Kubo and the Two Strings


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Offcial Trailer

Bard as Hero.

Serious voice talent.


I can't wait for this one. I really love Coraline and ParaNorman.


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Saw this film today and it was utterly gorgeous. Well worth the price of admission even for the 3d Showing. Great adventure with a powerful ending.


Since the movie is not showing at my theatre and I do not have a car it looks like I will have to wait for blu ray.


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Took my 5 sons to this and we all loved it. Excellent movie and a really nice pro-family message.

AND.....the hero is unmistakably a BARD! So awesome!

It may not be for the really young as it does have creepy parts...that's why it is so fun.


I've been told this movie is doing badly. Can anyone verify or disprove that?


Eric,

Box Office wise, it's doing pretty badly yes. Review wise it's doing pretty well.


It did better than Ben Hur for whatever that's worth


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Saw it, loved it. So, you know, still time to help that box office if you're so inclined.


I am still mad my theatre didn't get this one plus what makes matters worse is everyone I know who go see it with me(who has a car) is ether working all the time or recovering from surgery.


Dragon78, depending on the specific distance you have to cover and the availability of cabs/Lyft/Uber in the area and depending on your spare fun money supply:

I used to make a movie day every 3 to 6 months back in the day. Look up a theater that has concessions other than popcorn, candy and nachos, plan to see 4 to 6 movies starting with the first matinee showing bracket and make an entire day of it. Buy all of the tickets on arrival and enjoy an entire day of cinema.

:)


I don't have a car and the closest theatre that is showing is a while away.


Greylurker wrote:
It did better than Ben Hur for whatever that's worth

Well consider the plummet to the ground Ben-Hur took, I'd say Kubo has a better shot of making back its production costs.

Also agree that we still have a few more weeks out and maybe Kubo will break into the top 3 before Labor Day.


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I'll chime in with the agreement - It's really quite good.


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It opened at 4th place it's first weekend but made it to third place it's second. So maybe for once that word of mouth will actually help a movie in this day and age.


Easily the best movie this year. Possibly longer.


I saw it this weekend and it is very well done.


I am so glad you guys are seeing this movie. This thread went a while with only 4 posts and I was afraid such a good movie was getting lost or completely ignored.
My boys and I often ask each other what PF class a protagonist might be after we see a movie...this one is extremely obvious.


We saw it the first night.

Loved it!

Bards forever!

I especially loved the end bit where

Spoiler:
grandfather's one eye IS Kubo's missing eye, perfectly mirrored.

Oh, and, of course: "oh my"


This is a very good film. I am saddened that it seems likely to die fairly quickly in theatrical release.

The minimal effort into marketing the film hurt its chances.


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Actually I saw more marketing for this film then any of the companies past movies.

Dark Archive Vendor - Fantasiapelit Tampere

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Just saw it and absolutely adored it. Easily my favorite movie of the year. Ending left me speechless at first and then made my cry, honest to god. That was amazing experiece.


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Rosgakori wrote:
Just saw it and absolutely adored it. Easily my favorite movie of the year. Ending left me speechless at first and then made my cry, honest to god. That was amazing experiece.

Hey, I came close to it myself! Such a fantastic movie that it is a shame so few have seen it. I talk it up any chance I get.

Shadow Lodge Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 8

Good to see a familiar face at the end.


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What I like is that if Kubo was a girl, people would be calling him a total Mary Sue. But because he's a boy, he's just a "cool hero". It's so absurdly transparent sometimes.

A very good movie, though.


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Kobold Cleaver wrote:

What I like is that if Kubo was a girl, people would be calling him a total Mary Sue. But because he's a boy, he's just a "cool hero". It's so absurdly transparent sometimes.

A very good movie, though.

Lets consider this claim.

