View Poll Results: KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS

Voters
23. You may not vote on this poll
  • Yay

    21 91.30%
  • Nay

    2 8.70%
Results 1 to 19 of 19

Thread: Kubo and the Two Strings (Travis Knight)

  1. #1
    In the belly of a whale Henry Gale's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Posts
    4,703

    Kubo and the Two Strings (Travis Knight)

    Last 11 things I really enjoyed:

    Speed Racer (Wachowski/Wachowski, 2008)
    Safe (Haynes, 1995)
    South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (Parker, 1999)
    Beastie Boys Story (Jonze, 2020)
    Bad Trip (Sakurai, 2020)
    What's Up Doc? (Bogdanovich, 1972)
    Diva (Beineix, 1981)
    Delicatessen (Caro/Jeunet, 1991)
    The Hunger (Scott, 1983)
    Pineapple Express (Green, 2008)
    Chungking Express (Wong, 1994)

  2. #2
    In the belly of a whale Henry Gale's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Posts
    4,703
    Just stunningly good. If it wasn't a screening filled with so many kids I would've probably let out an audible "Holy shit.." to my friends when it was over.

    It's just absolutely, transcendentally beautifully told for pretty much every second of it, perfectly funny when it needs to be, and best/socially-worst of all, also gave me the great, rare "struggling to remain silent but struggling to breathe", almost dry-heaving-from-my-eyes-level of tears towards the end.

    Got an early morning to head out on a trip so don't have time to say too much more now, but just hope you all see it and that you enjoy it very much this weekend.
    Last edited by Henry Gale; 03-20-2017 at 04:11 AM.
    Last 11 things I really enjoyed:

    Speed Racer (Wachowski/Wachowski, 2008)
    Safe (Haynes, 1995)
    South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (Parker, 1999)
    Beastie Boys Story (Jonze, 2020)
    Bad Trip (Sakurai, 2020)
    What's Up Doc? (Bogdanovich, 1972)
    Diva (Beineix, 1981)
    Delicatessen (Caro/Jeunet, 1991)
    The Hunger (Scott, 1983)
    Pineapple Express (Green, 2008)
    Chungking Express (Wong, 1994)

  3. #3
    collecting tapes Skitch's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Neo-Ohio
    Posts
    16,583
    Sooooo exactly what the trailer looked like. Preorder blind buy bluray for me.

  4. #4
    White Tiger Field Stay Puft's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Posts
    3,711
    Astonishing animation, obviously, but found the narrative a little unsatisfying. Predictable story beats remove a bit of the punch and while I like the third act on paper, I found the hurried execution zapped some of the emotional strength. It needed more room to breathe.

    Also, for a movie about family, it really does one half of that family a total disservice.

    Might still be the best pure spectacle film of the summer regardless. It's endlessly entertaining, and I'm considering seeing it again in theatres (something I rarely, if ever, do) just to soak in more of that insanely rich and detailed animation. That's worth the price of admission alone.
    Giving up in 2020. Who cares.

    maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore (Sky Hopinka) ***½
    Without Remorse (Stefano Sollima) *½
    The Marksman (Robert Lorenz) **
    Beckett (Ferdinando Cito Filomarino) *½
    Night Hunter (David Raymond) *

  5. #5
    Kung Fu Hippie Watashi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Big Apple, 3 AM
    Posts
    11,346
    Beautiful stuff from Laika like always, but i have to side with Pufty on the narrative shortcomings. There's just a bit too much cutesy humor between Monkey and Beetle to fill in some empty space in the middle. Mcconaughey is miscast here. The spectacle is unmatched and I dig that Laika made a meta film about stop-motion and storytelling. I think ParaNorman is still tops, but they haven't misfired yet.
    Sure why not?

    STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI (Rian Johnson) - 9
    STRONGER (David Gordon Green) - 6
    THE DISASTER ARTIST (James Franco) - 7
    THE FLORIDA PROJECT (Sean Baker) - 9
    LADY BIRD (Greta Gerwig) - 8


    "Hitchcock is really bad at suspense."
    - Stay Puft

  6. #6
    The Pan Spinal's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Portland
    Posts
    19,723
    This was really disappointing. Great visuals, but the story was messy, bordering on incoherent, and McConaughey was super distracting. Sad to say, it's my least favorite Laika thus far and a letdown after the excellence of The Boxtrolls. Charlize Theron is good though.
    Coming to America (Landis, 1988) **
    The Beach Bum (Korine, 2019) *1/2
    Us (Peele, 2019) ***1/2
    Fugue (Smoczynska, 2018) ***1/2
    Prisoners (Villeneuve, 2013) ***1/2
    Shadow (Zhang, 2018) ***
    Oslo, August 31st (J. Trier, 2011) ****
    Climax (Noé, 2018) **1/2
    Fighting With My Family (Merchant, 2019) **
    Upstream Color (Carruth, 2013) ***

  7. #7
    For the whole movie, I was convinced that Beetle was voiced by George Clooney.

  8. #8
    The Pan Spinal's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Portland
    Posts
    19,723
    Quote Quoting Isaac (view post)
    For the whole movie, I was convinced that Beetle was voiced by George Clooney.
    Funny. My son said the same thing.
    Coming to America (Landis, 1988) **
    The Beach Bum (Korine, 2019) *1/2
    Us (Peele, 2019) ***1/2
    Fugue (Smoczynska, 2018) ***1/2
    Prisoners (Villeneuve, 2013) ***1/2
    Shadow (Zhang, 2018) ***
    Oslo, August 31st (J. Trier, 2011) ****
    Climax (Noé, 2018) **1/2
    Fighting With My Family (Merchant, 2019) **
    Upstream Color (Carruth, 2013) ***

  9. #9
    In the belly of a whale Henry Gale's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Posts
    4,703
    It's weird because I pretty much agree and occasionally felt similar with all the issues you three had with it, but from its opening I was just so with it all the way, and then those final 15-20 minutes just emotionally eviscerated me so entirely that those not-as-great aspects of it never did much to weigh the whole thing down for me.

    Also nice to see its relatively small box office drop-off this past weekend, meaning it had solid word-of-mouth and could have nice enough legs as a result. I just wish its opening weekend was more significant as a starting point.
    Last 11 things I really enjoyed:

    Speed Racer (Wachowski/Wachowski, 2008)
    Safe (Haynes, 1995)
    South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (Parker, 1999)
    Beastie Boys Story (Jonze, 2020)
    Bad Trip (Sakurai, 2020)
    What's Up Doc? (Bogdanovich, 1972)
    Diva (Beineix, 1981)
    Delicatessen (Caro/Jeunet, 1991)
    The Hunger (Scott, 1983)
    Pineapple Express (Green, 2008)
    Chungking Express (Wong, 1994)

  10. #10
    The Pan Spinal's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Portland
    Posts
    19,723
    I was totally with this movie in the beginning. That first scene with Monkey is so good and I was excited to see where it would go. Then McConaughey's character shows up and it just lost me.
    Coming to America (Landis, 1988) **
    The Beach Bum (Korine, 2019) *1/2
    Us (Peele, 2019) ***1/2
    Fugue (Smoczynska, 2018) ***1/2
    Prisoners (Villeneuve, 2013) ***1/2
    Shadow (Zhang, 2018) ***
    Oslo, August 31st (J. Trier, 2011) ****
    Climax (Noé, 2018) **1/2
    Fighting With My Family (Merchant, 2019) **
    Upstream Color (Carruth, 2013) ***

  11. #11
    Piss off, ghost! number8's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Brooklyn
    Posts
    30,529
    It suffers from being too much of a traditional quest movie. It's Laika's first straightforward adventure yarn, and I don't think they put much spin to it. The plot feels very much like a traditional Japanese fairy tale on a macro level, which I don't think can sustain 90 minutes if you just play it straight. Still, though, aside from the obviously top notch animation, I love two things about it:

    1. "If you must blink, do it now" over a black screen is just the coolest, most auteurist flourish to open an animated movie. I love that confidence. The whole pre-title sequence is just a great, great cold open.

