Film Review: “The Boxtrolls”

Laika, the film studio behind
modern stop-motion animated classics “Coraline” and “ParaNorman,” brings yet another endlessly imaginative tale
to the big screen. Based loosely on the book “Here Be Monsters” by Alan Snow,
“The Boxtrolls” is a whimsically demented fable centering
on the titular creatures: adorably ugly, toothy, grey-skinned beasts who dwell
beneath the Dickensian city of Cheesebridge. Though
citizens of the city have been raised to fear the boxtrolls
as man-eating monsters who will steal their babies, we learn rather quickly
that they’re actually harmless scavengers, rooting through the city’s trash,
stealing whatever scraps and bits of metal they feel might be useful. The
creatures wear cardboard cartons for clothing, which they retreat into to sleep
or when frightened — their names are even derived from whatever their box once
held (Fish, Shoe, Fragile, etc).

Archibald Snatcher (a wonderfully villainous Ben Kingsley),
the city exterminator, is the chief reason behind the citizens’ misguided
beliefs about the boxtrolls. He uses the disappearance of an infant as proof of their monstrous
nature, claiming that the trolls have kidnapped and eaten the baby (though we
know that the child has actually been raised by the creatures as one of their
own). Snatcher vows to rid Cheesebridge of boxtrolls completely in exchange for being allowed to join
the ranks of the elite “white hats,” an oligarchy of rich, self-absorbed men
who sit around eating cheese and making decisions about what’s best for the
city — though this mostly seems to involve using the city’s money to buy more
cheese for themselves (at one point even at the expense of building a
children’s hospital). The group is led by the pompous Lord Portley-Rind
(Jared Harris), who promises to reward Snatcher with the white hat he so
desperately desires once the final boxtroll has been
destroyed. Snatcher is aided his quest by his henchmen Mr. Trout, Mr. Pickles,
and Mr. Gristle (voiced by Nick Frost, Richard Ayoade,
and Tracy Morgan, respectively). While Mr. Gristle is an unabashedly deranged
psychopath, Mr. Trout and Mr. Pickles earn some of the film’s biggest laughs
through their slow realization that they may not the heroes they so believe
themselves to be, but rather the bad guys of the story.

Meanwhile, that missing baby has grown into a 10-year-old boy
named Eggs (voiced by Isaac Hempstead Wright, “Game of Thrones”). Having lived
nearly all his life being raised by the subterranean creatures, he believes
himself to be one of them, so when his fellow boxtrolls
begin to be rounded up, he takes it upon himself to fight back and defend his
adopted family. Along the way, Eggs makes the acquaintance of Lord Portley-Rind’s neglected daughter, Winnie (Elle Fanning,
adopting an impressive British accent), a rather snooty child with a redeeming
taste for the macabre. She befriends Eggs and is eventually recruited to join
his cause.

Though “The Boxtrolls” doesn’t have a groundbreaking story (it basically boils down to misunderstood
monsters and a hero longing to find his place in the world), directors Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi — working
from a witty screenplay credited to Irena Brignull
and Adam Pava — bring an inventive energy to the
material. As with “Coraline” and “ParaNorman”
before it, “The Boxtrolls” has a tone that’s darker
and a bit more dangerous than the average children’s movie (though it remains
significantly less scary than those earlier films), and it maintains those
stories vehement distrust of authority figures. Commitment to not dumbing
things down for a younger audience is always appreciated. The general obsession
with cheese (and cheese puns) calls to mind Aardman’s
Wallace and Gromit characters, and there’s a fair
amount of Roald Dahl thrown in as well. As touchstones for children’s stories
go, you can’t do much better than that.

But the number one reason to see the film is to enjoy the
sheer artistry on display. Like everything Laika has
produced, the detailed, handcrafted design of the film is pleasingly tactile,
with everything feeling as though it’s been cobbled together from spare parts
like one of the boxtrolls creations. The stop-motion
animation is the most seamless I think I’ve ever seen — the amount of effort
that went into the creation of the film is staggering. The entire film is just
jaw-droppingly gorgeous to see.

A note: While I attended a 3D showing of the “The Boxtrolls,” I recommend avoiding seeing the film in that
format. The added immersive quality of the 3D isn’t enough to counteract the
negative impact of the 3D glasses; the film’s color palette is so subtle that
the dimming effect of the glasses completely washes out the detail, making the
film’s intricate design that much more difficult to appreciate. Luckily, the
story, characters, and the world they inhabit were more than vibrant enough to
make up for it.

This article appears in Oct 1-7, 2014.