Even in a strong year for animation, this latest stop-motion picture from Laika (The Boxtrolls, Coraline) stands out for its complexity, seductively dark themes and the extraordinary beauty of its animation. This, the feature debut of Laika CEO Travis Knight, a seasoned animator and producer, succeeds on every level.
The story of Kubo (Art Parkinson), a boy with supernatural gifts who inadvertently summons vengeful spirits from his past, is set in a feudal Japan infused with enchantment. Kubo supports his ailing mother as a storyteller, his tales illustrated with bewitched origami figures that dance and act out the narratives he accompanies on a three-stringed lute. There is a lyrical quality to the writing, which is a refreshing alternative to the slapdash slang assault of many family films. One day Kubo ignores his mother’s warning and stays out at night, allowing his malevolent aunts to find him. Kabuki-masked, with long, witchy hair and voices loaded with snickering ill will, they look like escapees from any number of J-horror movies. They are just one of the genuinely creepy elements that may prove challenging for younger children. Kubo’s sorceress mother sacrifices herself to save him, sending him on a journey accompanied by a permanently exasperated monkey (voiced to laconic perfection by Charlize Theron) and an amnesiac samurai turned stag beetle (Matthew McConaughey).
Kubo’s quest, swept along by Dario Marianelli’s gorgeous, surging score, takes him through lands as exquisitely realised as anything in Zhang Yimou’s sumptuous martial arts fantasy Hero. It sees him do battle with a skeleton monster that is a direct descendant of Ray Harryhausen’s bony warriors from Jason and the Argonauts. And it explores unexpectedly profound ideas of rebirth and destiny rewritten, like origami paper sheets refolded into another form.