To be a Mary Sue he would need to:

1. Be exceptionally talented in an implausibly wide variety of areas.
2. Lack any realistic or plot relevant character flaws.
3. Unusual and exceptional backstory
4. Be beloved by ALL, those that aren't loving are treated poorly by the story
5. Outstanding and unusual physical traits
6. Is "to pure for this world" (suggested as an trait to the original term)

So is Kubo exceptionally talented in a wide array of areas?
No. We see him use his magic very well (which covers music/showmanship and origami), but he cooks... rice. Not exactly something a culinary genius is needed to do. At the end he uses a sword passingly well. However he doesn't really pilot the ship he makes, he doesn't know where to find everything, he isn't exactly mister acrobatics all over the place. He manages to shoot a fish under direction from the beetle samurai. His skills are definitely finite and limited to what you might expect a boy of his talents to know, with the obvious exception of his 'epic battle' at the very end. Arguably that was as much the magic of the items he collected as anything else though, and we see that it very much fails him too. He was not some invincible warrior to any extent.

Does Kubo lack any realistic or plot relevant character flaws
Again no. He has character flaws and the plot is in fact predicated on them. If he had been an obedient son we likely would have never left the village as he wouldn't have been out after sunset. In fact his predilection to being a know-it-all, impatience, and not listening to good advice is in many ways what cost his parents later in the story as well. In fact the argument could be made that the entirety of the plot revolves around him growing and working away from his character flaws.

Unusual or exceptional background
Alright completely true. In fact we would have no story without his background. As such this one is true however is not unique to only mary sue characters.

Be beloved by all
Kubo is well liked by most everyone he comes across. Even his extraplanar family 'loves' him as much as they can understand it (to the point they just want to help him ascend to what they think he should be). As such we have no one to judge how those that don't like him are perceived. The underpinnings of the plot include a strong theme of "how do we love each other?" and "do we change for those that claim to love us/ claim to know what is best for us?" There is a huge discussion to be had in regards to this movie and those questions alone. Also while he is beloved by all (as we know them from a monkey, his mom, a beetle samurai, a village, and his aunts and grandfather) we are treated to a very small subset of the world; his family, and a village that has little overarching plot significance.

Outstanding physical traits
In a movie with extraplanar aunts, grandfathers a beetle samurai, a monkey martial mastery mother, a giant skeleton, and glowing hypnotic eyes of death Kubo is most notable for his lack of supernatural physical features. The most he has going for him in this department is his missing eye and presumably that's actually fairly common in the world at large. Sure the reason his eye is missing is a big deal but the eye being missing isn't in and of itself. He's a boy that is missing one eye. That's all. As such he doesn't trigger this one either.

Is Kubo too "pure" for this world?
The origins of Mary Sues typically had a stream of self sacrifice for the greater good. Kubo doesn't do this. In fact in many ways he goes the exact opposite direction forcing those around him to do more because of his unwillingness to change or do something he doesn't want to do. He's headstrong/stubborn to a fault and is all too easily misled. While he has a strong sense of purpose that is hardly the same.

Is Kubo the central character?
Absolutely. It is a story about him, his family, and how people change or don't when pressed by those that claim to love or know best for them. However simply being the lead character does not a mary sue make.

Is Kubo talented in an unusual way?
Again Absolutely. He is descended from "all powerful" outsiders. However he grows into his power, and that power is very much the same as his mothers and inline with what should be expect of his bloodline. Quite frankly all we know is he was able to defeat his grandfather by what amounts to magical trickery.

Now I cannot say that if this had been a female lead that people would not have thrown accusations of Mary Sue at her... but they would have been wrong too.

Honestly we might be dealing with the child of two Mary Sues more than Kubo being one.


Best movie of the year so far IMNSHO. The plot is tight; there's like no way to talk about the movie without giving away plot points. So I've been recommending it but only in general.


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Finally got to see it, loved it, wish it did better at the boxoffice though.


Dragon,

That makes two of us.


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Well technically I wish all of Laika's movies did a lot better at the box office.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

IMDB box office shows it not quite earning out in theatrical release (ca. $50M foreign & domestic vs. $60M production), but I think it'll do well on disc. It seemed like publicity for it was pretty sparse; I didn't see a trailer for it until after I saw the movie. Part of the problem, I suspect, is that it was marketed as a kid movie, and there wasn't a lot of attention given to the possibility of older viewers.


