Just got back from seeing the first possible screening that I could.
Years back I heard that Laika was taking on a project including animated origami and immediately thought that was the best possible idea.
I was not disappointed.
I thought this movie was fantastic. There are some pretty heavy emotional beats and as in Laika's earlier films, people may be a bit thrown by the tone. Death and danger lingers over the whole story.
But as the film itself tells you, "sometimes you have to throw in the firebreathing chicken", some humor, so that people will "throw money at you."
Despite the sense of danger, the film does have room for plenty of humor. Its a kind of humor that is very character based and doesn't translate well when cut up for trailers. Much of the humor, impressively comes from the sarcastic looks and reactions the characters give on another. The facial animations are allowed to carry the load.
The movie is very much a meta-commentary on story-telling, art, and narrative. That's not subtext, that is literally the conversation the characters have as Kubo fights for the right to define himself.
Kubo is himself an animator, a bit that allows for some wonderfully fanciful sequences.
There were sword fights in the film that could go toe to toe with anything in the Kill Bill films. Other sequences very much invoked "Shadow of Colossus".
All of the voice talent does a fantastic job and, more than what is usually the case with celebrity casting, they meld with their characters so well that you aren't left thinking about the actor.
I would see this on the biggest screen you can. I saw it in 2d so I can't speak for the 3d.
I give it a solid A.
