...that's what you do right? You do a little dance to people singing a glorified hymn to get spirits to go back to their spirity realm right? Only works for pyreflies? Dang it...

Today is the release of the latest stop-motion animation film, Kubo and the Two Strings. While looking at a batch of movie trailers way back, I came upon Kubo and with natural liking of animation work, took a gander. And it looked pretty good.
Honestly, I haven't seen the film yet, but from the trailers and teases, I see that the film's already got heart to it. It stars the titular boy Kubo, who lives with his seemingly-sickly mother in this village. Somehow, Kubo unleashes these spirits (not sure if it's just the Sisters), that want to get him. I guess it's because of his inherited magic power or something. Anyway, mum makes a self-sacrifice...I dunno if it's against the Sisters only or if she wins or it's draw...but in the end, Kubo is on his own....well not entirely. Apparently his mother managed to get a monkey with speech and intelligence to watch over him. Thus begins the journey to obtain something that will protect Kubo from these spirits, apparently armor (and sword apparently) that's kept by his father. I'm not 100% sure, but I heard it was said by a review that dead daddy is the reason Kubo wears and eye patch. *beat* Oh yeah, sure that's going to be a good reunion. Anyway, on their journey, they meet up with this...beetle samurai or something I guess...and Kubo develops his power through his musical instrument and origami figurines.
The journey seems simple enough. Bad things happen, you go on a journey to find safety, meeting plucky characters along the way. But as said, from even the trailers, there's heart to stories like these.

I've always had a liking to animated works, and Stop Motion types go into that as well. Far back, humans had this type of animation as a way to convey non-human entities, like those in Jason and the Argonauts or The Golden Voyage of Sinbad. Those of the Christmas variety would remember the various Rudolph films, and those of oldie kings remember the 1933 King Kong.
As time went on and animation improved, Stop Motion hung in there and we were later brought Tim Burton's "Nightmare Before Christmas", perhaps one of the (or THE) most recognized film in the animation genre. Some television series and shorts even managed to come from and painstaking art of Stop Motion, such as The PJs and Wallace and Gromit.

But lets get back to Kubo and it's makers. Laika Entertainment is a specialized studio who's featured films are, for the moment, purely Stop-Motion. Their list includes Coraline, ParaNorman, and The Boxtrolls. Luckily I've managed to see them all at some point, and from the get go, I remember Coraline well. It was a great film with good animation, creepy settings, and tense situations. ParaNorman I haven't seen in a long while, but I remember it's ending well enough that it really surprised me. The Boxtrolls was decent, though it's antagonist was a bit too obsessed with a rather...unusual goal, but the heart of the matter is acceptance. That's what Laika and it's films seem to do. They have heart to them, imbued in the very figures they manipulate to create a film.

That's why I think Kubo will be a success. Reviews are already high up there initially, and I hope to see the film someday. I'm also looking forward to what Laika will bring next. Apparently something called Wildwood and possibly Goblins.
I'm also wondering why it's called Kubo and the TWO Strings too. His instrument clearly has three, so it's naturally got to have some meaning. Maybe the Monkey and the Beetle? Or maybe the whole story is one of...well...the stories he told with his origami figures and it's a twist. But oh well, I'll see someday and will look forward to it.