Behind The Screen Animation Of Kubo And The Two Strings

Kubo and the Two Strings is a 2016 American 3D stop-motion fantasy action-adventure film directed and co-produced by Travis Knight (in his directorial debut), and written by Marc Haimes and Chris Butler. It stars the voices of Art Parkinson, Charlize Theron, Ralph Fiennes, Rooney Mara, George Takei, and Matthew McConaughey. It is Laika’s fourth feature film produced. The film revolves around Kubo, who wields a magical shamisen and whose left eye was stolen. Accompanied by an anthropomorphic snow monkey and beetle, he must subdue his mother’s corrupted Sisters and his power-hungry grandfather Raiden (aka, the Moon King), who stole his left eye.

The art took inspiration from such Japanese mediums as ink wash painting and origami among others. A particular influence came from the ukiyo-e wood block style, with Laika intending to make the entire film “to look and feel as if it’s a moving woodblock print”. Assistance came from 3D printing firm Stratasys who allowed Laika to use their newest technogies in exchange for feedback on them.

For the Skeleton monster the team created a giant 16 foot, 400 pound puppet, which Laika claims is the record holder for largest stop motion puppet. The idea to make such a massive puppet was born out of a fear that individual smaller parts (meant to represent the larger monster) would not work well on screen interacting with the other puppets. The resulting puppet was built in two parts which were then attached together by magnets. For movement Laika had to design a robot to easily manipulate it. The team at one point purchased an industrial robot off of eBay but found that it would not work with their setup.

Knight began his career toiling as an animator at Will Vinton Studios, the stop-motion company that, in the 1980s, came up with the California Raisins ad campaign and invented the word “Claymation” (or at least trademarked it). But by the early 2000s, Will Vinton, ravaged by the recession and the flattening of the stop-motion industry by CGI, was teetering on collapse. Out of nowhere, a white Knight appeared — this one named Phil — who invested huge sums of money in the company and changed its name to Laika (after a Russian word for “dog”) in 2005. His son later got a big promotion; he became president and CEO.

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