Adorkable: Absolutely. From walking through a field with his paper Hanzo doll above his head to freaking out over obtaining the Sword Unbreakable, Kubo is just great to watch.
The cause of Sariatu's condition, wherein she's catatonic for most of the day with only brief periods of lucidness and suffers from memory loss. Is it because she's a formerly divine being gone from her place of birth to the human realm? Is it because she and her family are all beings of the night that she's only really active at night time rather than the day? Or does it all stem from the severe head trauma she received when Kubo was a baby?
Beetle's reckless actions like grabbing the sword from the Gashadokuro's hand or jumping overboard to find the armor. While it could simply be his Leeroy Jenkins nature, it could also just be him acting on his promise of swearing his life to Kubo?
Angst? What Angst?: Just one day after apparently losing his mother and his entire village, Kubo is surprisingly chipper, playing around with his magic to make the flock of origami birds. Granted, it turned out that neither the townsfolk nor his mother were really actually dead at that point, but he didn't know that at the time.
Award Snub: It lost the Oscar for Best Animated Feature to Zootopia. To further add salt to the wound, it lost the award for Best Visual Effects to The Jungle Book (2016). Fans were very upset although given the unusual number of high caliber animated films that were released in 2016, it was an unfortunate but inevitable case of There Can Be Only Onenote It did, however, win the BAFTA that year. .
Awesome Art: The traditional animation used during the end credits sequence has made many long for the day Laika makes a traditionally animated film.
Broken Base: The ending with Kubo's grandfather being subjected to Heel–Face Brainwashing divided some viewers on whether it was a touching, satisfying solution or Narmy, coming out of nowhere, and turning the film's moral about the importance of memories into a Broken Aesop, since it's achieved by erasing his.
The twist that Monkey and Beetle were Kubo's parents the whole time isn't exactly hard to see coming, especially once they start bickering Like an Old Married Couple. The fact that Charlize Theron voices both Monkey and Sariatu also contributes to this, and additionally suggests that the creators thought it was so obvious that Monkey's identity wasn't worth even trying to hide.
The blind old man with a moon-like crest on the chest meeting Kubo in his dream during a full moon night turned out to be the Moon King himself.
Evil Is Cool: The Sisters have gained a decent amount of popularity among fans, thanks to their designs and Rooney Mara's wonderfully creepy voice work.
Heartwarming in Hindsight: With the reveal that Monkey and Beetle are Kubo's mother and father respectively, it becomes this as Kubo had all that time been travelling with his parents.
Moe: Kubo not only is a Heartwarming Orphan who deeply cares for his mother, but he also puts up with so much crazy bunk that you just wanna protect the kid!
Narm: The Moon King's dragon form would not be as intimidating if you think it was just an angry giant sea monkey.
One-Scene Wonder: The Gashadokuro only appears for a single scene and barely makes an impression on the characters, but it certainly makes quite an impression on the audience.
Shocking Moments: It starts when Kubo's mother hits her face hard on a rock, and just builds from there. Plus, the time-lapse demonstration of just how big the skeleton puppet actually was.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Kubo coping with his mother's mental condition is no longer explored after she turned into Monkey.
Visual Effects of Awesome: Watch almost every single effect, from the minor character movements to the intense action scenes. Now try to remind yourself that it's all stop-motion. There's a reason why it's the second animated film to get the Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects.
What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Zigzags throughout the movie. While the movie does have its very dark themes, such as death being shown onscreen and the plot being kicked off by Kubo getting one of his eyes ripped out as a baby, it also has its hopeful messages and emphasizes The Power of Love.
Win Back the Crowd: After the mixed reception to the writing quality of The Box Trolls, many Laika fans were quick to praise Kubo for a return to the mature smart storytelling that their earlier films were praised for.
that plays over the trailer and credits.