Kubo and the Two Strings Trailer

Kubo lives a quiet, normal life in a small shoreside village until a spirit from the past turns his life upside down by re-igniting an age-old vendetta. This causes all sorts of havoc as gods and monsters chase Kubo who, in order to survive, must locate a magical suit of armor once worn by his late father, a legendary Samurai warrior.

Kubo and the Two Strings is the fourth film created by Laika Studios.

If you recognize the tune in the trailer, that is because it is a rendition of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” written by George Harrison of the Beatles.

While Kubo and the Two Strings is the directorial debut of Travis Knight, the director has plenty of experience with stop-motion animation. Knight worked in the animation department for The Boxtrolls and the other two Laika titles. Can you guess the other two?

If you are not impressed by the Kubo and the Two Strings trailer, then you must not be a fan of stop-motion animation or beauty in general. The film looks astonishing with its combination of effects to bring the animation to life. Having a strings-only rendition of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" seems a fitting touch, since it's a beautiful piece of music and plays on the fact that string instruments will have plenty of importance in the film.

Besides the visuals, the trailer doesn't give much else. We're not complaining however, as Kubo and the Two Strings isn't due out for another 7-plus months and having even this much finished footage is an achievement.

We do get some early dialogue from Art Parkinson's Kubo and Charlize Theron's Monkey, but nothing to drive the story along except for some title cards. We could almost call this trailer a second teaser, save for that it's running time is only a few seconds short of two minutes. So we will have to wait a bit longer for a preview that feels more like a theatrical trailer and less like a tease, but for now we can take screenshots from the video and use them as desktop backgrounds. Seriously--They are that beautiful.

On a final note: We can only imagine how hard it is to shoot stop-motion sequences when simulating wind and it's effect on hair and clothes.