Review: The BoxTrolls

As an adult, there’s always a little part of us that lights up when a childhood memory is rekindled in the form of a smell, a picture or simply a feeling. I remember fondly, with anticipation, every year when all the Christmas specials would come on television. You see, at that time, there were no DVD’s or the internet. You had to wait once a year to see your favorite special. For me, it was Santa Claus is Coming To Town and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

These specials were created with what those in the movie business call “stop motion animation”. It’s a technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence. As a matter of fact, 3D printers were often used in the his animating process.

At a recent Q&A, the animators revealed that a waltz sequence (one of many highlights) took nearly 18 months to complete the animation. Whew! I know their hands must be seriously broke down…lol. The animators got only one rehearsal, which can take up to three days. It’s kinda like have an opening night in the theatre for 18 months until the sequence is completed.Here a little preview of how that works…

As you can see it is not a new concept, but one that in recent years has been revived in animated features such as Coraline and Paranorman. This week, we have the pleasure of watching another creation of stop motion animation released by Focus Features – The Boxtrolls.

The Boxtrolls (based on the alan snow Book) reminds me of the children’s fable Pinnochio. You know the one where the wooden boy desperately wants to be a real boy. In this case, we have a real boy, who thinks he is a box. He talks like human, but behaves and lives like a boxtroll until fate steps in and changes everything. It’s kinda like the tagline for the film…”Heroes come in all shoes and sizes…even rectangles”.

Much to my delight, I found myself getting swept away with the storyline and its characters much to my delight!!! The characters are voiced by Tracy Morgan, Sir Ben Kingsley, Elle Fanning and newcomer Isaac Hempstead Wright.