Did anyone else feel like the story-telling felt a little ...flat?

Maybe "flat" isn't the best word to describe what I felt but...

Maybe I'm getting too old for kids' movies, but I sensed the twists immediately--where the macaque was what I interpreted to be the serious, functional side of the mother and Beetle turned out to be Kubo's dad (at first I thought that maybe he had been a comrade of Hanzo and would act as a stand-in father for Kubo, but no he WAS the father, which was a runner-up guess). Unless those twists were supposed to be meant for children and not adults who have seen similar things before?

I enjoyed the absolute beauty of the story; I watched it in 3D and while there wasn't *beep* that was being thrown at me (I hate that kind of gimmick), the effects made it seem like a pop-up story book, which I think made me enjoy the film even more because of the underlying idea that this is a story.

I was interested in this film primarily because of centering around Japanese culture and the natural feel of "This is how Japanese life is" (in a child-friendly lens, of course) made it all the more entertaining.

What didn't really mesh with me, if I had to zero in on some things was:

1. The dialogue. Some lines were info-dropping and felt a bit out of place. Only a few lines made me laugh, some of them were from McConaughey and some of them were from Charlize's deadpan delivery.

2. For a film that kind of sets itself up as a saga, they seem to find all of the pieces very quickly. I mean, I guess that I expect a bit more trouble to finding them, but I'm probably used to things taking awhile when it comes to treasure hunting. In a way, I guess that the relative ease that they had getting those items reads much like a short folk story in of itself: The hero's journey is usually straightforward and they don't delay much on each item on the list...

3. I really, really wanted a bit more backstory on, well, everything. What was life like in the Heavens? Did the mother live with her son on earth, is that what happened? How did the Moon King manage to take the boy's eye or rather what exactly happened when he did do it, and how old was the boy when it happened? A few months? A few weeks? Almost a year? What other forms of magic are there in this world, if the mother can use a biwa and one of the sisters can use a pipe and manipulate smoke? How were the sisters created? Is the Moon King "God" or is he simply a major deity? What is the Moon King's role in the universe, and will his absence affect the world at all?

4. The last 15 minutes of the film seemed like a mish-mash of "lessons" that didn't seem to fit together well, or they weren't conveyed very smoothly. The movie at first was, from what I gathered, about adventure and how a storyteller could very easily become the protagonist in their own story called Life or something, then I think that, subtly, a family isn't always simply a mom and a dad, but can take on many different shapes (A monkey and a beetle), then it became about how being human means being humane and "seeing peoples' souls" and compassion and love, then it became about how the memories of your loved ones are always with you and that's how they live on.

If I had to illustrate how I felt these ideas were conveyed, I'd say it was like:

A--------a----a---------A

Where A = Theme or idea is established, and "a" is subtle reassertion of that theme, and the --- is other stuff happening in the meantime.

For example, we see in the beginning of the worship of ancestors with the lamp-lighting ceremony. The idea that the people you have loved and lost always being with you and all that is sort of put on hold (or I guess kept in mind but not mentioned again) in favor of other ideas until it is revealed that the Snow Monkey/Macaque is actually the reincarnation of the Mother, or perhaps the manifestation of a piece of the Mom's soul and consciousness? Then it goes goes goes goes and then at the end Kubo uses his powers to trigger the spirits of the dead to illustrate to the Moon King that humans are not alone even when their loved ones are taken from them because of memories and yadda yadda yadda..


Maybe it's just me, but I like these ideas to kind of be underlying themes that are built upon as the story goes. Some people feel that having it always be present completely ruins subtlety and grates on the nerves and it totally can! I just felt like, well, it kind of felt ...tacked on at the end, as if the film was saying "Okay we have all these themes, now let's compound them and do a review of what we've learned these past few hours!" and the bullet points were all but listed off at the finale of Kubo's stand off with the Moon King.

I think this film is absolutely gorgeous and worth renting for kids, but as an adult the story had some cracks in it that left me feeling a bit like I was missing out on something. Perhaps it was world-building that I was missing? I don't know, what are your thoughts?

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You shut your mouth when you're talking to me!