The Boxtrolls

The Boxtrolls was not my first choice of a movie to watch a couple days ago. I have no idea why my buddies said, hey let's watch Boxtrolls while we're recovering from a hangover, but for some reason we did.

So what is The BoxTrolls about?

Victorian age Cheesebridge (a fake town) is overrun by nocturnal creatures called The BoxTrolls. According to myth, they come out at night and steal children from their beds, bring them down to the sewers, and eat them whole. At least that is the story told by Archibald Snatcher (voiced by Ben Kingsley). Snatcher intends to snatch all of the Boxtrolls and kill them all and by doing that he will win the approval of the Mayor of the town (voiced by Jared Harris) and win a White hat that will get him into a cheese tasting club that only the privileged can get into.

The story of course is turned on its head when you figured out that the Boxtrolls are not evil monsters, but instead are kind, innocent, and simple creatures that are only curious about world above and simply hide away when threatened.

They do come into possession of a boy they name Eggs (voiced by Isaac Hempstead-Wright) who they raise into believing that he is a boxtroll.

How he learns proper english in a cave of monsters saying nonsense, I still don't have the foggiest of clues.

As Eggs grows up, the Boxtrolls are becoming more and more scarce as they are being snatched by Snatcher and his gang of henchmen (voiced by Nick Frost, Richard Ayoade, and Tracey Morgan).

Finally, Eggs can't take it anymore, he decides to disguise himself as a human and make his way above ground and find his friends who have been snatched.

With the help of a spunky and a little bit sadistic little girl (voiced by Elle Fanning) who happens to be the daughter of the mayor of the town, the two uncover the conspiracy of Archibald Snatcher and hope to uncover his plot to win a white hat, no matter what the costs.

If you can't tell from the animation you've seen in the pictures of this movie, the animation is stop motion and a little bit unorthodox. However, it is done very well. Yeah its not exactly what everyone is used to but that doesn't make it bad by any means.

As far as story goes, its your basic don't judge a book by its cover story. Everyone has their preconceived notions of the Boxtrolls, everyone except the person who has been living with them for years and knows them as family. Eggs is your Tarzan like character as he has his moments where he's incredibly clueless about how he's suppose to act as a young boy. The little girl Winnie of course has her preconceived notions about the Boxtrolls but is quickly proven wrong by Eggs as they go through the adventure.

Furthermore, the movie does touch a little bit on how fear is a horrible weapon to use against people.

Snatcher is your typical villain utilizing the system to get his way and he uses it against the Boxtrolls to win a white hat and make everyone clueless to his actual motives which are quite sinister.

I actually could never really tell that it was Ben Kingsley voicing this character which I applaud him for. Maybe I don't know Kingsley's voice as well as I should but he was playing it very well and I really enjoyed his part and how sinister he was.

On top of that, Snatcher is allergic to cheese. So it seems silly for him to want to get into the cheese tasting club. But that's another part of the story that I think its trying to convey to kids. The story is very much about class and how it shouldn't define you. For Snatcher, its not about the cheese and how it tastes, its about the class and the prestige that comes along with being apart of that upper class and the evil things people do to get to that point of being accepted.

Overall, The Boxtrolls was just kind of a surprise in a half. Is it a great movie? No, I don't think so. But you could tell that a lot of heart and soul was put into it. There's a funny scene at the end where it gets a little meta and the stop motion characters start talking about the possibility of them being controlled by bigger beings, how every move is being orchestrated and photographed over days. All the while they show the animators moving the characters limbs back and forth and showing exactly how the stop motion animation works. You can tell a lot of work was put into the film.

I think if you like British humor, and you want your kids to like British humor, this might be a good place to start with that. The movie, from what I remember, did make me laugh and for the most part was very entertaining.

It did have its grotesque animation but that was actually part of the movies charm. This isn't a Disney animated film, its allowed to take risks and be a little bit more grotesque than Disney animation and I like it. Some people might not enjoy the style or the animation but I say, at least give it a try. You may think its weird, but try and enjoy it and soak up the story because it is entertaining and does have a good message for kids in there.

Am I going to remember The Boxtrolls? Probably not. This movie was up for best animated picture alongside Big Hero 6, and if you've read my review, you know that I loved Big Hero 6. Especially without the Lego Movie in the running, there was no competition for Big Hero 6 in my mind prior to watching this movie and there still is no competition after seeing this. But it is a fun animated flick and you might be surprised like I was.

Have you seen The Boxtrolls? What did you think about it? Comment and Discuss below! Also if you like this and want more, follow me on Twitter @cmhaugen24 to get updates on movie news and reviews and shoot me your thoughts and requests for future reviews there too.

I'll leave you with this. If you like Parks and Rec you'll like this video. The context is that Ben doesn't have a job and he decides to try Claymation. He's spent the entire day doing this claymation video and he's ready to show it. Enjoy!