The Boxtrolls:What's it about?From stop motion animation studio Laika (
Coraline, ParaNorman), this latest outing revolves around the titular box trolls - essentially scruffy little goblin handymen that live inside cardboard boxes - and the human populace of the world above who believe them to be vicious, man-eating ghouls after a small child is apparently kidnapped.
Who would I recognise in it?
Ben Kingsley, Jared Harris, Richard Ayoade, Tracy Morgan, Elle Fanning, Maurice LaMarche, Nick Frost (
voices).
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?As per usual, Laika's visual style is superb - the setting here being a rickety Victorian-esque coastal town that rises up on a large hill - and the story doesn't seek to safely illuminate its darker recesses. The Boxtrolls themselves appear both demonic and lovable, depending on the perspective, with a similar mix applied to the human characters - particularly the main antagonist and his goons. The former is a class-obsessed Boxtroll chaser called Snatcher, weighed down by the weight of the chip on his shoulder and his obsession with cheese (
a delicacy reserved for the rich 'white hat' folk). His goons, meanwhile, vary between monosyllabic creepiness and complex introspective musings on whether or not they truly are the 'good guys' (
as they have been told by their increasingly sadistic boss). If
ParaNorman didn't quite hit the high watermark of
Coraline,
The Boxtrolls certainly manages to attain the same level of intelligence, wit, fairytale whimsy, and darkness.
Good.
Click "READ MORE" below for a double dose of Jake Gyllenhaal...
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