“They’ll gnaw your knees!” “They’ll pick their teeth with your bones!” No, the citizens of Cheesebridge are not talking about Ariana Grande fans, they are talking about boxtrolls, creatures who live in the underbelly of Cheesebridge and are vastly misunderstood. Boxtrolls are curious, kind little monsters, but Archibald Snatcher (Ben Kingsley), a man desperate for prestige, wants to use them for his own selfish gain. You see, Snatcher desires a “White Hat,” the ultimate status symbol in Cheesebridge. Consistently denied of a hat, he decides to start a smear campaign against the boxtrolls so that he can kidnap and kill all of them, forcing the powers-that-be in Cheesebridge to finally award him his coveted hat.
Standing in Snatcher’s way is Eggs (Isaac Hempstead Wright), a young boy adopted by the boxtrolls as a baby, and Winnie (Elle Fanning), the daughter of Cheesebridge’s most elite aristocrat (Jared Harris). As is typical with many children’s films, no adults will listen to our two heroes as they speak out in support of the boxtrolls, so they must take matters into their own hands.
The Boxtrolls is the third feature film from Laika Studios, whose previous two entries were the thrilling Coraline and the superb ParaNorman. While The Boxtrolls doesn’t soar quite as high as those two films, it comes pretty darn close. The animation is breathtaking, the boxtrolls themselves are lovely little heroes, and the theme of being true to oneself comes across as very honest. One big difference in The Boxtrolls is how the film deals with its monsters. In Coraline and ParaNorman, most of the monsters are to be feared; in The Boxtrolls, the boxtrolls themselves are established as friendly creatures right off the bat, with the film’s true monsters being humans. Named after the boxes they sport (Fish, Clocks, Wheels, etc.), the boxtrolls are a silly hybrid of Gizmo from Gremlins (kinda cute) and E.T. (bald and slightly wrinkly). They are also easy to root for, as Snatcher, along with his evil plan, makes for quite the delicious villain.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
