Sunday, September 4, 2016

Kubo and the Two Strings

“If you need to blink, do it now. But if you forget anything that I tell you, then our hero will perish.”


I will give “Kubo” some credit. It was rather hard to blink; it was unlike any animated film I have ever seen. The dancing origami was entertaining. But overall, the film had some serious drawbacks.


First off, there was WAY too much violence for a children’s movie. In the opening sequence, when the mother cracks her head on the bedrock, not only was it loud, but I actually felt the crack. The sound rippled through the theater, and it’s a big room too. She should have been DEAD! How she isn’t is a miracle.


It was really obvious that the monkey was Kubo’s mother; I figured it out when I recognized Charlize Theron in the mother’s voice. Plus the monkey has the same scar on her face as the mother does.


When the beetle (voiced by Matthew McConaughey) flirted with the monkey, it started to get suspicious that he is Kubo’s thought-dead father, Hanzo.


As the monkey/mother told her tale about how she betrayed her family and marrying Hanzo, I thought, “Of course. She was good and Hanzo thought ‘Hubba hubba’.”


It became somewhat of a bummer film when the filmmakers decide to kill both Kubo’s parents. The grandfather was really boring during his attempt to persuade Kubo to join him at the moon. It was “Star Wars” all over again, except Kubo doesn’t kill his grandfather, as he intended, but wiped his memory with his magic shamisen.


And my autistic senses were on fire for this one: the shamisen has THREE strings. My sisters explained that the “two strings” represent his parents especially after they die. But it still bugs me, no pun intended.


The good portions was it had an all-star cast, great storytelling, and compelling music. The cast includes Theron and McConaughey, Ralph Fiennes as the Grandfather, George Takei as a villager who teaches his daughter the Japanese traditions, and Art Parkinson as Kubo himself. I would give a 7 out of 10 for this film.



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