The movie will end up being an Acclaimed Flop.
So far, the movie has grossed $13 million domestically on a $60 million budget. Knowing the large amount of competition it has at the North American box office, it'll bomb domestically but become a success when foreign box office receipts are added in.- If there's any reason why it would become an Acclaimed Flop, it's the fact that theatres are barely giving it any showtimes. This university town only had five screenings... all weekend. Meanwhile Sausage Party had showings throughout the day and Finding Dory was still airing all day.
- In addition to the above reason, it wasn't advertised nearly as much as its competitors.
The Moon King's name is Tsukuyomi
Since that is the name of the Moon God in traditional Shinto beliefs, and the setting of the story is ancient Japan, it makes sense.- He's called "Raiden" in the cast listing. But that's the name of a Shinto thunder god, so that's probably why he wasn't mentioned by name.
Kubo is a girl.
It's what everyone who hasn't watched the movie thinks anyway. It's one of the most frequently asked questions on google. Maybe the story of him retrieving the armor is symbolic of his transition from female to male. Kubo is The Psychopath.
He wasn't even sad after finding out that his village was destroyed and his Mom got killed because of him. Kubo is a Dirty Kid.
For what he did to Sariatu/Monkey. Kubo is The Pollyanna.
But only at the end. Kubo is sexist.
He treats Monkey with no respect, but when he meets an amnesiac beetle he treats him with utmost respect. The reason Kubo's grandfather stole his eye
It's mentioned later in the movie that The Moon King wants Kubo to join him and eventually succeed him. But why would he keep the stolen eye? Because he wanted to become mortal! Perhaps he was tired of having a story that didn't end, and goaded Kubo in the hope that his grandson could finish him off and take his place in the cold heavens. He wanted to experience what humans do... unfortunately for him, the eye theft didn't work out as planned because... Humanity is Infectious
When then Moon King stole Kubo's eye, he only got to experience 'half' of what humanity does. All he 'saw' was the greed, hatred, and violence in humanity which in turn made him more open to experiencing those emotions for himself. That in turn, spread to his two other daughters. This moved them from aloof 'defenders of the heavens/cosmic order' they were implied to once be into the sadistic violent people they are in the movie.- The Moon King was confirmed to have a callous attitude towards humans before Kubo was even born.
Monkey and Beetle never existed.
Monkey and Beetle are revealed to be incarnated versions of Kubo's late mother and father respectively, and both don't have a role in the movie until the second act (and ONLY the second act). Monkey was turned from an inanimate charm into a talking living one inhabiting his mother's soul in a last-ditch attempt by her to protect Kubo before she was killed, and his father was cursed by the Moon King to exist inside a beetle spirit. ...what if Kubo was actually making this journey ALONE? The second act is actually presented inside Kubo's imagination/illusions. They're mechanisms to help Kubo cope with the lose of both his parents. He IS only a boy after all, and that can cause serious mental issues.- Or Kubo is just a regular kid struggling with being in the care of his emotionally distant grandfather after the deaths of his parents, and the whole film is a story he made up to work through it. The final shot is the only "real" part.
- If Kubo were indeed going through his journey alone instead of with two real, physical companions, it begs the question: how did he survive some parts, such as the lake beast? Did the hypnotic eyes shoot themselves with arrows? Granted, if he were just a normal kid making up stories, this is a non-issue. But if the journey actually happened....
Beetle's Bunny-Ears Lawyer personality is what Hanzo was actually like.
The only information we know for certain about Hanzo is his skill as a warrior, and Kubo's mother's failing memory is well established. Maybe the fact that Hanzo was a bit of a goofball when not fighting is one of the things that slipped through the cracks.- Possibly supported by how the Hanzo doll acts rather quirky as well, and its behavior likely comes from whatever Kubo knew about his father.
Kubo is set in one of Japan's earlier periods
Perhaps it was just this troper, but it seemed like Kubo's Japan held a lot of signs an older period of Japan pre-dating the Muromachi Period (the Ashikaga Shogunate to the end of the Sengoku Jidai), maybe as far back as the Asuka period. (this might make Hanzo being called 'A Samurai' and the Sword Unbreakable being a curved blade a bit of an anachronism.) Though, I could be wrong.This video
will explain why. If a sequel ever happens, Kubo will play a different role.
Shannon Tindle put this video on his Tumblr depicting an older Kubo, stated to be about 19. This video was tagged with "samurai" and "ronin" among other things, which is interesting. So if a sequel does happen and these tags are to be trusted, will Kubo become a Samurai lord like his father and try to organize an army against a new threat? Or will he be a Rōnin, wandering his world to help people and tell stories? Either way, it would be very interesting to watch.- Doubtful, since one of the policies at Laika is no sequels.
- That might still leave the possibility for a "sequel" in some other form, like a graphic novel; the art style would translate well to something along those lines.
Non-meta reason for why the Moon King has a thunder-related name
This is coming from the one who wrote the above guess that the Moon King's name was Tsukiyomi. That particular WMG was made before knowing that the script calls him Raiden. But what if Raiden is the Moon King's human name? Maybe as a deity, the Moon King went by the name Tsukiyomi. Then at the end, when his memories are gone and he's turned into a mortal and the villagers fill in the "details" of his missing memories, they would need to give him a name, too. They could have called him Raiden for a couple of reasons. Either not wanting to give him a Meaningful Name that may clue him in on his true past, or they honestly didn't know what his real name was.Everything the the townsfolk told the Brought Down to Normal Moon King was true, long ago.
The old woman saying her husband was dead is Metaphorically True. In reality, she is Kubo's grandmother, and Saritu, Washi, and Karasu's mother, who was once in love with Raiden before he ascended to godhood. He was once everything the townsfolk described, but as a god, he grew embittered once he saw humanity's greatest sins, and eventually forgot he was human in the first place.The Villagers didn't really know Kubo was magic.
In the least, they thought his shamisen magic was just magic tricks coupled with story-telling. And they only learned Kubo was truly magic during the climatic battle. Yet, even after learning of Kubo's powers, the villagers (especially Kameyo) stood by him as a wordless testament that they still loved him.Hanzo's spirit at the end of the movie is both Paper Hanzo and Beetle.
Paper Hanzo contained Beetle's stolen memories. When they die, Hanzo is able to put himself back together and the curse is lifted.The Gashadokuro wasn't granted its Nigh-Invulnerability by the Sword Unbreakable.
Rather, it was chosen as the Sword Unbreakable's guardian because of how durable it was. A Gashadokuro is a type of Youkai, and in Japanese Mythology, there's no real way of fighting one. You might be able to ward it off long enough to escape or for the sun to rise, but you can't ever actually beat it or kill it. Most of the time, all you can do is run. This would make it ideal as a guardian entity, especially since the only way for a Gashadokuro to "die" is for the spirits that make it to let go of the grudge that makes it so dangerous in the first place, which can take hundreds or even thousands of years. Kubo is about Alzheimer’s
- the line “Memories are the greatest magic coupled with monkey / Kubo’s mom saying her “magic was fading”
- Kubo’s mom being more active at night was foreshadowing her being the moon king’s daughter can be seen as a reference to Sun downers.
- maybe the whole movie is just in Kubo’s imagination and in reality his mom has an early form of Alzheimer’s and he is just learning to cope with the fact he is now in his grandfathers ward.
Kubo died at the end.
That's why he was with his parents.