Yeah if it had been marketed more like they did say, Finding Dory, we might have gotten a better response.

Maybe.


Amazing film, even the wife liked it allot, would gladly see it again.


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Really, I saw a lot more publicity for this movie then any of their other movies.


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

It wasn't the marketing but the fact that few if any cinemas ran it for any length of time (seriously, my local Cineplex only had showings for a week while other movies got 3-4 weeks before being taken off the now playing list), and that's only if they even had it available at all.


I didn't say Kubo was a Mary Sue. I just pointed out the double standard people apply to characters like Rey. :P


Not an accusation I just wanted to address the claim.

It is one of those things that come up often enough that reviewing it in reference to a specific character is important to give the trope back it's meaning and nuance.


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All I know is I'm asking for the Blu-Ray version of this movie for Christmas.


Absolutely wonderful movie. And looking at all the making of material that is already available baffles me even more. The pure love and artistry that goes into a movie like this.
And I adore the humor. "I don't know if this counts as Origami - I am pretty sure there were scissors involved".
I would love to have my own little Origami Samurai, but I am equally sure I would completely fail in folding it.


I saw it a few days ago and it was an awesome movie. I will be adding this to the collection.


Sharoth wrote:
I saw it a few days ago and it was an awesome movie. I will be adding this to the collection.

Got it for Christmas wa going to rewatch it yesterday...but after the news it became a starwars day.


Kobold Cleaver wrote:
I didn't say Kubo was a Mary Sue. I just pointed out the double standard people apply to characters like Rey. :P

Are we talking about the same Rey who after living for her whole life in the desert, foraging for scrap, had basically just learned that she is force sensitive and immediately starts mind-tricking people and out-force-muscling a guy with years of jedi training (repeatedly I might add; and the guy in question being a descendant of the miracle bloodline we know as the Skywalkers; of which, granted, we don't know if she also descends, but the previous examples of this families were scrubs before they had any training, the only big thing about them being latent force augmented piloting talent (which again also came with a certain amount of experience however)), also happens to be a better pilot than several trained fighter pilots (not only that, bu she does it using an ill-maintained much larger and less agile ship) and also is quicker to diagnose mechanical problem with the Millennium Falcon than the people who have been spending more time flying and maintaining that ship than she was alive for? The same Rey whose only discernible character flaw is... an inconsistent accent maybe?

Point me to a male character who just seems to outperform everyone with literally infinitely more experience than him at anything he does and isn't considered a mary sue and I'll happily agree.

This is coming from someone who celebrates the idea of having a female lead for a core star wars movie and thinks we need more of those in all forms of action cinema. And indeed video games.

-------

for the record: sorry for the derailment, i'd be totally down with a mod splitting this potential discussion off from the thread

PS: Kubo was an absolutely beautiful movie and was worth every cent of the roughly 50 euros and two hour travel time I spent to get to Hamburg just to see it in the original voiceover.

The Exchange

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My library got an exhibitor license for this movie, so we'll be showing it next month!


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I am jealous Zeugma, I still have to buy it if I want to see it again (and, oh dear, do I ever want to see it again)

Must...have...tiny...paper..samurai!


Target had the BlueRay / DVD combo for $14 + tax. Guess what fell into my basket?


Astounding how such things occur at Target huh Sharoth...

Oww hey, note to self, check Amazon prime for this film!


Added this to our collection. Previously only my sons and I saw it. My wife was not as impressed as we were...sigh. Still one of if not THE best movie of 2016, IMO.

Dark Archive Vendor - Fantasiapelit Tampere

Fourshadow wrote:
Added this to our collection. Previously only my sons and I saw it. My wife was not as impressed as we were...sigh. Still one of if not THE best movie of 2016, IMO.

It was my favorite of this year. No other movie got me so much engaged in what was going on screen.

In case someone was interested what was my top 5:

Spoiler:
5. Arrival
4. Nice Guys
3. Captain America: Civil War
2. Room (it came in february in Finland)
1. Kubo

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