SPOILERS

• Laika has to be one of the most underrated production teams alive today.
  
• I thought this movie was directed by the same guy who did Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline. I was honestly mistaken, but Travis Knight did a fantastic job.
  
• This is as pure a love letter to Japanese culture as any American can write. There's no stereotypes and all the characters, places, and environments feel right out of a Japanese epic.
• This was something of a departure for characters like Kubo. It seems that, normally, this kid would be an outcast, pushed around by other villagers and looked down upon. But in a charming trope break, all the villagers actually like Kubo, even the people who could plausibly resent his magic and charisma. It makes one feel very fond of the hero and adds to the overall tragedy as he takes care of his mother.
  
• Yeah, it's almost all white people with vocal roles. My response to this is: who cares? It's a puppet show. If this were live action, the critics may have a point (like they did with, say, The Last Airbender, but then nothing about that movie was decent) but with a movie like this, where all the characters are Asian and are--in the main--portrayed positively, it sounds more like they're whining that a relative didn't get a job. One of the great controversies today is whether these animated movies really need big name stars to provide voices, but as long as the practice holds we just have to deal with it.
• Somebody needs to win an award for this.