Easily my favorite movie of the year, and one of my all-time favorites, Kubo and the Two Strings is now available on Digital HD, Blu-ray and DVD.
To catch up, you can read about my experience at the Kubo press day where I got to ask Charlize Theron and Travis Knight some important questions or you can read my 10 Things post or even one of the articles written by one of our other writers. Can you tell how much a lot of us love this movie yet?
So enough about the movie itself, what about the home release and special features?
As always, I highly recommend getting the combo pack. Having the Blu-ray for home, the DVD for the car, and the digital HD for travel is a great way to cover all of your bases. There are two combo pack versions available–the regular Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD and the 3D Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD. You can also opt to get just the DVD, but you’ll miss out on a lot of the extras. The DVD only has the following extras (which are also included on both 3D combo packs): Japanese Inspiration, the team discussing the inspiration for the story; Corners of the Earth, the team discussing the challenges of the landscapes and locations; The Myth of Kubo, the team discussing the story by Chris Butler and Marc Haimes at the core of Kubo; and the feature commentary with director and producer Travis Knight.
On both of the combo packs, you also get the following bonus features: An introduction by Travis Knight; Mythical Monsters, the crew discusses the techniques they had to come up with to create the varied antagonists; Braving the Elements, learn all about how the Laika crew met the challenge of creating all of the weather and water effects; The Redemptive and Healing Power of Music, learn about how traditional and contemporary music was combined by composer Dario Marianelli (I’ve mentioned before what a key piece the music is to this movie); and an epilogue by Travis Knight.
So the important, burning question is whether or not its worth buying this movie and getting the combo pack. If you enjoyed the movie, if you enjoy stop-motion animation, if you enjoy 3D animation, or if you enjoy good storytelling, you should definitely get the combo pack. Travis Knight is an amazing speaker and storyteller and the commentary and extras with him are a joy to watch. I also love seeing all the behind the scenes stuff as I’ve always had a joy and love of stop-motion animation. Every single thing on this disc is worth watching at least once if not multiple times.
If you haven’t seen Kubo and the Two Strings, you’re missing out and should fix that right away. Either way, if you’re a fan of Laika and what they do, you should grab a copy. There is even an Ultimate Laika Collection Edition that was released today that includes Coraline, Paranorman, and Box Trolls in addition to Kubo.
NOTE: I received a review copy of this movie but all thoughts and opinions above are my own.
