140 Character Movie Review – #140RVW
Funny & visually astonishing picture. Well-realized world is quite ugly, though. Lacks visual & musical punch of Burton’s stop motion work.
Spoiler-free Movie Review of The Boxtrolls:
Based on the children’s book Here Be Monsters! by Alan Snow, The Boxtrolls is a solid, meticulously made film that I really enjoyed. Not sure of its rewatch appeal, however.
While the titular characters are unique and interesting, the story is neither. In a grubby world, a shady and deceitful pest exterminator is using a manufactured crisis to make people fear Boxtrolls and gain power. If the story is familiar, reach for Grimm’s Fairy Tales on your bookshelf and look under Pied Piper. Better still, read Terry Pratchett’s Carnegie Medal winning The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, which sends up the fairy tale to better effect and is strikingly similar enough to this picture that I’d probably lawyer up.
That’s not to say that the story isn’t entertaining, it’s just not horribly original. The enjoyment of the picture comes almost completely from the Boxtrolls. The human characters are so cookie-cutter and archetypical that they provide few laughs. (With the exception of the troll-catcher assistants Mr. Trout & Mr. Pickles, voiced by Nick Frost and Richard Ayoade, respectively. Tracy Morgan also voices a third, Mr. Gristle, but he’s not all that enjoyable.)
The film is only 97 minutes, but frankly overlong at that. There are far too many characters and they really just spend a lot of time reinforcing the characterization that was immediately evident at their introduction. I mean that the characters are well-defined right at the start, so more time with them should be spent on developing them further – but that doesn’t happen. The bad guy is bad right away – he doesn’t get more bad or less bad. But he has a TON of dialogue and scenes. The whole power conceit involves this idea that the people in charge of the town wear white hats and sit around eating cheese. They are led by Lord Portley-Rind (Jared Harris), father to a girl named Winnie (Elle Fanning). He is pompous self-obsessed and non-involved in his daughter’s life. She is upset that he ignores her. They do this dance through the whole picture – it never develops. Neither seems to realize that there is a Mrs. Portley-Rind. According to the credits by the wonderful Toni Collette, but if she spoke in the entire movie I missed it.
The reason that I quite enjoyed this movie despite the aforementioned shortcomings is the trolls – they are wonderful, possessing all of the depth and character development that the humans lack. The entire picture in a way revolves around these creatures. Not simply the story, but the look of the film. The Boxtrolls look wonderful and set the tone – unfortunately this leads to a production design that is in a word ugly. It really just looks unpleasant, while at the same time being wonderfully realized. I haven’t seen Laika’s other films, Coraline & ParaNorman, but from the footage I’ve seen they share a design sensibility so I guess that’s the studio’s look. It doesn’t work for me.
But while the aesthetic leaves something to be desired, too much praise can not be heaped on the animation. I have always been amazed at the dedication, patience and hard work of stop-motion filmmakers and marveled at the incredible results produced but this effort is really something else. Absolutely breathtaking stop motion – head of the class.
The voice talent is predictably top shelf and I very much appreciate the fact that it is equally populated by professional voice actors and “name” talent.
This review has turned out a bit more negative than I intended and that’s too bad, because I really did enjoy The Boxtrolls. The creatures themselves absolutely make this movie – and make it fun. I wish that the humans were a bit more developed and the story could use a bit more complexity, but it’s a good picture and recommended.
Poster:
Trailer:
http://youtu.be/z3eHd87dx6M
Bechdel Test:
Fail
The Representation Test Score: C (5 pts)
(http://therepresentationproject.org/grading-hollywood-the-representation-test/)
| Main Cast | Ben Kingsley Archibald Snatcher (voice), Jared Harris Lord Portley-Rind (voice), Nick Frost Mr. Trout (voice), Richard Ayoade Mr. Pickles (voice) |
| Rating | PG |
| Release Date | Fri 26 Sep 2014 UTC |
| Director | Graham Annable, Anthony Stacchi |
| Genres | Animation, Adventure, Comedy, Family, Fantasy |
| Plot | A young orphaned boy raised by underground cave-dwelling trash collectors tries to save his friends from an evil exterminator. Based on the children’s novel ‘Here Be Monsters’ by Alan Snow. |
| Poster |  |
| Runtime | 97 |
| Tagline | Heroes come in all shapes and sizes…even rectangles. |
| Writers | Irena Brignull (screenplay), Adam Pava (screenplay) |
| Year | 2014 |
