor under the sea (just how did it get down there?) and the helmet which was widely exposed, you won't believe this... outside Kubo's village (so the legendary helmet was in Kubo's village all the time and no one noticed that?). Meanwhile Kubo's mom and dad die while protecting him from the two evil sisters and Kubo faces his evil uncle in the final battle. In the end Kubo defeats his uncle by playing his guitar with a string of his mom hair, a string of his hair and the string of his father's bow. So the journey in search of the legendary artifacts was...completely pointless (he could play the guitar with the strings way before and his mom and dad would be still alive). Kubo's uncle turns into a nice guy (I don't know how) and the movie ends. Final score 7/10.Kubo and the two string is a good movie. It has stunning visuals, great graphics, memorable characters and good dialogues but it would be a true masterpiece if wasn't for its unoriginal story and plot holes. Overall the movie is a bit overrated but I can recommend it to everyone.

In the opening scenes a woman crosses a sea in a small boat with her small, one eyed child. As they reach land she is injured when she hits her head on a rock. Years pass and she is clearly unwell thanks to her injury. The child, Kubo, is now twelve and looks after her. He earns money telling stories which are magically animated by origami characters as he plays a shamisen. One story in particular tells of a samurai who confronted the Moon King… little does he know but the story isn't as mythical as he thought. His mother warned him that he must always be home before the sun sets or his grandfather will find him and take his remaining eye.Inevitably one day he stays out too late is confronted by his two aunts who intend to take him to his grandfather and his mother helps him flee. When he wakens he is in a snow-covered landscape with a talking snow monkey, which claims to be the charm he carried given life by his mother's magic. If he is to survive unharmed they will have to find three magical items; a sword, breastplate and a helmet. On their way they meet 'Beetle', a samurai who has had his memory taken and been turned into an anthropomorphic stag beetle; he joins them in their quest. As they travel on their quest they must face various threats, including his aunts, before Kubo must ultimately face his grandfather.As with other films from Studio Laika there is a darkness about this animation. The opening scene gives a hint of this as we see blood when Kubo's mother bashes her head; then there is the fact that Kubo's grandfather has taken one of his eyes and plans to take the other… with this and 'Coroline' Laika clearly have a thing about taking children's eyes! This doesn't mean it is a bad film, far from it, but it might not be suitable for younger children.I really enjoyed this film; the animation is fantastic and the story is a lot of fun. There are some nice little surprises along the way. The central characters are a lot of fun with Monkey and Beetle providing plenty of laughs as well as poignant moments… they certainly aren't just comedy sidekicks. There are lots of creative flourishes; I loved the way the origami animated Kubo's stories and later he used leaves in a similar way to make a boat. The voice cast, which includes plenty of familiar names does a fine job, playing the characters straight rather than getting too hammy. Overall I'd definitely recommend this; especially to anybody who enjoyed Laika's previous films.