By Travis Johnson
The new 3D stop-motion animated feature from Focus Features and Laika looks the business! Set in ancient Japan (or a colourful facsimile thereof) it follows the exploits of Kubo (Art Parkinson of Game of Thrones) who is forced into a titanic magical struggle when a spirit from the past threatens everything he holds dear. Teaming up with a talking monkey (Charlize Theron) and a warrior beetle (Matthew McConnaughey), Kubo must learn to use his magical shamisen (the two stringed instrument of the title) to save the day.
Says director, Travis Knight, “On a simple, mechanical level I wanted us to tell that kind of story. Like a big Star Wars-ian epic fantasy. Something that had sweep and scale. But at the same time as we started to develop the idea of Kubo– With everything we do there is always a critical element of something that is personal underneath, a deep strong beating heart that animates everything and with this story we have that in spades. It really is a very intimate story about human connection and relationships set in this big epic scale.”
Also starring Rooney Mara, Ralph Fiennes, George Takei, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa and Brenda Vaccaro, Kubo and the Two Strings hits Australian cinemas on August 18, 2016.
