The Boxtrolls

The Boxtrolls is an indie animated film based on a novel by Alan Snow called Here Be Monsters! Directed by Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi, The Boxtrolls is about a boy (Eggs) who grows up underground with boxtrolls and thinks himself one of them until he meets a girl during an above-ground excursion. Meanwhile, an exterminator named Snatcher wants to kill off every boxtroll in the city so the mayor will give him a white hat and let him eat cheese with the big boys. That all won’t make much sense, but this an animated film after all. 

There are some excellent actors lending their voices to The Boxtrolls, including Ben Kingsley, Jared Harris (who sounds a lot like his father, Richard, when you don’t have him there in person) and Nick Frost. The animation is good, the screenplay is clever and funny (though the story could be a lot tighter) and there’s even a good message in there somewhere, except...

(spoiler alert) If you have enough awareness to satirize the way bad guys are redeemed (or not!) at the end of animated films, why oh why would you still kill off the two biggest baddies in the film? Sure, their deaths were an accidental consequence of their own actions and not at the hands of the good guys, and that’s great, but still! It’s the need to kill off the bad guy at the end of many animated films that needs satirizing big time. End of rant. 

The Boxtrolls gets ***. My mug is up.