Thrumming the strings
From both the production and story point of view, Kubo And The Two Strings pushes the boundaries.
TRAVIS Knight was only eight years old the first time he travelled to Japan from his hometown of Portland, Oregan. That trip had a lasting influence on the film director that comes through his latest work. Knight directed Kubo And The Two Strings, a story of adventure and family with a heavy Far East influence.
“The great Zhang Yimou said that every boy wants either a train set or to make a martial arts movie, and I didn’t have a train set, so this is my martial arts movie,” Knight says.
The film is not only Knight’s vision, but it also falls under the mandate of Laika Studios, the production company that for the past decade has become a leader in stopmotion animation. With movies like Coraline and The Boxtrolls, the company has pushed to make movies that matter, that tell rich and evocative stories, and are thematically challenging.
In the case of Kubo, that means looking at how a young boy deals with the loss of family as told through a world of fantasy locations. He only has the help of an overly protective Monkey ( Charlize Theron) and a bumbling Beetle ( M Matthew McConaughey).
Because of the th hemes and setting, it’s not surprising to hear t that two of the biggest influences on Knigh ht were two of Japan’s greatest directors: A Akira Kurosawa and Hayao Miyazaki.
“For Kurosawa, i it was the way he made films, which was this incredible composition, anda cutting, and staging and lighting, and his work with shapes,”” Knight says. “And forf Hayao Miyazaki, I love the way he int ternalises and synthes sizes and then weaves in nto his own art differen nt cultural influences .”
The visual eleme ents of the movie show the inf fluence of the Japanese directors, , but the voice casting is very Ame erican. Knight opted not to o use actors of Asian heritage fo or his major characters. I Instead, he selected Irish ac ctor Art Parkinson as th he voice of Kubo, whil le Theron, who grew up in South Africa, voi ices Monkey. Then there’s Texas nativ ve McConaughey, who speak ks for Beetle in his first voice work for ann animated film. The Oscar winner w was excited about being a voice in thee film because he hasn’t made a lot of mo ovies that his children have been able e to see. That wasn’t the only reason McConaughey signed o on. He liked the idea that Kubo de eals with the themes of co ourage and overcoming g your fears. “I like e to say that one of the t themes in this story i s you’ve got to fight and you’ve got to have a lot of courage to write the third act of your own story, to get your happy ending,” McConaughey says.
“And it may not be exactly what you thought it was going to be, but usually if you get to the nut of it, to the truth of it, that’s a lot happier than not finishing the story at all.”
Theron knew from her first conversation with Knight that he had a very clear picture of what he wanted to do with his movie.
“There was something very clear about what he was trying to set out to do, and I think it was finding a way to kind of tell story through great character but also through a real sense of world,” Theron says. “It was very hard for him to talk about character without talking about world.
“And to see the film finally and the celebration of both of those things so beautifully and seamlessly done, I was so inspired by it.”
Getting to that point was a monumental effort for Knight as Kubo And The Two Strings is the biggest production by Laika in its 10- year history. No other project comes close to it in scale.
Knight compares the story line to one of the kind of epic movies that were made by director David Lean but using a stop motion style that only generates a few seconds of footage each week.
Add to that actors who were not overly familiar with voice work and Knight faced a massive challenge with Kubo. Theron credits his patience with helping her get through the recording sessions.
“Travis was constantly just really encouraging, finding the truth and being a truth seeker during the whole process, which was quite long. I wouldn’t see him for several months and then I would see him again, and it kind of felt like you were picking up just from where you left off,” Theron says. “I didn’t really see any of the animation stuff until there was kind of like a ‘ making of.”’ – The Fresno Bee/ Tribune News Service