    2. Laika movies always has great subtext if you read enough into it. I don't think this one's as present as the previous three (especially ParaNorman), but I think it's got a nice humanism streak to its attitude about death. The whole climax with the Moon King is essentially a rejection of the idea of spiritual immortality in favor of living life as we have it and leaving behind a "story" for your family and friends. This is... exactly how I view my own mortality, and it was rather astonishing and powerful for me to see it stated so bluntly in a kid's movie.
    Quote Quoting Donald Glover
    I was actually just reading about Matt Damon and he’s like, ‘There’s a culture of outrage.’ I’m like, ‘Well, they have a reason to be outraged.’ I think it’s a lot of dudes just being scared. They’re like, ‘What if I did something and I didn’t realize it?’ I’m like, ‘Deal with it.’
    Movie Theater Diary

  12. #12
    At the risk of sounding like an old man, I think there was too much CGI in this. I don't really know how it was made, but during the opening scene, for example, when the mom is on the ocean, it's hard to believe the water was accomplished with stop-motion animation. Compared to The Nightmare Before Christmas, in which you can often see where the set ends, the landscapes in Kubo seem to go on forever. I know this is a weird complaint, but to me it takes away a lot of the charm of doing a movie with stop-motion animation.

  13. #13
    Moderator Dead & Messed Up's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    New Canaan, where to the shepherd come the sheep.
    Posts
    10,620
    Loved it; at times the whole THIS IS A STORY threatened to overwhelm the narrative, and there were a few times I wish they allowed more space for emotions (specifically after the separation at the end of the first act), but I'm totally down for such a schematic hero's quest so long as it's told with this much sincerity and love.

  14. #14
    Producer
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Posts
    2,936
    After the disappointment of Fantastic Beasts, this feels all the more better in being a supremely satisfying fantasy adventure. It doesn't blur the line between horror/disgust and classic children tales quite as deliciously as past Laika, but whereas I find their previous three films' charm a little too rugged in some parts, this benefits from every element being more precise and focused. In place of delightful detours and tangents, it has a deeply mature and almost unbearably melancholic streak, about how we remember loss and loved ones, running throughout the whole adventure, to some devastating effects. Easily my favorite Laika films.
    Midnight Run (1988) - 9
    The Smiling Lieutenant (1931) - 8.5
    The Adventures of Robinhood (1938) - 8
    Sisters (1973) - 6.5
    Shin Godzilla (2016) - 7.5

  15. #15
    Moderator Dead & Messed Up's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    New Canaan, where to the shepherd come the sheep.
    Posts
    10,620
    On rewatch, Kubo as a character feels a little less defined, and Paper Samurai Boy plays like Dean Koontz's contrived "psychic magnetism" from the Odd Thomas movies, where characters basically move in a straight line from plot point to plot point thanks to a supernal agency.

    However, the film's just as beautiful, and the interaction and development of the family unit plays a lot more clearly, especially how the arguments between Monkey and Beetle feel immediately lived-in and parental. And the flick is thematically coherent, with Kubo abandoning the weapon boons for his real talent with the shamisen (and the three weapon boons replaced with the three strings of his family - excuse me, I have something in my eye).

  16. #16
    Replacing Luck Since 1984 Dukefrukem's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Posts
    37,786
    Whoa. This was awesome. Technically the animation looks wonderful but it's fun as hell. And of course, I loved the journey aspect and horror elements.
    Twitch / Youtube / Film Diary

    Quote Quoting D_Davis (view post)
    Uwe Boll movies > all Marvel U movies
    Quote Quoting TGM (view post)
    I work in grocery. I have not gotten sick. My fellow employees have not gotten sick. If the virus were even remotely as contagious as its being presented as, why haven’t entire store staffs who come into contact with hundreds of people per day, thousands per week, all falling ill in mass nationwide?

  17. #17
    A Platypus Grouchy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Posts
    9,853
    Loved this, way more than Boxtrolls.

  18. #18
    collecting tapes Skitch's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Neo-Ohio
    Posts
    16,583
    I wrote a review. I don't think I really said anything that hasn't already been said after reading this thread, so spoilered for length and repeating.

    [
    ]

    Grade: A

  19. #19
    Last Seen:
    Pantheon, S2 (C. Silverstein, 2023) ☆
    Pantheon, S1 (C. Silverstein, 2022)
    Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garc?a (S. Peckinpah, 1974)
    Crouching Tiger, Hidden, Dragon (A. Lee, 2000)
    Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (J. McNaughton, 1986) ☆
    Blowup (M. Antonioni, 1966) ☆
    Io capitano (M. Garrone, 2023) ☆
    Raging Bull (M. Scorsese, 1980)
    Network (S. Lumet, 1976) ☆
    Sideways (A. Payne, 2004) ☆

    First time ☆

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
An forum