By Emilio Frenk
Director: Travis Knight
Cast (Voice): Charlize Theron, Art Parkinson, George Takei, Ralph Fiennes, Brenda Vaccaro, Rooney Mara and Matthew McConaughey.
Rating: Excellent.
Animator Travis Knight makes his directorial debut with “Kubo and The Two Strings” and is one of the greatest stop motion animated films I have seen.
The movie tells the story of Kubo (Art Parkinson) a friendly one-eyed boy whotells stories about warriors in the streets of Japan. Eventually Kubo will find out that the stories are true and come to life when two witch sisters (Rooney Mara) scare Kubo and threaten him to take his other eye.
This will lead him to a quest were he will be joined by Monkey (Charlize Theron) and Beetle (Matthew McConaughey) to find a magic armour and put an end to the witches and the spirits that hunt him.
Besides the Screenplay of“Kubo and The Two Strings” written Marc Haimes and Chris Butler which is written in such a fun, smart and engaging way from the beginning was the direction from Travis Knight, who´s work as an animator in movies like “Coraline” and “The Boxtrolls” was very precise and uses the main elements for an animated movie that are engaging and fun.
The voice overs from Theron, McConaughey, Parkinson and the rest of the cast are really good and the concept is very interesting from the minute it starts until the end.
I have to mention that the movie starts a little slow paced but eventually it builds up and becomes very interesting.
The chemistry between the monkey and the beetle characters is really fun and McConaughey´s interpretation is really funny and sweet at all levels.
This movie I can be sure that it will be competing for the Best Animated Feature Category in next year´s awards and it could be one of the surprises in the category.
“Kubo and the Two Strings” is one of the mostengaging and great animated films of this year and I have to say that this one with “Zootopia”, “Finding Dory” and “The Secret Life of the Pets” are the best animated features films in this year and I give a huge recommendation to this film.