The undergrounds of Cheesebridge are the Boxtrolls' home. They are tiny odd gray beings with onomatopoeic language, who use grocery boxes as a dress, and live from collecting metal junk at night. They are considered baby snatchers, but they are very loving creatures; in fact, they've raised human baby 'Eggs'. Their life and future existence is threatened by the ugly, nasty, cheese-allergic, drag-queeny Archibald Snatcher and his two wicked assistants Mr Trout & Mr Pickles. Snatcher wants to exterminate the Boxtrolls ASAP to obtain a white hat and become part of the Town Council, as he dreams of respectability and of sharing the Council's cheese tasting sessions and discussions. Winnie, the Major Lord Portley-Rind's neglected daughter, meets Eggs by chance one night and, together, they start an adventure to try to rescue the fast-disappearing Boxtrolls and to expose Snatcher's wickedness and lies to the town.The Boxtrolls is one of my favorite stop-motion animated films of the last years even though it is not that popular, or that well-known, or it wasn't that much of a hit when it first came out. It has everything to please both children and adults and entertain them both. Based upon Alan Snow's 'Here Be Monsters', the film feels like one of those old European tales we all love, mixed with some Burton-ish imagery and a cute sprinkle of the Minions.The film has a great visual style, is utterly funny and entertaining, has a great tempo and, most importantly, has great anti-hero heroes and despicable villains. It is perfect for adults because it has great dialogues and is witty, but it has lots of adventure and charm, and is tender and sweet at times.The production design is incredible, and the micro-expressions of some of the leading characters are amazing, especially Eggs', who feels real as real it can be. The actors are really well cast for their roles, especially Isaac Hempstead Wright as Eggs, Ben Kingsley as Snatcher, Richard Ayoade as Mr Pickles, Nick Frost as Mr Trout, and Jared Harris as Lord Portley-Rind. I thought that they were all brilliant at voicing their characters. The rest of the cast were also very good.Give the Boxtrolls a chance to entertain you.

colorful, didactic, seductive, exploration of an universe who is ours in each detail, adventure and touching lessons, it is the perfect choice for a large public. sure, it is far to be surprising but it has the virtue to remind in smart manner, old truths in the right manner. and this is the most important detail. because it is a kind of holiday with deep roots who impose a different perspective to the ordinary reality. result - a kind of parable about social differences, love, happiness and friendship, desires and selfishness.and this does Boxtrolls perfect choice for a comfortable afternoon. because it is a nice work who has not exactly the desire to demonstrate a thesis but remind its essence.

The movie/story itself is decent but full of clichés. It's nothing that will really surprise you, but it might move you a bit. Some will like the kind of "animation" that is used here, other will dismiss it. Maybe you should watch the trailer, just so you know what you are up for (so you're not surprised).The message of the movie is pretty clear and the movie while aimed at the small ones, will have a couple of things to keep the adults interested. Something Pixar does to perfection but is nicely handled here too. Some things may seem a bit bleak and dark, but the overall tone is nicely handled. Everybody needs love ...

This movie clearly motivates itself around good vs. evil and Nazi/holocaust plot themes, but the delivery is poor due to the overuse of 4th-wall breaking meta-dialog, which involves characters that are supposed to be dumb underlings talking intellectually/philosophically about their misgiving in their role in the lead character's scheme. A better script would have shown occasional pangs of guilt or confusion in an otherwise clueless character, offering more emotion and subtlety and inviting empathy on the part of the audience. Instead, the overwrought dialog is too on-the-nose for adults, yet too complex for children. The lead villain (Snatcher) is simultaneously quite brilliant yet also remarkably dense at times (such as in the first cheese-eating incident, where the henchman run intellectual rings around him, for some unmotivated reason). I suppose this conjures up old Gargamel (Smurfs), who plays this duality brilliantly in the original cartoons, but it somehow doesn't play well here. The henchmen characters also make frequent references to the story as if they were outside of it. This is an inside joke for the writers, presumably, but it's really not all that funny for the rest of us. Nothing is gained by taking us out of the story experience; the joke is stale (and not cleverly executed).The animation is wonderful, however, and I believe it's actually stop-motion, not computer animation, which makes it really phenomenal.