The Boxtrolls

• Directed by Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi (Feature Directorial Debuts)
• August 31, 2014 (Venice) / September 12, 2014 (UK) / September 26, 2014 (US)
• Loosely based on the 2005 novel Here Be Monsters! by Alan Snow

Voice Cast

• Eggs-Isaac Hempstead Wright
• Archibald Snatcher-Ben Kingsley
• Winifred “Winnie” Portley-Rind-Elle Fanning
• Fish, Wheels, Bucket-Dee Bradley Baker
• Shoe, Sparky-Steve Blum
• Lady Cynthia Portley-Rind-Toni Collette
• Lord Charles Portley-Rind-Jared Harris
• Mr. Trout-Nick Frost
• Mr. Pickles-Richard Ayoade
• Mr. Gristle-Tracy Morgan
• Herbert Trubshaw-Simon Pegg

A young boy taken in by a group of trolls must save them from a dastardly villain’s nefarious plan.

Laika creates unique family friendly features that can be watched by all that do not talk down to the intended audience which is something Disney with its decades of experience has difficulty doing. With films like ParaNorman, Coraline, Kubo and the Two Strings, and even the underrated Missing Link, this studio has turned out visually stunning if not just amazing work all in stop motion animation. Who even does that kind of work anymore?

There is some pretty heavy stuff in this story for a family friendly feature. The Boxtrolls contains neglectful parents, greedy villains, and monsters that are not really monsters all set in a fanciful though not fantasy world brought to life by stop motion animation.

Our chief villain is pest exterminator Archibald Snatcher who occasionally cross-dresses as Madame Frou-Frou. That there leads to a few jokes. The humor generally in the movie is mix of adult and child friendly with the adult stuff either going over a kid’s head or of the variety that a child would laugh at, but an adult would get the actual context. We even get a few corny jokes that you will laugh at because they are so bad.

Some might even make you think. I am referring to a mid-credit scene that gets very meta where two of the supporting characters-Mr. Trout and Mr. Pickles-who worked for Snatcher but are now streetcleaners start philosophizing on whether or not their actions are controlled by another and if they indeed have any free will. This scene starts out as an animated sequence before they start interspersing it with images of the animator working on that very scene and slowly pulling out to show the stage upon which everything was filmed. It’s a cool moment and just for a mid-credit scene is very unusual.

Through the town’s ignorance and his own cunning Snatcher engineers a situation that puts him in reach of a prized white hat which gives him access to the upper echelons of society-specifically the cheese tasting circle. Themes of classism in a kid’s movie? Snatcher is trying to become one of the elite but also the Boxtrolls live in the shadows and are a misunderstood and become the focus of fear and derision by the citizens of Cheesebridge. How often does that happen in real life?

Archibald Snatcher’s whole plot is built around the fear of the Boxtrolls and the use of a machine to destroy them in order to secure his place in high society. But in order for that to be effective there needs to be a long-standing and strong fear of the Boxtrolls (standing in for the mysterious other that generates social fear) and there just doesn’t seem to be that. Is it effective because the town is largely ethnically homogenous? Does it have something to do with the clear social stratification of the fictional town?

There is not a strong indication one way or another and I wish the movie had been a little more direct. It touches ever so lightly on illogical fear but does not get too deep. Laika can go deep yet in this instance they seem adverse to doing so for some reason.

While the boy Eggs often gets framed as the hero of the story here, I think a lot more credit goes to the somewhat macabre and adventurous young girl named Winnie who not only chases her gut feeling on what’s going on but prods the boy to grow beyond what he has been all of his life which is a Boxtroll.

In the finale The Boxtrolls must grow beyond who they are (or step outside of their box so to speak) to survive. This seems like a bit of a heavy-handed metaphor on their part as the Boxtrolls defining characteristic is a box. Hiding and staying within their physical box (which they wear and derive their names from) is a strong part of who they are but if they do not do that they will die. And if it was not for Winnie none of that would have happened as she was the one that inspired Eggs who inspired the others.

The comeuppance of Snatcher is rather appropriate and hinted at early on in the film. It’s also rather macabre. I don’t want to be specific about it but he ain’t coming back for a sequel and how nobody that witness it wasn’t traumatize severely I do not know. They show nothing of the actual event, but you know exactly what happened.

Despite its shortcomings on the fear of the Boxtrolls which drives the plot, The Boxtrolls itself is well written and finely directed. It is witty and intelligent as well as being visually impressive. The issue with the hate logic (is that a thing?) could owe to the lack of experience of both directors with a feature film. It does harm the movie a bit for me as Laika usually do not leave logic holes.

The Boxtrolls isn’t bad but it’s not one of the stronger offerings from Laika but then again even their weaker offerings are better than most strong offerings from the animation world. The main thing against it is a rather underwhelming ultimate finale. This is a good movie though that you will enjoy if you come across it, but I wouldn’t strongly recommend it.