“Stealth is my middle name.”
“You don’t even have a first name.”

A charming hero’s journey from the digital stop-motion animation maestros at Laika, Kubo and the Two Strings begins with a bold word of advice: “If you must blink, do it now.” While this might be construed as a cheeky remark on the loss of the eponymous young bard’s left eye, it primarily suggests to the audience that what is to follow is worth paying careful attention to. The film mostly delivers on that promise, thanks to a brilliant animation style, a fairytale storytelling sensibility, and strong doses of pathos, melancholy, and wit. Appealing to both children and adults, the film follows the quest of a young boy (Art Parkinson) with the ability to bring origami shapes to vibrant life with the playing of his shamisen, which he does to support his ailing mother. Supported by a trio of sidekicks—a silent paper samurai with an unwavering sense of direction, a mannish beetle with amnesia (Matthew McConaughey), and a protective monkey totem magically brought to life (Charlize Theron)—Kubo goes on a grand adventure through an ancient, mythic Japan to finally comprehend the twisted, unfinished tale of his family’s history. While the latter portion of the film is slightly marred by a few too many generic swashbuckling sequences, and one thunderous tonal misstep is hard to ignore, there is a real sense of enchantment here—of the importance of memory, of the power of storytelling, of the human condition. (Its theology is quite a bit too rudderlessly New Age for me to get totally onboard, even in a magical fantasy context, but I won’t lose any sleep over it.) Couple that with the meta stop-motion setpieces that reward the watchfulness suggested by the opening lines, and you’ve got a compelling animated work that might stack up against a lesser effort from Studio Ghibli.