The Boxtrolls is the latest offering from Laika Studios, a stop-motion animation studio which came to attention with the film Coraline a few years ago. The Boxtrolls, while still visually stunning, doesn’t quite reach the heights Laika’s earlier film did.
It is the story of a group of trolls who wear boxes as clothes, and live underground beneath a city. They are tinkerers, coming out at night to raid the trash for broken gadgets discarded by the human inhabitants. The city above hides in their homes at night to avoid them, while a group of people hired by the city leaders hunt them every night. Throughout, the trolls are raising a human child as one of their own, though the reason behind it all is kept a secret from the audience till near the end. When the boy is older and joining the nightly forays, he runs into a girl who identifies him as a boy and not a troll. When they discover the missing trolls that have been hunted and grabbed over the years, the city’s secrets are laid out.
There is some light humor here, mostly aimed at kids but some that only adults would pick up on. It’s just not as funny as it tries to be though, and as a viewer I didn’t get as emotionally invested as I think it wanted me to be. It is impressively made, the visuals are detailed and incredible, but the film as a whole is just ok.
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