Movie review
August 18, 2016 · 102 min · PG · Kids · Animation · Adventure · Family
In a fantasy version of feudal Japan, one-eyed boy Kubo plays a magical shamisen and brings origami stories to life for his village. He cares for his sick mother and lives under a rule that he must never stay out after dark. When he breaks that rule, his mother’s twin sisters and his grandfather, the Moon King, hunt him. Kubo then goes on a quest for his late samurai father’s armor. A snow-monkey guardian and a beetle-samurai join him as he learns hard family secrets.
The film is not built around modern identity politics. Its real focus is grief, parental love, memory versus forgetting, and the power of stories. Cold immortal perfection stands against human feeling and compassion. Kubo’s missing eye is a wound caused by the villain, not a lecture about disability. The story ends with memory and storytelling defeating control, not with race, gender, or activism as the main point.
Community feedback
Was our 4% Woke rating accurate?
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Kubo and the Two Strings.
Woke representation / casting
Not present. Characters and setting are Japanese feudal and mythic, matching that world. Lead voices were largely white stars, with Japanese-ancestry actors mainly in smaller village roles. This is production whitewashing debate, not audience-visible DEI quota casting or identity-first hero swaps.
0%
Woke political dialogue
Not present. Dialogue centers on family, quest, memory, and storytelling with no modern activist, DEI, identity-politics, or systemic-oppression rhetoric.
0%
Identity-driven story themes
Not present. Core themes are grief, parental love, memory versus forgetting, humanity versus immortal perfection, and the power of stories. Kubo’s missing eye is a plot injury by the villain, not disability-politics messaging.
0%
Western institutional / cultural critique
Not present. Antagonists are celestial family seeking perfection and control of Kubo’s eye, not modern critique of Western institutions, patriarchy, capitalism, Christianity, or conservative norms.
0%
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant. Original Laika story pitched by Shannon Tindle, not an identity rewrite of established IP or historical figures.
0%
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
Not present. Documented controversy was representation criticism of white lead voice casting for an Asian-set story. That is pro-DEI complaint and does not count. No meaningful anti-woke campaign claims the story pushes DEI or identity politics.
0%
Creator track record context
Cached creator scores point to a craft-focused director profile for Travis Knight. Writer Chris Butler and producer Arianne Sutner add a moderate lift from LGBTQ-linked or studio pipeline signals. The overall slate is not framed as a radical activist team. Those creator signals do not show up as content inside the film itself.
18%
Production
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