Kubo and the Two Strings - 4 smiles

I enjoyed "Kubo and the Two Strings" as much as I liked Finding Dory and I would hope that this serious animated fantasy adventure film is included in the Best Animated Film category. The story takes place in a mythical feudal Japan and produced by US-based Laika, whose previous movies include Coraline and The Boxtrolls. This one uses stop-motion animation (as opposed to the more popular CGI) and is an extremely polished example of the style. "Kubo" begins with a prologue that introduces a young woman with a baby arriving on a desolate coast following a harrowing sea voyage. Ten years later and the one-eyed baby Kubo (voiced by Art Parkinson) has grown into a self-sufficient boy who cares for his mother and uses a strange sort of magic to breathe life into origami creations. He uses these characters in stories he tells the local villagers. One night, Kubo stays out later than he's supposed to and forces from his past, his two evil aunts (Rooney Mara) who have been searching for him, seek to take him to his grandfather, The Moon King (Ralph Fiennes). To save himself, he must go on a quest for three items (a sword, a breastplate and a helmet) which will help him fightThe Moon King. His only companions on this journey are an animated monkey charm (Charlize Theron) and a human/beetle hybrid (Matthew McConaughey).

"Kubo and the Two Strings" incorporates themes about the importance of family and choosing the right life path and, while an engaging story, is not light and fluffy like Finding Dory. A village is destroyed and there are scary monsters, including a giant animated skeleton, underwater eyestalks and a flying, fire-breathing dragon, making older children the target audience. And although the images are not perfect Pixar, "Kubo and the Two Strings" is magical.