The Box Trolls (2014)

The Box Trolls (PG)

"A Box on ye!"

An orphaned boy finds himself and his adopted family of carton dwelling monsters imperiled by a cross-dressing villain who will stop at nothing in exterminating them and obtaining a white hat from the Flemish town's cheese swilling aristocracy in Laika Studio's newest (and most eccentric) stop-motion film entry yet, The Box Trolls.

Firstly it is shocking how underrated this film is.  It was truly deserving of it's Oscar nomination and in fact probably deserved to win.  The artistry and hard work is apparent in every frame (in fact probably every frame took three times more effort than people suppose).  There is some digital manipulation, some compositing and such, but on the whole the entirety of the film was made and moved by hand in the traditional manner.  The story is mostly nontraditional unmodern (probably leading to some of the general gripes surrounding the film).  There is a touch of Monty Python infused in it's comedic bones (Eric Idle even wrote the title song), with some funny sight gags and charming gross outs the likes of which haven't been seen since Shrek.  So what's not to love?

Ok, so the moral of the tale is certainly tried and true drivel, but the design of the characters certainly is not and should be applauded for its originality, darkness and uniqueness.  The story crawls from the sewers like a Dickensian treat, and how long has it been since a film rubbed elbows with old Charles?  The movie's redhatted exterminator Snatcher and his discontented helpers (played with enormous fun by Sir Ben Kingsley, Nick Frost, Richard Ayode and Tracy Morgan of all people) are nuanced and pithy.  The heroes suffer (if anything) from a case of the "dulls in comparison".  The orphan kid, the bratty kid, her ignorant father, his mad genius father; on paper they seem ho hum.  But in motion (and this motion being 1 frame at a time, arduously moved by hand over and over for days at a time) it all works wonderfully.  The voice cast (exceptional), the art (uniquely beautiful), the animation (smooth and obviously masterful), the sets (huge and varied);  this movie's charm doesn't rely on cute and snuggly critters with big eyes.  Here the world's dark and scary underbelly is wonderfully exposed and yet palatable to children and adults (much like the twisted fairy tales that Tim Burton once was interested in making).

Unique almost to a fault (at least to the mainstream), the Box Trolls and it's studio Laika is like one of those fancy, expensive and disgusting cheeses.  It may be an acquired taste, but the pleasure when you obtain the ability to savor it's unique bouquet is worth the effort (yours and theirs).

8.5 Barbershop Mustaches out of 10 (GREAT)