KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS... and a story worth to tell

Animation has become one of the most popular genres in cinematography. Even it's origins come from early last century it's now that has expanded into a tool to tell stories that otherwise couldn't be hard to tell. And the more technical advance it gets, the darker and diverse it becomes. So as now, there are distributors that dominate the market with must see proposals as Pixar from Disney, with family oriented tales and all heartbreaking and shiny, colorful stories and characters that are now part of the new pop culture. Following them are others like Dreamworks and Illumination, that are fighting for their own spot in digital animation, but there's a new interesting new one in the house, following a more traditional technique, stop motion, using poppets plus the new technology to bring darker interesting ideas that are slowly trying to find their spot in the audience hearts, his name to follow, Laika studios, with only three films are now well know for their different work and stories, so this summer they are ready to bring their fourth child to the screens and prove finally a different face of talent in a time where seems anyone can make animation and sometimes is more about the details than the story, getting closer to a cartoon than a motion picture but others, maybe a few ones, their stories can become as powerful as any drama, comedy or action picture, and sometimes, all the above.

If so, will definitely be a must see event, like "Kubo and the two strings" (2016), a story that follows a boy's journey to find the truth behind his family in order to figure out who he really is and why all this is happening to him. With total influence from Japanese culture and folklore, this film is full of symbolism and metaphors that serve a story that sometimes feels like an anime cartoon, full of adventures and exciting fight scenes and other like a drama from other talented and deeper directors that emulate cinematography language with images and long shots and double meanings immerse into a human story full of emotions and feelings. So is the case of our little hero Kubo, that since newly born, was attached by his grandfathers and aunts, all of them witches and sorceress that in revenge to his mom for choosing a man, a warrior one, over her family, deserve to be dead, so one eye is taken from him before they could escape, so now a witch hunting is about to start and he and his mom need to find a place to hide. Fortunately they do, in a small island, but not before a storm hits them, throwing them to the the ocean ad hurting his mom in the head, turning her into a kind of mental illness, forcing Kubo to take care of her.

And so he does. Learning to be a story teller, basing the facts in all the stories his mom tells him in her lucid moments, and using his own little powers playing the guitar and using origami as pieces and characters from the stories, had earned the heart and sympathy from everybody in town as he has become part of this small society, trying to fit even he has no clue how to be part of something when he doesn't even know where he is coming from, specially when missing his father, as a present figure and only having a mental concept of him through the eyes of his mom. But this is a story about family, and a journey of growing up, when you accept your destiny and are able to fight your own demons, specially those ones that came as part of a package brought by heritage or as a gift or course from wherever you are from. So once the witches realize the location of their nephew and her sister they go after them only making mom to use all her last power to save him again leaving him in hands of a sort of nanny that will guide him, protect him and mostly, advice him so he won't get lost in transition, all things that any mother would do for her kids, so they can face the world without this beating them. But who didn't see their moms as someone annoying trying to give a speech at anytime or without reason, or got annoyed by her advices just to realize later how true they are.

So now our young hero has to find his father armor's so he can protect himself from the upcoming danger. And before you start thinking, I've seen this before or this sounds familiar, using this plot is a mere excuse to get more into the boy's journey than the really fact of an adventure or quest seeking the missing pieces. And the plot is so brilliantly written that not only will be funny and exciting but also will go deep trying to understand why sometimes life seems unfair and has to take in order to give, and how love can change things, specially the one coming from the people that loves us the most and we mostly forget about that. And so, with some extra help, they will have to figure out missing clues that only serve as keys to solve the puzzle of anyone's existence. Who am i?, why i can do all this things?, why i'm good at this and bad at that? why do i need to leave the nest in order to face the world and when this will hit harder the only thing we need to, is to go back home and feel protected and loved. Why can we have it all? Why when losing things in our lives serves to get us stronger?

If you are expecting that answers will come easily just by sitting and watch the movie, sadly have to say they won't. You will be part of this journey and as key witness you'll have to solve the puzzle and figure out all the possible meaning behind this clues, characters, symbols and mostly you'll have to start your own journey that will include fun times, laughs, adventures, fights, travels and lots of drama, but that's just how life is and director Travis Knight has all the tools to make you have a great time while not without taking you to deeper waters and some twist to make it as unpredictable as life as but also as touching and exciting as any kid's story should be because when young, the world seems like a vast place, ready to be explored and full of questions and desire to know more, anyone can face their darkest secret and become a hero of their own story, but not before understanding all the consequences and realizing that there's nothing new under the roof, but even tho, will be fascinating and interesting, and unique in our own ways. Full with an impressive technique, a dark, different but colorful and detailed writing will rise among others standing as a unique film that sadly is not making the box office it deserve thanks to a bad distribution timing at the end of a summer that gave other animation proposals the benefit of being first but sometimes the last is not the least but the best and if you don't feel exactly like that for yourself, then even with more rush you should hurry and see this interesting and dazzling proposal that either will blow your mind or give you a great time at the movies and definitely worth to watch in it's original sound because has one of the most talented cast in recent times.