Passing along legends to the village peasants, as told to
him by his slowly fading mother, of his noble samurai father and his demise at
the hands of his malevolent, immortal grandfather (an incident which also
resulted in the loss of his own eye), a young boy is whisked away to an icy
netherworld where he is stalked by the old man’s presence once more and
protected by a surly monkey and an absentminded beetle. The Overamericanized Kubo and the Two Strings goes down a Disneyfied path just when you think its veering
toward a different, darker direction although the animation is sharp, the story
resonant, and boasts some great action sequences.
*** out of ****
