**Editor's Note - I saw this with my daughter Friday. It is one of the best films I have seen this year. Fair warning, the main site didn't review it but the user comments are a bit rough.**
Negative—The movie though visually entertaining was an attack on the faith Jesus told us to have. “Moon god” represented mature Christians faithful believers who have set their affections above and not beneath. The enemy will do whatever he can with his cohorts to divert our hearts from wanting to be where he is. They use family as a means to seed in children to revile and hate the older generation of believers, even if that means killing them. Not to discourage loving BOTH of your parents, but the first relationship was Adam’s relationship with God. They show prayer to dead people, instead of God, and a host of other things that do not line up…
Moral rating: Extremely Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 3½
—Jacob King II, age 45 (USA)
Moral rating: Extremely Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 3½
—Jacob King II, age 45 (USA)
Negative—I just saw this movie with my daughter, and it was highly problematic. As usual, the effects and storytelling are used to make the antibiblical friendly and accessible (and to cause empathy) in the viewers. I had great doubts about seeing this movie when I saw the previews, so I regret that I did not stick to my feelings. First, there is the issue with communicating with the dead. Being that the religion of the characters is traditional, esoteric eastern Asian (or maybe Buddhist… I am not well versed in Buddhism), you have the main action begin when Kubo desires to speak with his dead father (like everyone else at some religious holiday they are celebrating with floating lights).
Previous to that, Kubo seems basically like a warlock or witch or something with the paper show he creates. From there, you get a little Harry Potter and Voldemort’s horrocrux when the mom somehow cast her soul into a monkey talisman that later comes to life upon her death… But, like Voldemort, she isn’t dead, because… she cast her soul or a fragment of it or something into a monkey. Yeesh! That was absolutely even more shocking on top of the communicating with the dead.
Although usually I would be super happy to see a film for young kids that stresses the importance of listening to parents and the value of elders in society, this time the parents” value comes from their anti-Biblical pagan beliefs and the vaguely demonic. I am not happy with it at all. It ends with Kubo reunited with his parents at the river… or rather, Kubo finally being able to speak with his dead parents at the river, where people send out the lights to return the ancestors to the realm of the dead (a la “Thor,” the second movie, kind of).
Don’t see this movie if you believe in God. The premise seems to introduce dark and evil themes in a benign—seeming way to people and promote a kind of ancestor worship or “alternative “belief system. You cannot help but feel some empathy and get caught in the story, but the story is all wrong. It is all wrong. I deeply regret participating in contributing money to this film’s endeavor, and I hope that this review helps other people to do what I knew in my heart I should have done when I first saw the preview: don’t go. So far, the hour has mostly been spent dissecting the movie and discussing why it was not a good film to see, even though the film looked beautiful, and the animation great. My only hope is that we all (I had invited other people, as well) forget it, sooner than later.
Moral rating: Extremely Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 5
—Aletha, age 39 (USA)
Previous to that, Kubo seems basically like a warlock or witch or something with the paper show he creates. From there, you get a little Harry Potter and Voldemort’s horrocrux when the mom somehow cast her soul into a monkey talisman that later comes to life upon her death… But, like Voldemort, she isn’t dead, because… she cast her soul or a fragment of it or something into a monkey. Yeesh! That was absolutely even more shocking on top of the communicating with the dead.
Although usually I would be super happy to see a film for young kids that stresses the importance of listening to parents and the value of elders in society, this time the parents” value comes from their anti-Biblical pagan beliefs and the vaguely demonic. I am not happy with it at all. It ends with Kubo reunited with his parents at the river… or rather, Kubo finally being able to speak with his dead parents at the river, where people send out the lights to return the ancestors to the realm of the dead (a la “Thor,” the second movie, kind of).
Don’t see this movie if you believe in God. The premise seems to introduce dark and evil themes in a benign—seeming way to people and promote a kind of ancestor worship or “alternative “belief system. You cannot help but feel some empathy and get caught in the story, but the story is all wrong. It is all wrong. I deeply regret participating in contributing money to this film’s endeavor, and I hope that this review helps other people to do what I knew in my heart I should have done when I first saw the preview: don’t go. So far, the hour has mostly been spent dissecting the movie and discussing why it was not a good film to see, even though the film looked beautiful, and the animation great. My only hope is that we all (I had invited other people, as well) forget it, sooner than later.
Moral rating: Extremely Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 5
—Aletha, age 39 (USA)
Movie Critics
…a dangerous intro to Buddhism and atheist thinking…
—Ted Baehr, Movieguide
—Ted Baehr, Movieguide
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