Kubo and the Two Strings [Blu-ray]

A new stop motion movie from Laika Studios. Who also brought us 'Coraline.' 'Paranorman.' And 'The Boxtrolls.'This is a wholly original story, with an oriental setting.The main character is Kubo. A boy who starts the film washed up on a shore with his mother. They come to live on the edge of a village. Where he grows up entertaining the locals with his storytelling, music, and amazing origami skills.But his mother can only tell him so much about his past. And he would love to know who his father was.When the village is attacked, it's the start of a remarkable journey that will change his life forever...The stop motion in here is simply stunningly well done, and gorgeous to look at. It even manages scenes set at water that look convincing. The score is also superb, fitting the setting of the tale perfectly.It's a film of sections. The opening has a lot to set up and is a bit of a slow burner. But once the action gets going it's initially unclear as to certain things that are going on. But then Kubo is on a quest with two special beings, Monkey [Charlize Theron] and Beetle [Matthew Mcconaughey]. The three form an excellent grouping giving some very funny bickering and character moments. Matthew Mcconaughey in particular is superb at playing his character for intended laughs.The final quarter of the film does change direction slightly to go a little darker, but it does deliver memorable action and good answers. And has a brilliant emotional depth to it. Leading to an ending you won't forget in a hurry.Through the narrative Kubo has an excellent character journey, and you can really feel for him and relate to him all the way. Its a great journey to take. The film might be a bit dark at points for some of the very young, hence the PG certificate. But ultimately it's a charming fable and a great watch and well worth five stars.The disc has the following language and subtitle options:Languages: English, Arabic, Hindi, Icelandic.Subtitles: English, Arabic, Hindi, Icelandic.It also has English audio description.The disc begins with some trailers and ads, that can be skipped via the next button on the dvd remote.It contains the usual flyer with code to use to download a copy of the film to a digital device.Extras:Kubo's Journey. A making of documentary, which is split into six parts. Which can be watched individually or all in a row. If doing the latter it runs for twenty seven minutes in total. This is a good and in depth look at the production and an excellent watch.There's also Corner of the Earth, a three minute look at some of the settings in the film. Which is a bit too short to have much impact.

Back in 2015, Mark Kermode, one of Britain's top film critics, asked an interesting question to fans of cinema - Are we in a new golden age of animation cinema? Besides Disney and even DreamWorks, there have been other studios (not just in the US, but all over the world) that have been producing some truly great animated films. And even if they don't match the box-office grosses of those produced by Disney and DreamWorks, they certainly make up for in quality of the material.Last year was no exception. Disney delivered a double-whammy with ZOOTROPOLIS and MOANA, while a new anime movie, not produced by Studio Ghibli (who are currently in hiatus), has taken Japan by storm, YOUR NAME. Another animated film that came out in 2016 was KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS, the fourth feature from the stop-motion animators of Laika, who came into the spotlight with their excellent adaptation of Neil Gaiman's CORALINE (2009).KUBO follows the story of the titular character, a young boy who's eye went missing as a baby. When the evil Sisters appear and wreck havoc on the village where he lives nearby, Kubo must flee and embark on a journey to find the missing armour that his mysterious father once wore if he is to defeat the sinister Moon King, Raiden. But he is not alone - accompanying Kubo are Monkey (Imperator Furiosa herself, Charlize Theron) and Beetle (Matthew McConaughey, who has truly had a career comeback over the past five years).What I really like about KUBO is that it doesn't follow the same trends that some animated films are doing to death - no dated pop-culture references, no romantic subplots, no Oscar-bait songs and no obvious comedy sidekicks (there is some humour, but it's handle rather well). It's also a strong example of you don't have to do just CG animation in order to make a great animated film. The Skeleton Demon is the largest stop-motion puppet to be built (sixteen feet tall!), while the boat sequence took 19 months to shoot. But all the effort was worth it, because the animators cared about the story and the characters.It's a shame that KUBO only did marginal business at the box-office ($70 million worldwide to it's $60 million budget). It should have been one of the highest-grossing animated films of the year alongside ZOOTROPOLIS, MOANA and YOUR NAME. But with it gaining several awards and a possible nomination for Best Animated Feature Film at this year's Oscars, maybe more people will become aware of this wonderful and beautiful gem.If the legendary Ray Harryhausen was still alive and he decided to do a Japanese-themed animated film, then I'm pretty sure KUBO would be that type of film. It deserves to be regarded as one of the highlights in this new golden age of animation cinema.Reviewer: Ben David W

Wow....in a word.If you've seen the movie and enjoyed it as I have with my family, then you're probably wondering if it is worth upgrading to the 4k UHD.I would say 100% yes.The blu ray was impressive but the picture quality here just blows it out of the water. Contrast, resolution, colour....all are way more of a leap than I was expecting and side by side it's really appreciable. PQ is in the top 5 of the 100+ discs I own and the Atmos track is equally impressive with good use of overheads and ambient sound, not to mention the beautiful score.Worth importing for sure though I would keep the existing blu ray if you have it as the included blu ray is region A locked.

This made a nice change from the usual family oriented animated films. Even though, on the whole, it's quite light-hearted, there is also a depth to the tale that's often missing from the likes of Disney or Dreamworks. If you're a fan of animated films, particularly Japanese themed (it's not anime style), then I would recommend this film.

La película llegó a tiempo y en buen estado. Estudios Laika es un gran referente en el stop motion, en esta película nominada al Oscar se ve su gran talento, una historia grandiosa con unos efectos especiales que ayudan a convertirla en un pelicula que debió de ganar el Oscar. Viene con doblaje en español y subtitulos en español.

Una de las mejores películas del estudio de animación Laika, el exterior, un steelbook precioso en su diseño, el interior, una joya de la animación que todo el mundo debería de ver.El remasterizado a 4K Dolby Vision es sublime, colores sobrios y definición superlativa, lo malo es que esta remasterización es exclusiva de Shout! Factory, por lo que es exclusiva del mercado americano, es decir que no lleva castellano, viene una pista en español, pero es, evidentemente latino, yo las películas las veo en su inmensa mayoría en en V.O. por lo que en lo personal no me afecta, aunque he de decir que, el doblaje latino, es excelente, y además es 5.1, por lo que es muy disfrutable.En definitiva, nos encontramos antes un UHD de una enorme calidad en todos sus apartados, y cuya única pega, es que no viene doblada al castellano, si no os importa en demasía este aspecto, es una compra muy recomendable, hay que tener en cuenta que una versión UHD con castellano ni existe, ni se la espera.

Amazing 3d movie, my family watched once and will watch again.

Little Kubo sets out to solve the mystery of his samurai father. A magical adventure with stunning visuals make this wonderful film a pleasure to watch.

J'ai toujours adoré l'animation image par image. Laika m'avait parfois un peu déçu par des mises en scène trop appuyées (boxtroll dernièrement, est vraiment lourd dans ses messages). Ici, on approche la perfection :Animation d'un fluidité incroyable (on se demande souvent si ce n'est pas animé par ordinateur). La finesse des expressions atteint un nouveau sommetHistoire originale, moins morbide que d'habitude, et mise en scène homogène, tonique, et sans gros sabots. Il y a même de quoi réfléchir sérieusement pour les adultes !Bien sûr, c'est du laika <= attention, les méchantes feront peur aux plus petits.Je crois que ce Blu-ray va passer un grand nombre de fois sur la télévision .... (bien sûr, la qualité d'image est au rendez-vous).