The Boxtrolls
Directed by: Graham Annable, Anthony Stacchi
Written by: Irena Brignull, Adam Pava, based on the novel "Here Be Monsters!" by Alan Snow
Voices by: Ben Kingsley, Isaac Hempstead Wright, Elle Fanning, Dee Bradley Baker, Steve Blum, Toni Collette, Jared Harris, Nick Frost, Richard Ayoade, Tracy Morgan, Simon Pegg
Animation/Adventure/Comedy/Family/Fantasy - 97 min
Written by: Irena Brignull, Adam Pava, based on the novel "Here Be Monsters!" by Alan Snow
Voices by: Ben Kingsley, Isaac Hempstead Wright, Elle Fanning, Dee Bradley Baker, Steve Blum, Toni Collette, Jared Harris, Nick Frost, Richard Ayoade, Tracy Morgan, Simon Pegg
Animation/Adventure/Comedy/Family/Fantasy - 97 min
Stop-motion films are as rare nowadays as a non-sequel blockbuster. The amount of effort it takes to produce just two seconds of useable footage is exhausting to even think about. The Boxtrolls took years to make because it frequently takes an entire day to achieve those two seconds. One single frame may take a half hour to set up and there are 24 frames a second. The Boxtrolls is not even completely stop-motion; it is a stop-motion, hand-drawn, and CG hybrid animated film. No matter the percentages of how much of the film is composed from a particular creative process, The Boxtrolls is a gorgeous film showing off an original story and introduces us to a new world full of wonderful characters.
The spire town of Cheesebridge contains characters with such juicy names as Archibald Snatcher and Lord Portly-Rind. Social status and class-consciousness are important in Cheesebridge where the elite’s main hobby of choice is enjoying the finest dairy products in the land in the exclusive cheese tasting room. An elongated white hat signifies you are a town leader. Archibald Snatcher (Ben Kingsley, 2013's Ender's Game) is a red-hatted laborer yearning for a white hat. Striking a deal with the town mayor, Lord Portly-Rind (Jared Harris, 2014's Pompeii), Snatcher will earn his white hat when he disposes of the town’s menacing boxtrolls.
The spire town of Cheesebridge contains characters with such juicy names as Archibald Snatcher and Lord Portly-Rind. Social status and class-consciousness are important in Cheesebridge where the elite’s main hobby of choice is enjoying the finest dairy products in the land in the exclusive cheese tasting room. An elongated white hat signifies you are a town leader. Archibald Snatcher (Ben Kingsley, 2013's Ender's Game) is a red-hatted laborer yearning for a white hat. Striking a deal with the town mayor, Lord Portly-Rind (Jared Harris, 2014's Pompeii), Snatcher will earn his white hat when he disposes of the town’s menacing boxtrolls.
Unfortunately for them, the boxtrolls have an image problem. They are not the bone-crunching, baby-stealing monsters they are portrayed to be. They are tinkerers and builders who are quite friendly even though they look grotesque until you get used to them. They wear cardboard boxes around their midsections because there is nothing a boxtroll loves best than to curl up and hide inside. Their names are whatever the box used to contain. There is Fish, Shoe, Oil Can, and even Eggs.
Eggs (Isaac Hempstead Wright, HBO's Game of Thrones) believes he is a boxtroll, just a long-boned one. Eggs is actually a boy raised by the boxtrolls and considers them his family. One of The Boxtrolls’s main themes is the idea and elastic definition of family. Eggs has no biological mother or father around, but his box troll family is just as loving and close as any normal, nuclear family, perhaps even more so. Winnie (Elle Fanning, 2014's Maleficent), a girl who stumbles upon Eggs and his peculiar living situation actually has a father, Lord Portly-Rind in fact, yet they share no familial bond of loyalty or support.
Created by LAIKA Studios, who also made Coraline (2009) and ParaNorman (2011), The Boxtrolls is adapted from the fantasy adventure book Here Be Monsters! by Alan Snow. It is a period piece combining elements of mystery, comedy, and swashbuckling adventure in a steampunk atmosphere. There is no exact time period referenced but early 20th century is as good a guess as any. Shot in stereoscopic 3D, there are points where the third dimension is employed effectively, yet I venture an old-fashioned, brighter 2D version would be much more appealing. The Boxtrolls is new and exciting with an impactful story to tell; it does not require 3D gimmicks to try and hide any weaknesses in the film or showcase explosions.
The voice work is noticeably superior to many of its animated peers. Ben Kingsley as Archibald Snatcher is particularly memorable. He is the town villain and boxtroll nemesis but he is also the most intriguing character. His ambition toward upward mobility and opinion that any hard-working man with a dream should achieve stature regardless of wealth is an admirable subplot only the adults in the audience will pick up on. His henchmen are also more philosophically conscious than your average thugs. Mr. Trout (Nick Frost, 2013's The World's End) and Mr. Pickles (Richard Ayoade) closely examine their roles to determine whether or not they are the good guys or the bad guys.
Never fear though, The Boxtrolls will still please the children in the audience. The boxtroll voices sound like a lower-toned one or two year old trying to say the correct words but unable to. They mostly gesture to get their meaning across and can say a couple recognizable words. Stay for the end credits as there is an existential segment the adults are going to love; it is a perfect cap on an already strong and memorable film.
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