Film Kubo and the Two Strings, the tale of a Japanese boy who must solve the mystery of his fallen Samurai father to save himself and his family from a vengeful spirit, is one of the most acclaimed movies of 2016 (currently at 96 percent on Rotten Tomatoes) and features voice actors including Charlize Theron, Matthew McConaughey, and George Takei.
Yet clearly its chief attraction is the look of the stop-motion world created by the animators from the studio Laika (their other films include 2009’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline). This is a hands-on process that must be assembled shot by shot as objects are manipulated to seem as if they actually move on their own. It’s undeniably labor intensive, but the results can have an otherworldly quality that can’t be matched by traditional animation.
See more of the time-lapse video below. At the bottom, watch the trailer for Kubo.
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