Movie Review: The Boxtrolls (2014) - At least you don't have to look under any bridges.

(Spoiler Alert, as I do have to talk about a major plot point.)

I have mixed feelings when it comes to animated films. On one hand you have the giants of Disney and Pixar, who for the most part make good movies but, and I have this problem with Disney more so, they just can’t help feel too manufactured. No not in the snooty art house sense that it’s just a corporation pumping out easy to digest films for the masses, it’s just more in the sense that they all feel too similar. It’s like what I said about John Hughes when I did a review of Uncle Buck for this post, (Link here for Tumblr) while they are for the most part good films, they just tell practically the same story except in different ways. Pixar is a bit better for this (although there’s no forgiving the absolute milking to the last drop of the subpar Cars movies) and then you have the various other studios like Studio Ghibli from Japan, and the one we will be talking about today Laika, LLC and their latest film The Boxtrolls. I’m aware this came out a while ago but I only just got to it. Laika is the same company that brought us Coraline in 2009 (which I really like) and Paranorman in 2012 (which I really love, seriously Paranorman is fantastic.) So I was really looking forward to it this time, and the result? Well, I’ll get to it in a moment, but before I do I already mentioned the spoiler warning above, consider this your second warning. If you continue reading, you’ll know why I have to spoil part of it.

Plot Summary – In the town of Cheesebridge in 1805 (yes that is the actual name of the town) the town is dodged with rumours about creatures known as Boxtrolls, who are said to kidnap and eat children. When they do actually kidnap a child one night, the towns Exterminator Archibald Snatcher (Ben Kingsley) makes a deal with the mayor Lord Portley-Rind (Jarred Harris): if he exterminates all the trolls, he can join the town council’s cheese loving council known as the white hats. You read that correctly, and it gets weirder when it is later revealed that Snatcher in fact has a severe cheese allergy which causes him to swell up massively. The Boxtrolls are then revealed to be a peaceful group, whose main interest is inventing things made from garbage, and they are also revealed to be raising the boy they kidnapped earlier, who they name Eggs (based on the egg box he wears, played by Isaac Hempstead-Wright.) One night while scavenging, Eggs’s caretaker Fish gets kidnapped by Snatcher and Eggs comes up to the surface to save him. Along the way he meets Winnie (Elle Fanning) the neglected daughter of Lord Portley – Rind, and realizing Eggs is the kidnapped boy, who has since become folklore that’s used to promote Boxtroll hatred, decides to help him stop Snatcher and save the Boxtrolls.

Pros – The animation is done with Laika’s very well crafted stop motion, and the world they make is very well done. The voice acting is pretty spot on as well, as well as the character designs.

Cons – There is a major problem with this movie that I just can’t get over. It’s the fact that the whole film basically revolves around both the Council’s and Snatcher’s obsession with cheese. Winnie is constantly neglected by her father cause he’s always eating cheese with his fellow white hats, Snatcher’s whole plan of exterminating the Boxtrolls is actually revealed to be that he’s catching them so that they can make him a robot that he’ll use to basically force his way into the council so he can eat cheese, even though is severely allergic to it. In fact at one point in the film it’s revealed that the council used fundraiser money that was supposed to build a children’s hospital that they instead used to buy a giant wheel of cheese and nobody bats an eye. I get that they were trying to use this for comedic effect, except, it’s not funny. Most of it is played so straight that any jokes they make fall completely flat. I guess maybe they were trying to be closer to the original book it’s based on, but I honestly can’t imagine how they expected it to go over. So the whole motivation for everything that happens in the film feels like such low stakes that you really can’t get too invested. Even how it ends is just stupid (I’m not going to say what happens specifically, but you might be able to guess.)

Final Score – 5/10

I was going to give it a 6 based on the animation and the voice acting, but I just can’t get over the cheese obsession plot line as it really just makes the whole point of the film feel extremely low risk and barely worth it. If you’re looking for a good animated film, go see book of life instead.

My next review will be John Wick, although I’m not sure what day yet. In the mean time I’m hoping to do a DVD review of Snowpiercer most likely on Thursday.

So until then, I’ll see you folks at the movies.