"The quest begins" in Kubo and the Two Strings. This stop-motion action fantasy film produced and directed by Travis Knight, in his directorial debut, written by Marc Haimes and Chris Butler, and produced by Laika. In a small village in an ancient mythical Japan, Kubo and his magic shamisen unwittingly summon vengeful spirits who wish to harm him and his ailing mother. While on the run, he encounters magical creatures, and learns the truth of his earthly family's connection to the heaven and stars.
In December 2014, the project was announced as the directorial debut of Laika's CEO Travis Knight. Knight was pitched the story by production designer Shannon Tindle as a "stop-motion samurai epic". Although the studio had never ventured into the genre before, Knight was enthusiastic about the project; owing partly his affinity towards both the "epic fantasy" genre as well as Japanese culture in general. Knight also took inspiration from Akira Kurosawa and Hayao Miyazaki, and The Beatles. The art took inspiration from such Japanese mediums as ink wash painting and origami among others. A particular influence came from the ukiyo-e wood block style, with Laika intending to make the entire film "to look and feel as if it's a moving woodblock print". Assistance came from 3D printing firm Stratasys who allowed Laika to use their newest technologies in exchange for feedback on them. Kubo had over forty-eight million possible facial expressions and a total of twenty-three thousand, one hundred and eighty-seven prototype faces were created for him. The Skeleton monster the team created a giant sixteen-foot (4.9m), four hundred-pound (180 kg) puppet, which Laika claims is the record holder for largest stop-motion puppet. The idea to make such a massive puppet was born out of a fear that individual smaller parts (meant to represent the larger monster) would not work well on screen interacting with the other puppets. The resulting puppet was built in two parts which were then attached together by magnets. For movement Laika had to design a robot to easily manipulate it. The team at one point purchased an industrial robot off of eBay but found that it would not work with their setup. The boat sequence took nineteen months to shoot. The film was shot in the 2:35:1 aspect ratio, and consisted of at least one hundred and forty five, thousand photographs. At one hour and forty-one minutes long, this is the longest stop-motion film to date, beating out Laika's Coraline (2009).
The film features the voice talents of Charlize Theron, Art Parkinson, Ralph Fiennes, Rooney Mara, George Takei, and Matthew McConaughey. Thanks to the terrific performances by the cast, the puppetry is impressive and is a feast for the eyes-and the stop-motion is fluid.
Beautifully animated and solidly scripted, Kubo and the Two Strings will entertain children while providing surprisingly thoughtful fare for their parents. Few movies so taken with Japanese mythology have felt so immersive as this film, the latest handcrafted marvel from the stop-motion artists at Laika.
Beautifully animated and solidly scripted, Kubo and the Two Strings will entertain children while providing surprisingly thoughtful fare for their parents. Few movies so taken with Japanese mythology have felt so immersive as this film, the latest handcrafted marvel from the stop-motion artists at Laika.
Simon says Kubo and the Two Strings receives:
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