Kubo and the Two Strings

Kubo and the Two Strings is a 2016 American stop-motion animated fantasy film with an epic scope. Travis Knight directed it, and Marc Haimes and Chris Butler wrote the screenplay. Laika produced the movie, and its voice cast includes Charlize Theron, Art Parkinson, Ralph Fiennes, Rooney Mara, George Takei, and Matthew McConaughey. The story takes place in feudal Japan and centers on Kubo, a boy whose left eye was taken when he was an infant. He carries a magical shamisen and, accompanied by a living snow monkey charm and a half-man, half-stag beetle samurai, sets out to confront his mother's evil twin sisters and his grandfather, the Moon King, who stole his eye.

The film originated from a samurai-based fantasy idea pitched to Knight by Laika's production designer Shannon Tindle. By December 2014, Laika had announced an August 2016 release, with Knight directing and producing, and the voice cast was revealed. Knight was drawn to the project because of his love for epic fantasy and Japanese culture, even though Laika had never attempted that genre before. The stop-motion animation drew from Japanese art forms like ink wash painting, ukiyo-e woodblock prints, and origami. The 3D printing company Stratasys provided new technology in exchange for feedback, and Knight cited Hayao Miyazaki's work as a partial inspiration for the story. Dario Marianelli, who scored Laika's earlier film The Boxtrolls, composed the music.

The film premiered at the Melbourne International Film Festival on August 13, 2016, and Focus Features released it in the United States on August 19. Critics praised its craftsmanship and narrative, but it underperformed at the box office, earning $78 million worldwide against a $60 million budget. It won the BAFTA for Best Animated Film and received Academy Award nominations for Best Animated Feature and Best Visual Effects.

In early feudal Japan, 12-year-old Kubo, who has only one eye, cares for his ill mother in a cave near a village. He earns money by animating origami with music from his magical shamisen, telling the story of his missing father, the samurai Hanzo. Kubo never finishes the tale because he does not know Hanzo's fate, and his mother's failing memory prevents her from recalling the ending. She warns him to come home before dark, or her sisters and the Moon King—who took his left eye as a baby—will take his remaining one.

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