Kubo and the Two Strings – Budget of $60 millions – 1 hour and 42 minutes

Note: This review will only talk about the movie. It will not discuss the casting controversy.
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Kubo and his mother, Sariatu, wash on shore after his grandfather, Raiden the Moon King, stole his eye. Yes … you read that right … Raiden stole his eye. Sariatu decided to keep Kubo safe and hide him from Raiden and her sisters. Years later, Kubo is taking care of his mother and making money by telling compelling stories about his father, Hanzo, and the battle against Raiden. In her good moments, Sariatu reminds Kubo to always keep his monkey charm, wear Hanzo’s robe, and come home before dark. One day he learns the tradition of talking to your ancestors from Kameyo. Kubo decided to talk to Hanzo, but when his father doesn’t respond, he destroyed that lantern instead of sending it down the river. Kubo realizes it’s dark and tries to get home, but his aunts answer his call he made to Hanzo and try to get his other eye. His mother quickly saves him and sends Kubo into a blizzard. Kubo is woken by a talking monkey that was once his charm. The monkey tells him all the stories are real. And in order to defeat his aunts, he must find 3 pieces of armor. This must be done before his grandfather comes back to complete his dark mission

Whew…If you must blink, do it now. Because missing one second of this complex story will have you as lost as Kubo. It’s hard to believe this is stop-motion and not fully generated computer animation. Kubo and the Two strings is done with such masterful skill and attention to detail that you, the parent, will be in awe. And pay attention to even the smallest detail, it WILL come up later. And you better believe that you don’t know how this movie will end, what the two strings are, and who is really telling the story. This movie may be too much for really young children with talks of death, mutilation, and very realistic monsters. Only children 6 and up should see this movie. But they will learn that memories are true legends. And stay during the end crawl to get a small peak of behind the scenes action.

I give it 4 out of 5 stars

If you must blink, do it now – Kubo

Once inside, you will be tempted to complain about the smell – Monkey

I am a samurai or a really bad hoarder – Beetle

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