In Ancient Japan, Kubo (Art Parkinson) is a young boy who lives with his sick mother, Sariatu (Charlize Theron) in a cave on top of a mountain. Every day, he goes out to the nearby Sun Village to tell stories by making pieces of paper move to music, and is instructed by his mother not to stay outside after dark, otherwise, her Sisters (his aunts) and his grandfather, Raiden, the Moon King (Ralph Fiennes) will succeed in taking his remaining eye as they took the other when he was a baby.
The First Battle
The next day, Kubo learns of a ceremony where family members could communicate with dead loved ones, and attends in a bid to speak with his dead father, Hanzo (Matthew McConaughey), but leaves in anger when he does not respond to him. Because he has stayed outside past sunset, his mother’s Sisters (Rooney Mara) find him and try to take his remaining eye. In the ensuing battle, they destroy the village and kills Kubo’s mother, but not before she successfully sends him away by touching a beetle crest on his robe which gives him wings. As he flies away, she tells him to find his father’s armour as a from of protection from Raiden’s evil spirits.
Kubo Meets Monkey and Beetle
Kubo wakes up and meets Monkey, who had been a little wooden monkey charm for Kubo before she was brought to life by his mother’s magic. Monkey is the reincarnation of Kubo’s mother, but he doesn’t know! Monkey promises to help Kubo find the armour, and also helps him wind a strand of his mother’s hair (which Kubo had pulled as he fled) into a bracelet.
In the course of their journey, they meet Beetle (Matthew McConaughey), who is also Hanzo – Kubo’s supposedly dead father – but none of them know, not even Hanzo himself! This is because he was transformed by the Sisters into a beetle-like man with no recollection of his true identity, believing himself to be Hanzo’s apprentice.
Thinking Kubo to be the son of his master, Hanzo, Beetle vows to help him in his quest.
The First Piece Of Armour
On the verge of reclaiming Hanzo’s sword (which is buried on the skull of a skeleton), it rises up to attack them but soon collapses to the ground as they escape the cave to safety. They arrive at a beach where Kubo uses his magic to create a boat out of fallen leaves, and they set sail to find the next piece of Hanzo’s armour – the breastplate.
The Second Piece Of Armour
The breastplate lies below the sea in the Garden of Eyes, where intruders are hypnotised and paralysed before they are eaten by a monster. Beetle dives in to retrieve the breastplate, but becomes distracted. While Kubo goes in to try to help him, he becomes hypnotised by the giant eyes. It is in this state that he comes to know through a revelation that Monkey is in fact his mother.
Together with Beetle, they escape the monster and once again encountered The Sisters who destroyed their boat, and wounded Monkey in a fight that eventually takes the life of one of The Sisters!
In a dream, Kubo is shown the last piece of his father’s armour – his samurai helmet – by a ghost bearing a striking resemblance to the Moon King. But this is a trap!
The Last Piece Of Armour
In their quest to claim the last piece, they are met by the remaining Sister who reveals that Beetle is indeed Kubo’s father, Hanzo. She attacks Kubo’s mother and father and eventually Beetle is killed, while Monkey sacrifices her life to allow Kubo obtain the last piece of armour. In memory of his parents, Kubo takes the string from his father’s broken bow and winds it into the second bracelet on his wrist, alongside the one made from his mother’s hair.
Using the beetle crest, he flies away to Sun Village to retrieve the helmet, the final armour piece. There, he is met by Raiden who needs Kubo’s remaining eye to rid him of all his powers and memories. When Kubo refuses, a fight ensues and the Moon King is wounded in one eye while Kubo is imprisoned in a cemetery.
The Final Battle
Kubo retaliates by taking off the armour, repairs his shamisen using the hair of his mother, his father’s bowstring, and one of his own hairs and uses magic to bring back the spirits of the dead villagers. He then casts a protective sphere of magic over the cemetery, making it difficult for the Moon King to break. Then, in one final blast of light the Moon king is defeated.
Will Kubo pay the Moon King back in his own coin for all his evil? Or does he and the villagers have something else up their sleeve? What about his parents, will he be able to use his magic to bring them back to life?