Review: Laika scores another creative hit with inventive ‘Boxtrolls’

Posted on October 3, 2014

By MARK VIOLA

Animation studio Laika’s latest film, “The Boxtrolls,” is weird, quirky, funny and will provide laughs to children and adults alike. Although some elements may be a bit intense for the youngest audiences, it is a clever film with interesting characters, a wonderfully strange setting and a story that doesn’t pander while delivering a solid message about how we should treat people.

Watching “The Boxtrolls,” it’s hard to imagine that the animation was done by manipulating individual puppets and set pieces to create individual frames–24 per second–for a 96-minute movie. (Some quick math equates that to 138,240 frames of animation.) Even when the film touches on its more grotesque and macabre side, the animation is beautiful. Based on the trailers, I thought the character designs were a bit odd, but they fit the overall look and feel of the film.

The story is quite good, developing the society of boxtrolls living underneath the feet of the townspeople. The city itself is also intriguing, with its highly stratified population, from the rich White Hats to those like Snatcher who are desperate to climb the social ladder by any means necessary. There are several positive messages to be found by the end.

There are some elements that are probably not suitable for small children, and parents should take the PG rating (“parental guidance suggested”) into consideration. There’s nothing obscene, but I feel it should be mentioned.

“The Boxtrolls” is one of the more inventive and creative films I’ve seen in awhile, and should entertain the entire family.

The film is rated PG for action, some peril and mild rude humor.

(This is a shortened version of the full review available in our printed or e-edition papers.)

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