“The Boxtrolls,”
released in 2014, co-directed by Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi, has darkness
to it – in the images and in its themes – a darkness that is really existential
in nature. It’s actually heavy stuff for children, but children have been
craving for “heavy stuff” since stories for children were made. O’Malley
stated, “What "The Boxtrolls" does is create an entire hierarchical
world, with strict rules governing that structure, and it introduces us to a cast
of eccentric and often grotesque characters who live and breathe in that fetid
air.” It’s beautifully inventive, amazingly funny, and splendid to look at; the
screen sometimes consisted of overwhelming detail. The world “The Boxtrolls”
gives us is one both strange and familiar: a town that exists in some type of combined
unconscious with its narrow streets, huge Main Square, shaking mansions and slippery
alleyways. O’Malley noted, “It's out of a fairy tale; it's medieval Europe;
it's Dickens or the films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet.”
Based loosely on Here Be Monsters, the 2005 novel by Alan
Snow, “The Boxtrolls” takes place in a city called Cheesebridge, balanced insecurely
on the slopes of a dagger-shaped mountain. The town loves cheese. Cheese is
this town’s version of owning a fully-loaded sports car. If you can afford to have
tasting parties where you offer the latest Brie, you know you have made it.
Lord Portley-Rind,
voiced by Richard Harris' son, Jared Harris (who you might remember from "Mad Men"), is the Mayor of Cheesebridge and owner of a “white hat”
(the symbol of being a noble). He has a small red-haired daughter named Winnie,
voiced by Elle Fanning. The scared silly people of Cheesebridge have been
taught, through rumor and scary bedtime stories, that the Boxtrolls, little
beings who come out at night and go through the trash, are going to threaten
the town, steal their children, and eat them. O’Malley is right when comparing,
“It is Cheesebridge's version of The Bogeyman.”
O’Malley continued, “At
night, the "Snatchers", led by the snaggletoothed and bulbous-bellied
Archibald Snatcher (Ben Kingsley), come out, trolling the streets looking for
Boxtrolls.” The mission is to expunge the entire Boxtroll population. Archibald
Snatcher is dishonest, and all he wants to do is give up his “red hat”
(lower-status) and join the “white hats.” That selfish reason makes him do
awful awful acts. He is joined by a dreadful trio of helpers: Mr. Gristle
(Tracy Morgan), Mr. Pickles (Richard Ayoade) and Mr. Trout (Nick Frost). Mr.
Gristle laughs with sociopathic delight at thinking of expunging the Boxtrolls
and is really expressively dull he can only repeat the last word of whatever
was said to him. However, Mr. Pickles and Mr. Trout are in the middle of a
continuing crisis of principles. At first, they believe they are on the side of
law and order; they are the “good guys.” Increasingly, though, they’re not so
sure, and they try to comfort one another with unsuccessful supportive
statements.
Meanwhile, we see the
Boxtrolls. The Boxtroll home is a beautifully-imagined area: a huge cave,
packed with found objects, gears, light bulbs and toasters; things thrown away
by the Cheesebridge residents. The Boxtrolls speak, but we don’t understand
their language, and there are no subtitles. The Boxtrolls exist as amazing
evidence of the amount of power and precision of pantomime. O’Malley said, “They
babble and gurgle to one another, and we understand every word.” In the
Boxtrolls is a little boy named Eggs, voiced by Isaac Hempstead Wright, probably
named that because that was the word on the box he wears like a huge sweater.
Eggs’ Boxtroll mentor is a nice, worried little being named Fish, voiced by Dee
Bradley Baker, who looks strangely like Abe Vigoda (probably referencing a
movie). The two play music together, they are friends, Eggs has always lived
with the Boxtrolls and he thinks he is a Boxtroll.
O’Malley mentioned, “LAIKA
has outdone itself in its imagining of this complex world.” There’s a ballroom
dance in Lord Portley-Rind’s mansion that has to be seen to know. Sometimes, we
see it from Winnie’s point of view, the big leaping skirts at her eye level
flying by her, and other times, the camera circles up to look down on the
flying colorful couples. The streets of Cheesebridge are abrupt and winding,
with secluded streetlights having trouble shining their light through the blue shade.
O’Malley said, “There is a gigantic bouncing cheese wheel, catapulting itself
down the slopes like some engine of doom and destruction, both hilarious and
scary. After a night of scavenging, the Boxtrolls stack themselves into a sleeping
formation, and, overhead, the bare lightbulbs they have hung from the dirt
ceiling turn their lair into a place of wonder and magic. These images have
great emotional resonance. The details of the costumes are amazing, the frayed
stitching on Snatcher's waistcoat, the tiered ruffles of Winnie's pink dress,
the gleaming ridiculous badges sewn onto the front of Portley-Rind's coat. The
images do not have a modern gleam, they are not slick. They feel slightly
tattered, hand-made, deteriorating.”
Without being informative,
“The Boxtrolls” shows the dangers of a hierarchical society, separated from
high-status and low, and also has some very interesting and moving things to
say about identity, family, and morality. O’Malley said, “There is a suggestion
that a moral compass exists on its own, whether it has been nurtured in us or
not.” Critical thinking skills means you look around and estimate reality based
on what is being shown. O’Malley said, “The residents of Cheesebridge, drowning
in myth, rumor, and the comfort of intermittent mob violence against the
Boxtrolls, are unable to do that.” However, Winnie slowly sees she has been
lied to forever. She is able to see her world and see that the way things are
set up is wrong and unfair.
“The Boxtrolls” is a
beautiful example of the possible in LAIKA’s stop-motion approach, and the
images onscreen are physical and covered. However, as always, it’s the story
that really matters, and the story told here is funny, ugly, emotional and
true.
As always, if you’re a
fan of stop-motion and liked everything that LAIKA had done with their other
movies, this one is actually a very good one to see. It’s actually nice that
something came out with an original idea as opposed to making a sequel, reboot,
adaptation or some kind of movie that has been told to death. I thoroughly
found myself enjoying this movie because it was a lot of fun and I think
everyone will enjoy it as well.
Look out next week to
see what garbage I will be ending off “Halloween Month” with.
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