I saw Kubo and the Two Strings this past Tuesday with Peter. I'm normally only free on Tuesdays through the spring and summer because I volunteer at an Out of the Cold program the rest of the time. So I thought I'd take advantage of the lower prices while I could.

This Laika produced movie is a stop-motion, animated tale of a Japanese boy and his mother and a couple of other fantastical creatures battling other-world forces in ancient Japan. While the story itself isn't very complicated, the movie is visually stunning... just an amazing work of art. That, alone, is worth the price of admission.

After watching it I looked up some videos online on the making of the film. It's unbelievable how much work the studio put into making it. From building models, both large and small, of all the characters to constructing huge, highly detailed sets of the different scenes, it's truly mind-blowing.

Not to mention the stop-motion action of bringing the characters to life. They had to move each one millimetre by millimetre all the while keeping the clothing and hair and other things flowing and looking natural. It's a near impossible feat they pulled off with flying colours.