When I was 13, I was obsessed with stop-motion animation, making monster opus after monster opus in the garage with my Super 8 camera. King Kong (1933) was my favorite film due to the efforts of Willis O’Brien, who was the animator behind the scenes. His work still holds up as one of the greatest achievements of cinema. O’Brien’s protege Ray Harryhausen made the Sinbad films, and they were also favorites of my youth. With the advent of computers, the idea of stop motion animation is a bit of a nostalgic endeavor. Most animation is not done by the human hand but by behemoth counting beasts. In the last few years there have been hybrids of the two styles in films such as ParaNorman and The Pirates! The latest to attempt this is the Laika Entertainment film The Boxtrolls.
The story has the feeling of a fairy tale. A young boy is thought to be killed by a mysterious group of sewer dwellers known as boxtrolls. Everyone in the town lives in abject fear of the evil nuisance. The villagers quake in fear with even the mention of the boxtrolls. Archibald Snatcher (Ben Kingsley) is a red hat-wearing exterminator tasked to rid the land of this menace. He believes that elimination of the creatures from the town would get him in the higher class, those who eat cheese and wear white hats. Snatcher has a trio of henchmen who also wear red hats. Sometimes they pine philosophically while working with their leader. They all believe that they are the good guys but still question their existence in society.
The young boy (Isaac Hempstead Wright) did not die but fell into the sewers. He is taken in by the boxtrolls and is given the name “Eggs” as he wears a box with that very word on it. All of the boxtrolls are named after the boxes they inhabit, so we get as surnames Fragile, Fish and Oil Can. They also hide like turtles in their boxes.
Snatcher has been capturing some of the boxtrolls in order to build a sinister machine. Eggs befriends a young girl (Elle Fanning) who believes that the boxtrolls are evil. She finds out what Eggs already knows – these little guys are benevolent and Snatcher is actually the evil one. In some ways the boxtrolls are more like the minions from Despicable Me. The film builds to a giant confrontation between the boxtrolls and Snatcher and everyone knows how this will end. It is a giant and loud battle royale that should amuse as much at it excites.
One of the most interesting parts of the film experience happens during the end credits. Two characters talk to each other while an animator moves around adjusting the puppets. It is both a behind-the-scenes moment and a demonstration of how painstakingly hard this type of animation is to bring to life.
This is a very British production, full of comedy along the lines of Monty Python or Black Adder. While some are off-put by the mirth from across the pond, I found the film charming, fascinating and thoroughly entertaining. The Boxtrolls has many gems that should appeal to just about every demographic. The animation team has made a movie that is just mesmerizing to watch. Time and time again one wonders exactly how they achieved the effects with what are basically puppets. These are brilliant artists at the top of their form.
The film is made by the same studio that crafted Coraline and ParaNorman. The Boxtrolls is on par with those productions but delivers a better overall entertainment. There have been great things from Laika Entertainment and even greater things in their future.
