Montaus, Danielle Angelo M. 201911149 GNED15 Ms.

Dynesa Rosales

KUBO AND TWO STRINGS

MOVIE REVIEW

From the studio behind Coraline and ParaNorman, Kubo and the Two Strings tells the story of a
boy who wants to know more about his father: a fallen samurai who died protecting his mother from her
own grandfather. Kubo hears fate calling when his mother's evil twins try and steal Kubo from her. She
sacrifices herself in order to keep Kubo safe, and now he must complete the ultimate quest to defeat his
mother's tyrannical family and find the most powerful thing in all of Japan: his father's invulnerable
battle suit.

While watching the movie, I listed down some scenes that I notice as an allegory fable-esque
based on my apprehension. As I carry out the philosophy of the reader-response and mimetic theory,
this movie exploited the struggles, sufferings of Kubo as represented by the mindset and initiative of the
Monkey (who is actually Sariatu, Kubo’s mom) and Beetle (Hanzo, Kubo’s dad). Because the dismal
subject matter is couched in an occasionally hilarious, heavily allegorical or metaphoric action-adventure
narrative, most of it will be opaque to youngsters (and some of it to the rest of us) until they get older (or
we get more contemplative). Kubo's "flight" to the "Far lands" at that point is actually the start of his
psychological grieving process (similar to the 5 stages), and actually the last part of the movie which the
scene is he is holding the two lanterns, shows that Kubo is now on the last stage of it which is coping and
accepting the fact that he lost his parents.

I am actually leaning more on reader-response theory, because after I watched Kubo and two
strings, A lot of thoughts came to my mind. It made me believe that Heroes come in different forms and
shapes just like Kubo, he is just a kid and playing his instrument to tell a story, but underneath that is a
hero. Mimetic theory, because the movie shows that no matter what we are facing right now, we can
always find strength to our love ones and family.

There’s this one scene from this movie that I can relate so much. This scene is about when we
thought Kubo lost it all and he will be defeated by the moon king, but he remembers he has the hair
strands from his mom and dad and won the fight. For me, that scene is very relatable because a lot of
times, when I’m stressed, I thought my world will fall apart. But when I talk it out to my family, I feel like
I can rule the world again. Kubo and Two Strings made me realized that all of us have the power to tell
our own story.
Reference:

IMDb.com. (n.d.). Kubo and the Two Strings. IMDb.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4302938/plotsummary.