What would Beauty and the Beast be without Céline Dion?
The songbird contributed the 1991 animated film’s soundtrack, singing the pop version of the title track with Peabo Bryson.
(Angela Lansbury recorded the film version).
Bryson and Dion’s duet won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe, reaching No. 9 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart.
With the live-action version of Beauty and the Beast premiering March 17 (starring Luke Evans, Josh Gad, Dan Stevens and Emma Watson), veteran composer Alan Menken asked Dion to sing another original ballad.
The song, “How Does a Moment Last Forever,” plays over the end titles.
Kubo and the Two Strings is a 2016 American 3D stop-motion fantasy action adventure film, directed by Travis Knight, written by Marc Haimes and Chris Butler, and produced by Laika.
The film features the voices of Art Parkinson, Charlize Theron, Matthew McConaughey, Ralph Fiennes, Rooney Mara and George Takei.
~PLOT~
In ancient Japan, Kubo (Art Parkinson) is a young boy who lives with his ill mother, Sariatu (Charlize Theron), in a cave on top of a mountain. Every day he goes out to a nearby village to tell stories by manipulating pieces of paper that form into origami that moves under music played from Kubo’s shamisen.
He tells tales of great warriors seeking revenge while battling monsters, primarily of a samurai warrior named Hanzo, who is Kubo’s missing father. Every day he quickly returns to his mother when the town bell chimes signaling sunset. She instructs him not to stay outside after dark or her Sisters (his aunts) and his grandfather, the Moon King, will come to take his remaining eye, as they took the other when he was a baby.
One day, Kubo learns of a ceremony where family members communicate with deceased loved ones (Obon). He arrives at a cemetery and tries to speak to his father, but he leaves in anger when his father does not respond to him. Because Kubo has stayed outside after sundown, his mother’s Sisters (Rooney Mara) find him and try to take his eye. After they destroy the village, his mother arrives to fend off her Sisters.
His mother sends Kubo away by touching a beetle crest on his robe which gives him wings, forcing him to fly away from his mother. She tells him to find his father’s armor in order to protect Kubo from his grandfather’s evil spirits. He takes a piece of her hair before she is seemingly killed by her Sisters.
Upon his return to the village, he is able to reclaim the helmet and puts it on. He is greeted by Raiden (Ralph Fiennes), the ghost that appeared to Kubo in his dream. Raiden is revealed to be his grandfather, the Moon King. The Moon King, who needs Kubo’s eye to rid Kubo of all his powers and memories, transforms into the “Moon Beast” and fights Kubo. Kubo is defeated and tossed into the cemetery where the Moon King corners him as well as the surviving villagers.
Kubo retaliates by taking off the armor and repairs his shamisen using the hair of his mother, his father’s bowstring, and one of his own hairs. He uses its magic to recruit the spirits of the villagers’ deceased, showing that memories are the strongest form of magic and can never be destroyed. The Moon King is defeated and becomes mortal, and in his human form has no recollection of who or what he was.
The villagers make him believe that he is a good man. After the villagers set their lanterns near a lake, Kubo is able to speak with his parents and make peace with them, saying that he is happy he was able to go on a journey with them.
They then appear beside him in the form of spirits.
It Is What It Is 