I am huge LAIKA fan and I am so excited to hear about their new movie, Kubo and the Two Strings! If you aren’t familiar with LAIKA it is a studio that produces stop-motion animation on huge stages in their studio in Portland. It is very unique because they move around each character, and each item, to move across the screen frame by frame. They have numerous amount of faces that they replace following spreadsheets.
What I LOVE about stop-motion animation is the magic of playing with toys and imagination!
When interviewing Travis Knight, President, CEO and Lead Animator, he mentioned about having to learn to “focus intensely” during animating! The 3-D printing technology, the software, the lighting, the engineering, totally amazing me in all of their creations! I can totally geek out about LAIKA making me OOBER excited to watch this movie once it hits theaters! Watch the trailer below…it is filled with great action, humor, and what appears to be an amazing STORY (which is my favorite part of any movie):
Kubo and the Two Strings
Story: An epic action-adventure set in a fantastical Japan from acclaimed animation studio LAIKA. Clever, kindhearted Kubo (voiced by Art Parkinson of “Game of Thrones”) ekes out a humble living, telling stories to the people of his seaside town including Hosato (George Takei), Akihiro (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa), and Kameyo (Academy Award nominee Brenda Vaccaro). But his relatively quiet existence is shattered when he accidentally summons a spirit from his past which storms down from the heavens to enforce an age-old vendetta. Now on the run, Kubo joins forces with Monkey (Academy Award winner Charlize Theron) and Beetle (Academy Award winner Matthew McConaughey), and sets out on a thrilling quest to save his family and solve the mystery of his fallen father, the greatest samurai warrior the world has ever known. With the help of his shamisen – a magical musical instrument – Kubo must battle gods and monsters, including the vengeful Moon King (Academy Award nominee Ralph Fiennes) and the evil twin Sisters (Academy Award nominee Rooney Mara), to unlock the secret of his legacy, reunite his family, and fulfill his heroic destiny.
Director: Travis Knight
Writers: Marc Haimes and Chris Butler (“ParaNorman”)
Voice Cast: Art Parkinson, Matthew McConaughey, Charlize Theron, Rooney Mara, Ralph Fiennes, George Takei, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Brenda Vaccaro