Kubo and the Two Strings

[projekktor id=’25094′]

Kubo and the Two Strings is a stop-motion animation from Laika Studios, directed by Travis Knight. The film features the voices of Charlize Theron, Art Parkinson, Ralph Fiennes, Rooney Mara, George Takei, and Matthew McConaughey.

On the craggy shores of a fantastical ancient Japan, a boy named Kubo lives on a high cliff above the sea. This relatively quiet existence is shattered when Kubo accidentally summons a spirit from his past which storms down from the heavens to enforce an age-old vendetta. Now on the run, Kubo joins forces with the fierce, no-nonsense Monkey (Academy Award winner Charlize Theron) and the quixotic insect samurai Beetle (Academy Award winner Matthew McConaughey), and sets out on a thrilling quest to solve the mystery of his fallen father, the greatest samurai warrior the world has ever known.

“LAIKA had yet to tackle a big fantasy,” Knight explains. “Probably for good reason. It’s really hard. Most stop- motion films look like they’re shot on a table top, because they are. But an heroic fantasy demands scope and scale. To make a small-scale movie shot on a gussied-up slab of wood in a warehouse look and feel like a large-scale epic lensed on an endless majestic vista is a nigh impossible task. It’s ridiculous. Nobody would do that. Which is exactly why I was excited to do it.”

Kubo and the Two Strings is rated PG.