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| Kubo and his team |
A Review of Kubo and the Two Strings by Nick Olszyk
MPAA Rating, PG
USCCB Rating, A-II
Reel Rating, One Reel
In
The Usual Suspects, Roger Kint stated
that “the greatest trick the Devil ever played was convincing the world he
didn’t exist.” That may have been true in the 20th century, when
fascism and communism terrorized the world, but now the Devil has shifted his
strategy. In the 21st century, his trick is getting people to
believe that Jesus Christ promotes his agenda. Kubo and the Two Strings, which had tremendous promise, is such a
trap. Keep kids far, far away.
Snatching
a trope from Disney, as a baby Kubo (Art Parkinson) is rescued by his goddess
Mother (Charlize Theron), but not before his grandfather, the Moon King, kills
his human father and rips out his left eye. They spend the next twelve years in
a cave hiding, with Kubo earning money on the streets of rural Japan by telling
stories with his shamisen. “Never go out after sunset,” Mother tells him, “or
my sisters will find you and take your other eye.” Kubo is not only a great
storyteller, but divine blood gives him special powers. As he plays the
shamisen, origami figures come to life and dramatize his stories. While he has
the admiration of the townspeople, his life is still a mystery. Injured in the
rescue, his mother suffers from an unknown mental disorder, and it’s hard to
discern whether her tales are true. As he learns more about his past, the
tables are upset again and again, culminating in a hero’s quest to find his
father’s armor and confront his grandfather. The spirituality starts out simple
as well but becomes more complex before revealing its sinister nature in the
third act.
At this point, an important distinction
needs to be made here between traditional paganism and neo-paganism. Ancient
pagan societies, deprived of God’s direct revelation given only to the
Israelites, had to make do with the natural law that God gives every human
person. Born with the impulse to worship, they created religious systems out of
the most important aspects of their immediate universe: water, the sun, food,
plants, fire, war, sexuality, family, the Moon, and so on. While severely
flawed, their search for truth was genuine, and early Christian missionaries were
able to use their philosophies to bring them to Christ. Paul’s ministry to the
Greeks in Acts 17 is a perfect example. Kubo
and the Two Strings is steeped in Shinto tradition, like the films of Hayao
Miyazaki. This does not cause any problems as long as it remains honest. Yet
soon, Kubo loses its way.
Neo-pagan
systems are those from societies that are culturally Christian yet choose to
return to pagan ways of thinking; the New Age movement is the most prominent
example. This cannot be helpful because it knows the Truth and actively denies
it. The practice of magic (spells, curses, hexes) in either case is never
morally acceptable. Yet traditional paganism can be useful in literature to
help illustrate unseen truths as long as children are mature enough to
understand the distinction. In the beginning, Kubo seems to be advocating a pagan worldview with underlining
Christian themes. Yet soon it is revealed that the evil Moon King is a stand-in
for the theistic Deity. “I want your eye,” he says, “so that you cannot see the
imperfection of this world.” In this regard, Kubo is similar to the Philip Pullman’s atheistic His Dark Materials series, where God is
actually an upstart angel who is accidentally killed by the protagonist. These
darker, anti-theistic themes are mixed with Christian tropes to make it more
digestible to a Western audience. The New Age movement does the same thing.
Like Pullman’s
hero, Kubo conquers his grandfather
with the help of his deceased parents. However, the Moon King does not die but is
reduced to an old man who cannot remember his past. “Who am I?” he asks Kubo.
Kubo smiles. “You are kindest, most compassionate man in the village,” he says.
Kubo creates a noble lie to turn the King into a humble peasant, writing him “a
new story.” This idea of taming evil is unfortunately common in children’s
literature. While every person deserves mercy, sin itself can never be made
docile. It must be destroyed. People also need to be saved by Truth, not
falsehoods.
Even in regards
to its background, Kubo twists
ideology to fit a modern interpretation. Ancestor worship is common in the
Shino religion, but those who are gone still exist as spiritual beings who can
help the living. In Kubo’s world, ancestors – who are shown onscreen as ghosts
– are memories. Memories are nice, but cannot intercede on your behalf. “They
never die as long as we remember them,” Kubo states. I would remind him of Wood
Allen’s adage: “I don’t want to live on in the hearts of my countrymen. I want
to live in my apartment.”
Kubo has
received huge critical acclaim, largely for the quality of its animation. This
is a fair opinion; the animation is breath taking, full of color and life. The
writing, voice acting, and music too are spectacular. However, these qualities
only make this film an even sadder tragedy. With ParaNorman and Boxtrolls,
Laika has had a bad track record recently of promoting New Age progressive
spiritual values, and Kubo reaches a
new low point. If Pixar is the pinnacle of Hollywood animation, Laika is the
bottom of the barrel. What a waste.
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