Passes the Bechdel test
Kubo and the Two Strings
2016. Directed by Travis Knight, written by Marc Haimes and Chris Butler and Shannon Tindle.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
10 women characters. 5 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 1 scene out of 51. -
Yes
3. About something besides a man
In that scene, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.
Second opinion
Disagree bechdeltest.com readers give it 1 out of 3.
The film
Kubo lives a quiet, normal life in a small shoreside village until a spirit from the past turns his life upside down by re-igniting an age-old vendetta. This causes all sorts of havoc as gods and monsters chase Kubo who, in order to survive, must locate a magical suit of armor once worn by his late father, a legendary Samurai warrior.
- Released
- 19 Aug 2016
- Genres
- Animation, Action, Adventure
- Rated
- PG
- IMDb
- 7.7 / 10
- Metascore
- 84 / 100
- Awards
- Nominated for 2 Oscars. 33 wins & 67 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Kubo 158 lines, man
- Monkey 158 lines, woman
- Beetle 116 lines, man
- Kameyo 35 lines, woman
- Mother 26 lines, woman
- Sister 15 lines, woman
- Old Man 14 lines, man
- Grandfather 12 lines, man
- Hosato 7 lines, man
- Mari 7 lines, woman
Full cast, 22 people
- Art Parkinson as Kubo (voice)
- Charlize Theron as Monkey / Mother (voice)
- Matthew McConaughey as Beetle / Hanzo (voice)
- Brenda Vaccaro as Kameyo (voice)
- Ralph Fiennes as Moon King (voice)
- Rooney Mara as The Sisters (voice)
- George Takei as Hosato (voice)
- Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Hashi (voice)
- Meyrick Murphy as Mari (voice)
- Minae Noji as Minae (voice)
- Alpha Takahashi as Aiko (voice)
- Laura Miro as Miho (voice)
- Ken Takemoto as Ken (voice)
- Aaron Aoki as Villager (voice)
- Luke Donaldson as Villager (voice)
- Michael Sun Lee as Villager (voice)
- Cary Y. Mizobe as Villager (voice)
- Rachel Morihiro as Villager (voice)
- Thomas Isao Morinaka as Villager (voice)
- Saemi Nakamura as Villager (voice)
- Zachary Alexander Rice as Villager (voice)
- Mariel Sheets as Villager (voice)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 4% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 51
Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.
Show the numbers
| Scenes | Women's lines | Men's lines |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | 0 | 1 |
| 3 to 4 | 0 | 1 |
| 5 to 6 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 to 8 | 15 | 20 |
| 9 to 10 | 20 | 15 |
| 11 to 12 | 17 | 5 |
| 13 to 14 | 5 | 14 |
| 15 to 16 | 5 | 3 |
| 17 to 18 | 3 | 2 |
| 19 to 20 | 7 | 0 |
| 21 to 22 | 24 | 19 |
| 23 to 24 | 10 | 8 |
| 25 to 26 | 13 | 29 |
| 27 to 28 | 17 | 30 |
| 29 to 30 | 25 | 29 |
| 31 to 32 | 10 | 19 |
| 33 to 34 | 23 | 8 |
| 35 to 36 | 22 | 18 |
| 37 to 38 | 3 | 19 |
| 39 to 40 | 6 | 14 |
| 41 to 42 | 0 | 2 |
| 43 to 44 | 15 | 11 |
| 45 to 46 | 1 | 24 |
| 47 to 48 | 9 | 23 |
| 49 to 50 | 0 | 5 |
| 51 to 51 | 0 | 1 |
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: the passing scene
The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.
KAMEYO: Yes! MARI: Every day, you walk around smiling and handing out coins to children... like me! KAMEYO: And old women!
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 44 are women's.
250 lines from women, 320 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
10 women and 10 men in the cast. 5 women and 6 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 10 of 594.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 39 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 46% of the words (2,501), men 54% (2,920). Women have 44% of the lines, so their lines run longer than men's.
Exhibit E: the test the other way
Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.
Conversations between two named characters
Two women
1
Two men
30
Exhibit F: behind the camera
3 of the 14 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 14% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Travis Knight (man)
- Written by
- Marc Haimes (man), Chris Butler (man)
- Story by
- Marc Haimes (man), Shannon Tindle (man)
- Produced by
- Travis Knight (man), Arianne Sutner (woman)
- Shot by
- Frank Passingham (man)
- Edited by
- Christopher Murrie (man)
- Music by
- Dario Marianelli (man)
- Production design by
- Nelson Lowry (gender not listed), Daniel R. Casey (gender not listed)
- Costumes by
- Deborah Cook (woman)
- Cast by
- Allison Jones (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Visual Effects
1 women, 13 men, 44 not listed
-
Sound
1 women, 15 men, 8 not listed
-
Other crew
2 women, 6 men, 14 not listed
-
Production
4 women, 4 men, 14 not listed
-
Art
0 women, 6 men, 14 not listed
-
Directing
0 women, 2 men, 7 not listed
-
Writing
0 women, 6 men, 1 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 1 men, 5 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 41 on average. Men: 51 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Meyrick Murphy 12, Rooney Mara 31, Charlize Theron 41, Minae Noji 43, Brenda Vaccaro 76
Men
Art Parkinson 14, Matthew McConaughey 46, Ralph Fiennes 53, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa 65, George Takei 79
Exhibit H: the money
It made 1.3 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $60 million
- Box office
- $76.2 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 51 scenes and 594 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
