by Maya Rios, staff reporter

Growing up, I was only allowed to watch three things: Disney movies, Barbie Movies, and every other kid movie you could think of. Even now, as a high school sophomore, I still yearn to see every kids’ movie that appears in a commercial each year. This year in August, the movie “Kubo and the Two Strings” was released.

“Kubo and the Two Strings” defies the modern production of kids’ movies. Instead of computer animation, the movie opted for 3-D stop-motion animation, which gave the characters and the movie an older feel to it. Watching this movie reminded me of Tim Burton’s “A Nightmare Before Christmas,” which gave the movie unique spin in today’s culture. The mystical powers of bringing sheets of origami paper to life with a strum of a few strings that centers the movie makes it unique. It’s a strange power when you stop to think about it, but over the course of the movie, it makes even adults want to have the ability to do such things.

The plot of the movie is good but predictable. It follows a young boy who never knew his father and eventually lost his mother and was left in the care of a magic monkey. Alright, maybe it’s my vast collection of analyzed kids’ movies but midway through the movie, you can infer that how certain objects or scenes will come into play later in the movie while analyzing the title. Although the movie does have cliché aspects to it, such as the death of the boy’s parents, it contains components that make the storyline feel refreshing. The movie may not have a sing-a-long version premiering in the near feature, but its storyline allows the audience to relate to the orphaned boy.

Compared to the famous Studio Ghibli films, “Kubo and the Two Strings” portrays a heartfelt connection to the characters that Studio Ghibli is famous for. Like Studio Ghibli, this film has little action; instead, it has a more connected storyline that allows the audience to follow along with every decision, feeling, and obstacles.

So although the film plot may seem predictable, overall, the movie has an old-fashioned spin to it that is unique in comparison to modern day films.