Well, only one movie this week. Maybe that’s a good thing. I had wanted to see The Boxtrolls way back when it came out in September but life intervened in a sucky way. It got put off. It didn’t happen. Sad. But I finally got the chance to see it this week and it’s a pretty cute little movie. Though I’m glad I waited to rent it instead of jumping the gun like usual and buying it.
The Boxtrolls are cute little things that live under the streets and steal things from above to build inventions. Ben Kingsley’s character is hunting them down and waging a propaganda war against them with the not-so-bright cheese loving town denizens and everything is going along not so swimmingly until Eggs, the boy raised by the trolls, decides he’s rather tired of his family being hunted down and ventures upward. Eggs is found out pretty quickly by Winnie- the daughter of the town’s Lordship and Head Cheese Lover. Eggs is adorable and having watched Isaac Hempstead Wright for years in Game of Thrones I thought he actually looked like him. Winnie is kind of like an extreme animated version of Hermione’s most annoying traits but both are really cute.
This movie is a lot about family. The trolls are Eggs family. One called Fish is basically the only father he’s ever known and while not perfect it is touched upon that he’s better than Winnie’s father. There are some cute moments. I thought the showdown at the end could have been shorter and animated or not someone exploding grossed me out. I did enjoy the small moments with the evil henchmen as well and their slow realization that maybe they weren’t working for the forces of good.
Overall though I was kind of bored. There was no part of the story that really surprised me. Watch it for the animation which is flawless considering the time and effort that goes into stop-motion. The facial details on the characters are amazing! It was really fascinating too look at in that regard and except for exploding I did enjoy the ending.
Recommend: I’d watch for the animation especially but like I said rent before you buy. I think children would enjoy it but I thought it was a lot more like a classic animated movie than some of the more recent films.