What I liked: This movie was beautiful. Not in a planet earth or march of the penguins kind of way but in the mastery of modeling and color kind of way. It was a pleasure to watch and to think about the care and effort that went into creating each shot. I don’t see much stop motion and it was fun to see something that wasn’t CG. There were a number of images that I really liked like the magically folding origami and the leaf boat. The story was also refreshingly different. Not that it didn’t follow standard story telling techniques or predictable dialogue. It was essentially a new fairy tale and I had all the childlike pleasure and excitement of hearing a fairy tale for the first time. There was all the absurdity of fairy tales, “why is there a wicked witch?” “since when can a dead princess be revived with a kiss?” “why would you even make a glass coffin?”, but since it was a fairy tale there was just the acceptance that that is how it is in this magical land. The villains were delightfully creepy. I liked the resolution and the overall emphasis on the power of stories. I also thought the use of the credits song was perfect.
What I didn’t: The monkey beetle dynamic worked for me in the beginning but got progressively annoying and odd. Monkey’s interactions with Kubo also seemed uncharacteristic by the end of the film. I’m still making up my mind about the very end, I think that it would have been stronger ending it a little earlier. I know I said just accept things because it is a fairy tale but what was with the giant eyeballs? Also what happened to the evil sisters, are they gone? Also camping in a dead whale is never a good plan, even in a fairy tale.
Who should watch this? Older kids and people who like imaginative stories with artistic presentation. It probably is too scary for little kids.
Would I watch it again? Yes.
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