Kubo and the Two Strings Artist Signing!

Jondee here at Gallery Nucleus,

On the weekend, November 5th, was the Kubo and the Two Strings artist panel. It also included a signing all of which was at Gallery Nucleus in Alhambra. Tickets were on sale and the room was packed. Attending the panel was Trevor Dalmer, concept artist, the film’s costume designer, Deborah Cook, Georgina Hayns, Head of Puppet Fabrication, and the art director for Kubo and the Two Strings, Alice Bird. This was an incredible follow-up to the appearance by Travis Knight last weekend. Dalmer spoke first about the influence of the Saito Kiyoshi wood block prints on the film. Artwork of the village was shown. He also noted the theme of paper used in the film with origami, but also in the designs. Dalmer showed a slide of the leaf boat which he initially constructed out of leaves, but reworked in the computer. Then, a slide of the Hall of Bones which he said was based on ossuaries. He noted that they could have constructed the tunnel in CG, but the Laika way is to sometimes use found objects like cardboard tubes that are imperfect, maybe dented, that brings character to a scene.

Cook noted that the finished puppet followed the silhouette and initial design of the characters. The impressive part was holding up the puppet of the Sister and showing how the articulation of her feathered cape worked with piano strings as part of the frame. Hayns noted that Bird explained that the tongue used in the whale corpse set was made from bubble wrap. She said that the leaf count for the leaf boat was under one million! I posed the “technically challenging” question about the scars on the characters and it was answered that initially they didn’t want to know who was Monkey. Kubo and the Two Strings is available now on digital HD and the Blu Ray will be out on November 22nd. The signing was brilliant, there were copies of The Art of Kubo and the Two Strings by Emily Haynes, prints of Kubo artwork, and even the Kubo action figure! A pair of exclusive Kubo XV Air Jordans was won by the holder of ticket 681777! The Laika 10 Year Anniversary Exhibition ends on November 13th, there is some beautiful artwork, don’t miss it! Another great event by Gallery Nucleus.