Ever since Laika came into the spotlight in 2009, they have crafted some fantastic stop motion animated movies starting with "Coraline". The movies which are technically crafted by hand are brought to life with the use of photography and careful movement of puppets which I have always loved seeing. Now, we have the next movie from the studio known as "The Boxtrolls". It's an impressive looking movie with many cute moments, but maybe it's a little too cute and simple for audiences tastes especially considering the other animated movies that came out the year it came out. Want to know why? Well, I'll explain.In the hill topped village known as Cheesebridge, the antagonistic Archibald Snatcher (Ben Kingsley) has been trying to hunt and exterminate the trolls in the city known as the box trolls (the reason is because they wear cardboard boxes) after they have kidnapped and supposedly killed a baby in hopes to join the elite group known as the White Hats so he can try the many cheeses they taste despite being lactose intolerant. The trolls in reality have raised the baby boy known as Eggs (Isaac Hempstead Wright) has lived in secret with the trolls helping top protect them from the exterminators and turning discarded objects into creative inventions. Years go by and Eggs has continued to live with the trolls when he is discovered by the daughter of the leader of Cheesebridge, Winnie (Elle Fanning). Disgusted by the way the town sees the trolls, Eggs tries to convince Winnie to see the reality of the trolls and free them from the evil Archibald Snatcher. I think you can figure out the rest from there.Though I did enjoy the film, I did have some problems that may make some people a little disappointed. The story of the film is a nice and simple story, it isn't as big as Laika's previous movies . I remember how huge a movie like "Coraline" was especially with it's climax and comparing it with this film did make me wish that there should have been more to it. Even the ending of this film was a little anticlimactic in a way. As for the animation, it's once again fantastic. I really appreciate the time and effort that the artists went into creating the details of the film. The village in particular was very impressive. I loved how huge it was and how much tiny details were added into it. Even the character animation was very smooth and felt perfect. Now, how are the characters? Pretty good. I liked how cute the boxtrolls were, thought Archibald Snatcher was a great villain brought to life by a fantastic performance by Ben Kingsley, and really liked the attitude that Elle Fanning brought to Winnie. As for Eggs, he could have been a better main character. I thought he was pretty bland at times and should have been written a little better at times. He wasn't a bad character, but he just wasn't very memorable. I think that was about it."The Boxtrolls" is definitely a very cute movie with a decent simple story, fantastic animation, and some mostly good characters. I don't think it's up there with Laika's best movies as I do think this is there weakest effort to date though I can easily say that the movie is nowhere near awful. It's was a very nice movie and it's easily something I can watch again.

This film has some brilliantly detailed animation. All the scenes and characters are unique and not generic by any form. The box trolls especially are so ridiculous looking but at the same time absolutely adorable. They have this Gollum vibe yet thankfully they don't seem sociopathic.It's quite a morbid movie really and not at all what I was expecting. The human characters are ruthless and their behaviours are disgraceful. They're actually quite idiotic which makes the movie hard to enjoy.In the end I got out of it what I was wanting but the whole thing didn't capture my imagination. All in all it was an okay movie.

Fantastic animation. Fantastic animation and fantastic animation.The movie though falls flat. The trolls are far less scary than the humans. Perhaps part of the, 'preachy', 'theme' the production team was looking for. From a kids perspective it's hard to tell if they'll have sleepless nights or enjoy the quirky, over the top characters and all their gross out detail. From an adults a little childish and annoying as the characters don't fit into the standard category of kiddies/adult flicks; inside out comes to mind - the perfect mix of made for children and adult fodder.If your little one scares easily. Avoid. If they can sit through a period piece and get over the humans they'll be just fine. If you're the baby sitter you might want to take along something to read to keep you entertained during the long periods of dull script and story line and look up at the screen during the sprinkle of odd ball gross out humor combined with some cringe worthy boy/girl lines.

All animated films with a conflict need a decent villain, and The Boxtrolls has a great one: A snivelling, merciless, cheese-obsessed, nasty piece of work called Archibald Snatcher. Voiced by the unmistakable Ben Kingsley, he kidnaps friendly trolls who only want to collect junk at night on the surface from their underground base, lies to the population of a small town that they devour small children so they give him carte blanche in taking the innocent creatures, before setting them to work as slaves building a device which he thinks will help him take over the place. And by 'take over' I mean... Sit at a table, and munch on Brie all day long with the other aristocrats. To top it all off, he's allergic to the dairy product... and swells up hideously every time he's anywhere near it. Go figure.Into this mess are thrown two kids: One who was raised by the boxtrolls as one of their own after his father went missing ( and the subject of Archibald's fibs to the townsfolk) and a little posh girl from the upper echelons of society who has an unhealthy interest in gore at such a tender age. She is VERY disappointed to find out the trolls are not the cannibalistic monsters of yore, but nevertheless agrees to help the boy in rescuing his missing friends and possibly discover what happened to his absent dad. I won't spoil what unfurls for you... But I will offer a single hint. JELLY!!The Boxtrolls is an engaging piece, brilliantly animated using stop-motion technology (there's even a joke about the whole process after the credits have rolled) filled with lovable characters and hilarious voiceovers. The boxtrolls themselves are brilliant creations... Stark naked apart from their little cardboard containers, each one named after the produce that it initially contained, they communicate in a monosyllabic way and their antics are always hilarious. They reminded me of the minions in the Despicable Me franchise... Only, with a bit more charm. It's a fabulous slice of family entertainment, and one worth re-watching just to appreciate just how much detail was put into the production.YEARS AND YEARS worth. Got that?! You ungrateful little... 7/10