Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)

I found this animation outstanding, as it showed us audience how beautiful they've presented the locations with fantastic visuals effect, alongside with a good story. The story is set in ancient Japan, where a boy named Kubo lives with his mother near a village, he also has a magical Shamisen (Japaneses instrument with 3 strings). He than goes on a journey when the village gets destroyed and must find an Armour, Sword and a Helmet in order to defeat his grandfather. The Animation gets all it's inspiration from the Japanese culture, we can tell this because of the locations (environments and villages), their culture such as how they celebrate, lighting up a lantern and placing on a river as a remembrance of their lost love one,samurai warriors and also ancient creatures.

I personally enjoyed the breathtaking locations and the huge creature in the animation, as it gives an idea of what the company is capable of, Especially how they've created the creatures by making huge puppet/models of it. A great example is the huge Skeleton, which he’s the largest stop-motion puppet ever created, standing over 18 feet tall with an incredible 24-foot wingspan. As for the location they created many different sets of it and once they've done recording the stop-motion, they hand the footage to the person in charge with the VFX effects and let them do their role, in order to make it more realistic and eye catching for the audience. Overall I think this is a great experience watching this stop motion, granting you many ideas on how they've done it, and I think if you haven't watched it yet, make sure you do.