Kubo and the Two Strings – LAIKA – Movie Reviews

Kubo is set in a fantasy/folk version of medieval Japan, where we find young Kubo spending his days using his elaborate magical origami constructions to spin beautiful stories of the heroism of his legendary father, the samurai Hanzo, to the people of his village, brought to life from the magic of his shamisen, a three-stringed Japanese lute. His evenings are spent with his melancholy mother hiding in seclusion in a cliff-side cave, who informs him of his own troubled youth after having to escape his murderous grandfather, The Moon King, who took his left eye and wants his other, with help from his supernatural minion daughters, Kubo's Noh-masked witchy aunts. Eventually, their past comes home to find them, causing Kubo to go on a harrowing but heroic adventure, along with his protectors, the motherly mentor, Monkey, and an insectoid amnesiac fighter named Beetle, to fulfill his quest of finding three samurai items imbued by magical properties -- an unbreakable sword, an impenetrable suit of armor, and an invulnerable helmet -- that belonged to his long-lost father.