Some have said that no news is good news but I say that actual good news is better than no news at all. I also will go down on record saying that good news is much preferred over bad news. Bad news is pretty much bad news and should be avoided. Of course I assume that’s old news to you.
Some subjective examples of good news:
– You can add bacon to it for free.
– It’s benign.
– There’s a new film from the makers of Coraline and Paranorman.
That’s all good news to me but let’s focus primarily on that final statement. The Boxtrolls is the name of this new film and it is very much akin to those films that came before it. Beautiful with touches of darkness, The Boxtrolls possesses a unique sense of humor and tone that makes it a fresh alternative to the standard Disney/PIXAR/Dreamworks animated fare that is becoming more and more difficult to tell apart.
We can thank Laika Studios for providing this alternative as they single handily save Stop Motion Animation from going the way of extinction like American Cell animation. It is a beautiful art form and Laika pushes and pioneers with each new film.
If you look at examples of Stop Motion in the past you will see that the animators usually keep the world sparsely populated. Even look to Laika’s own Coraline a few years ago. Minimal cast with a handful of set pieces. This was out of necessity as the more characters you have on the set, the more you have to manipulate as you capture the action….one…..frame….at……a ….time.
With The Boxtrolls all those limitations have been ignored. You have never seen such a dense and fluid world created in this medium. As our human hero Eggs (so named because of the egg box he wears) walks the streets of the medieval village of Cheesebridge they are crammed with citizens going about their business. It’s easy to forget the painstaking effort that goes into each character, each creature. This film easily boasts the best Stop Motion ever created. No argument possible.
While the film is perfection technically, the story may leave some viewers cold. There are elements that hit on the struggle between classes as the One-Percenters sit around in their white hats eating delicate mounds of cheese. The villain (played with beaming bravura by Sir Ben Kingsley) is a beast of a man that, for some reason that is never really made clear, likes to dress as a woman and sing show tunes.
Based on the children’s novel Here Be Monsters! by British novelist Alan Snow, the film has a decidedly foreign feel to it. While there are some frightening and challenging elements I truly think this will only effect the interest of the very young. This is another example where the film is on par with Paranorman (Which featured a plot involving the murder of small child) and Coraline (Which featured a demon that lived off the souls of children). Laika likes to keep their differentiators consistent. Kids in peril, check. Cross-dressing bad guy, check.
The Boxtrolls is a smart and engaging film featuring fine voice acting and vivid characters. Seek it out in theaters and see it in 3D. Support this film so that Laika can continue to bring us something different and beautiful. Otherwise we will be relegated to Frozen and Kung Fu Panda sequels for the foreseeable future.