Review of The Boxtrolls (2014) by Dawdlingpoet — 25 Nov 2021

This is an adventure comedy film, featuring themes including genocide, adoption and prejudice. It was filmed using stop motion animation and indeed it reminded me of the Nick Park Wallace and Gromit films at first, with shots of old cobbled streets and rather quirky old buildings shown, plus numerous examples of our titular people. The only trolls I knew of in my childhood were the tiny Scandinavian made ornaments with brightly coloured hair but thats just a sidenote lol. I liked the sound of the story and I'd heard this film was recommended by BBC film critic Mark Kermode, so thats why I decided to give it a watch.

I did think that it appeared slightly dark at times, in terms of lighting, including quite early on, during scenes set on streets outside. This could perhaps be an issue depending on the environment your in when you watch such a film. I was left thinking about when I was much younger and struggled to be able to view films clearly in full as a large window was right behind our one TV screen back then and in summer, obviously the sun had a habit of causing a lot of reflection, which was never entirely fixed by curtains, so trying to watch what were quite prevalent back in the 80s, that of dark lit films, was an issue. However, things do brighten up a bit after a short while and I was taken aback by the quality of the visual effects, the stop motion animation, which was really quite impressive. Viewing the titular creatures in their underground lair was (to me anyway) quite cute in one sense but also engrossing and pretty, as I say, impressive, with a nice use of multiple colours lighting up different areas.

I found said Boxtrolls to be really quite endearing, with their talents shown including playing music and doing numerous quirky things, while trying to entertain the young boy, known as Eggs. I found myself hoping for the best outcome for both Eggs and the Boxtrolls and I'd say the characters are really quite endearing, if you allow yourself to have any potential emotional attachment to inanimate objects of course but I could well imagine children quite enjoying this film and while it isn't especially choc full of jokes that adults may pick up on and appreciate but which wouldn't register with kids, which is sometimes the case in kids films, I'd be surprised if a great many adults wouldn't appreciate the film for the style of animation used and the generally enjoyable characterisation overall.

Cast wise, Isaac Hempstead Wright provides the voice of Eggs, while Lord Portley-Rind (if that isn't an upper class aristocratic name then I don't know what is!) features the voice of Jared Harris and Mr. Pickles is voiced by Richard Ayoade. Nick Frost voices Mr. Trout and Tracy Morgan (of US show '30 Rock' fame) voices Mr. Gristle. However, perhaps the biggest name present in the cast is that of Ben Kingsley, who provides the voice of Archibald Snatcher (booooo).

I quite liked the musical score, with some tracks featured including the titular 'The Boxtrolls Song', featuring words and music by Monty Python star Eric Idle and performed by Mark Orton and Loch Lomond. Most of the other pieces featured are by Dario Marianelli - they sounds fairly typical of a family film, quite rousing, tension enducing orchestral style pieces.

Content wise, the film features one or two very mild instances of partial nudity, mention of somewhat violent or otherwise distressing acts, although these aren't visually depicted and there is a clear sense of peril present for a fair amount of the film. The film has been given a PG rating to reflect this content.

The plot was a little bland for adults I suppose but it is primarily a kids, or certainly a family, film. I liked it overall and think its a generally good film but it could perhaps have been a bit better.

Yes, I'd recommend this film. I thought it was quite endearing, very watchable and with quite quirky characters and a good voice cast, plus the stop motion animation is impressive, plus the themes are fairly honorable. There is little to complain about really, although the plot is a little bland for older viewers and there were one or two scenes featuring very dark lighting, which may or may not irritate the viewer.