Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)

Kubo and the Two Strings is a 2016 American 3D stop-motion fantasy action-adventure film directed and co-produced by Travis Knight (in his directorial debut), and written by Marc Haimes and Chris Butler. It stars the voices of Charlize Theron, Art Parkinson, Ralph Fiennes, Rooney Mara, George Takei, and Matthew McConaughey. It is Laika's fourth feature film produced. The film revolves around Kubo, who wields a magical shamisen and whose left eye was stolen in infancy. Accompanied by an anthropomorphic snow monkey and beetle, he must subdue his mother's corrupted Sisters and his power-hungry grandfather Raiden (aka, the Moon King), who stole his left eye.

Kubo premiered at Melbourne International Film Festival and was released by Focus Features in the United States on August 19 to critical acclaim and has grossed $77 million worldwide against a budget of $60 million. The film won the BAFTA for Best Animated Film and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film and Best Visual Effects, becoming the second animated film ever to be nominated in the latter category following The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993).

Plot
In feudal Japan, young, 12-year-old eyepatched Kubo tends to his ill mother Sariatu in a mountain cave near a village. He earns their meager living by magically manipulating origami with music from his shamisen for the village folk and his mother, telling the tale of a samurai warrior named Hanzo, Kubo's missing father. Kubo is never able to finish his story as he doesn't know what happened to his father and his mother can't recall the end of the story due to her deteriorating mental state. Sariatu warns him not to stay out after dark as her Sisters (his aunts), Karasu and Washi, and his grandfather, the Moon King (who took his eye when he was a baby) will be able to find him and take his remaining eye.

One day, Kubo learns of the village's Bon festival allowing them to speak to deceased loved ones. Kubo attends but is angry that Hanzo does not appear from his lantern, and forgets to return home before sunset. Sariatu's Sisters quickly find him and attack, but Sariatu suddenly appears to protect Kubo. She uses her magic to send Kubo far away where they will never find him, telling him to find his father's armor. Kubo grabs a strand of Sariatu's hair before he is sent away.

Kubo wakes up in a distant land to find Monkey, his little wooden snow monkey charm, has come alive. Monkey tells him Sariatu is gone and the village destroyed, but they must find Hanzo's armor. With help of "Little Hanzo", an origami figure based on Kubo's father, they track down the armor. Along the way, they meet Beetle, an amnesiac samurai who was cursed to take the form of a stag beetle/human hybrid but believes himself to have been Hanzo's apprentice. Meanwhile, the Sisters track down Kubo's trail.

Kubo, Monkey, and Beetle reclaim the "Sword Unbreakable" from an underground cave "Hall of Bones" guarded by a giant skeleton. They cross the Long Lake in a leaf boat to locate the "Breastplate Impenetrable" deep underwater. Kubo and Beetle swim down to retrieve it and encounter a sea monster, the "Garden of Eyes" who can entrance its victims with its many eyes by showing secrets. Kubo is caught in the creature's sight, but while entranced, comes to realize that Monkey is the reincarnated spirit of his mother. Beetle rescues the unconscious Kubo and obtains the Breastplate, but returning to the boat, they find that Monkey has been badly wounded fighting and defeating Karasu. Their boat has been badly damaged in the battle but restored by Kubo and Monkey's own magic.

They go to shore to recover, where Monkey explains that she and her Sisters had been ordered by the Moon King to kill Hanzo, but she instead fell in love with him, and the Moon King branded her an enemy. That night, Kubo dreams of meeting Raiden, a blind elderly man, who points him towards the "Helmet Invulnerable" in Hanzo's abandoned fortress. They travel there the next day, but realize too late it is a trap set by the Moon King and Washi. Washi reveals that Beetle is Hanzo, who they had cursed for taking Sariatu away from them. She kills Beetle, and Monkey sacrifices herself, allowing Kubo the time he needs to use his shamisen to defeat Washi, breaking two of the three strings on it. Little Hanzo provides insight that the Helmet is actually the bell at the village, and Kubo breaks the last string to quickly travel there.

At the village, Kubo meets Raiden, who is revealed as the Moon King. He offers to take Kubo's other eye as to make him immortal, but Kubo refuses. Raiden transforms into a giant centipede-like creature, the Moon Beast, and pursues Kubo and the remaining villagers into its cemetery. Kubo removes Hanzo's armor that has proven ineffective, and instead restrings his shamisen using his mother's hair, his father's bowstring, and his own hair. With the instrument, he is able to summon the spirits of the villagers' loved ones, who show the Moon Beast that memories are the strongest magic of all and can never be destroyed. Kubo and the spirits' magic protects themselves and the villagers from the Moon Beast, eventually stripping him of his powers and leaving him a mortal human without any memories. Spurred on by Kubo's stories, the villagers take compassion and tell Raiden he was a man of many positive traits, accepting him into the village. Kubo finally is able to speak to his parents' ghosts during the subsequent Bon ceremony, as they watch the deceased villagers' lanterns transform into golden herons and they fly to the spirit world into the sky.

Voice Cast

 * Art Parkinson as Kubo, an eyepatch-wearing boy who is the son of Sariatu and Hanzo.
 * Charlize Theron as Money/Sariatu, Kubo's mother and one of the Moon King's daughters, reincarnated in a little Japanese snow monkey charm, known as Monkey, after she is killed by her Sisters.
 * Matthew McConaughey as Beetle/Hanzo, Kubo's father, who was transformed by the Sisters into a stag beetle/human hybrid with no recollection of his true identity, believing himself to be Hanzo's apprentice.
 * Ralph Fiennes as Raiden the Moon King, Kubo's evil grandfather, and the Sisters and Sariatu's father.
 * Rooney Mara as Karasu and Washi the Sisters, two twin sisters who are Kubo's evil aunts, Sariatu's younger sisters, and the Moon King's twin daughters.
 * George Takei as Hosato, a villager who teaches his daughter their Japanese culture and traditions.
 * Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Hashi, a villager and Kubo's biggest fan.
 * Brenda Vaccaro as Kameyo, a villager and an elderly but young-hearted widow who is a grandmother-figure to Kubo.
 * Meyrick Murphy as Mari
 * Minae Noji as Minae
 * Alpha Takahashi as Aiko
 * Laura Miro as Miho
 * Ken Takemoto as Ken