‘Boxtrolls’
by John Lyons
FOR almost a century, the easiest and most common form of animation was hand-drawn 2D animation. The Disney Empire as we know it was built by their successful string of animated films throughout the 20th century.
However, the paradigm quickly changed after Pixar released Toy Story in 1995. Computers capable of designing 3-Dimensional characters and environments were becoming more affordable and more reliable.
In the short span of 15 years, even Disney had made the transition to 3D. These days 3D animation is the easiest and cheapest way to craft an animated world, hence why it’s the most common. Hand drawn 2D animation has only been used in recent years for nostalgic purposes.
And while many may lament the absence of hand-drawn 2D animation, nobody laments the lack of stop-motion animated films – which were never that popular to begin with.
Stop-motion is, on the other hand, the hardest, most costly and most time consuming form of animation. Even though stop-motion has been around for a very long time, the list of stop-motion feature films isn’t a very long one. Only a handful-at-most are released each year.
It’s a real shame, because stop-motion is literally the art of taking a lifeless object and giving the illusion that it’s moving. It’s special.
However, there’s one studio that focuses on stop-motion animation that’s getting a lot of attention lately – Laika.
Laika have been responsible for ‘Coraline’ in 2009, and ‘ParaNorman’ in 2012. Both of which performed well at the box office and were well received by critics. The studio’s newest film, ‘Boxtrolls”, is opening this weekend. As a fan of Laika’s first two films, I felt obliged to go and see ‘Boxtrolls’.
Boxtrolls is set in a quiet town where the inhabitants retreat to their homes and lock their doors come nightfall. Reason being – Boxtrolls. The Boxtrolls are little creatures that live underground in the sewers, and as you may have guessed, they’re trolls who dress in boxes.
At the beginning of the film, a Boxtroll is seen fleeing the town in the middle of the night, clutching one of the human’s babies tightly against his chest. The Boxtroll escapes into the sewers with the baby boy, thus convincing the locals that Boxtrolls eat babies.
A local pest exterminator, Archibald Snatcher (voiced by Sir Ben Kingsley), offers his services to the town mayor, promising that he’ll catch and kill every last one of the Boxtrolls.
Meanwhile, we see that the Boxtrolls are actually raising the little human boy as one of their own. Since the Boxtrolls speak in an extremely limited vocabulary, they decide to name him ‘Eggs’.
I was fascinated to see the concept of a ‘feral child’ being explored in a children’s film of all things. I was really excited to see how ‘Eggs’ would be able to convey his thoughts and interact with others because, logically, it’d be impossible for him to learn how to speak english from the Boxtrolls.
Unfortunately, this was never explored. For reasons unspecified, ‘Eggs’ grows into a boy who can speak english fluently, even though all the Boxtrolls he lives with are communicating in monosyllabic grunts.
Apart from this mis-step, the film quickly finds its footing. Snatcher starts kidnapping the Boxtrolls one by one, and when ‘Eggs’ sees his mentor, a Boxtroll named ‘Fish’, captured by Snatcher, he sets out on a journey to save the Boxtrolls.
Ever since Laika wowed animation fans worldwide with ‘Coraline’ – probably the most painstakingly hand-crafted stop motion film we’ve ever seen – they’ve kept reaching for the same heights that they reached with Coraline.
Unfortunately, neither ‘ParaNorman’ or ‘Boxtrolls’ have been as spellbinding as ‘Coraline’. But still, in every single frame of Laika’s films, there’s an undeniable amount of work that one can only marvel at.
‘Boxtrolls’ is a gentle, sweet little film. Thanks in no small part to the impressive cast of British talent that it has at its disposal.
‘Boxtrolls’ has its touching moments, heartbreaking moments, and even a cheeky sense of humour. I especially applaud Laika for not copping out and having the film run under 90 minutes, like most stop-motion films. They let the film run on for as long as they needed it to in order to tell its story.
I’d recommend ‘Boxtrolls’ to any fans of stop-motion animation, and remember to keep an eye on Laika in the years to come. As far as I’m concerned, they’re going to be the new Aardman.
7/10
Boxtrolls is playing now at Tralee Omniplex
Follow John Lyons on Twitter: @Fireinthelyons
