Telling earnest stories of a hero’s journey never goes out of style.

Kubo and the Two Strings, the latest film from the Oregon-based stop-motion animation studio Laika, portrays the story of a young boy who has a very special ability: the powerful inherited gift of magic-infused storytelling.

Kubo (voiced by Game of Thrones’ Art Parkinson) shares stories with an audience in his small village using his three-stringed shamisen, but he knows little about the extent of his powers. Instead, he spends most of his time caring for his convalescent mother, who never fully recovered from the death of Kubo’s father years ago, in an accident that cost Kubo one of his eyes.

We caught up with director Travis Knight and he gave us a behind the scenes look at the magical world of Kubo. When asked about the biggest conflict he ran into during production, Knight told us:

“There’s nothing that’s easy in stop motion. Telling a big cinematic epic in this medium is virtually unheard of, so we knew there were gonna be a lot of things that were challenging. Something as simple as getting it to look like characters are intimately connecting with each other. [We’re dealing with] puppets and little dolls, so it can be challenging sometimes. The action sequences are hard as well.”

Kubo and the Two Strings hits theaters on Friday, August 19. Check out an exclusive behind the scenes look at the film in the video above.

PHOTO CREDIT: Getty 

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