Animated children’s films are a tricky recipe to get right. They must entertain two widely different demographics with antithetic expectations: children need simplistic stories with simple messages, while adults desire material that is more complicated and cerebral. The Boxtrolls is the rare film that manages to bring the two groups together.
Boxtrolls is a glorious stop-motion animated film by the studio that captured our imagination with such wonderments as Coraline and ParaNorman. Here, Laika Studios is back at it with yet another dark fable, examining how evil men can rise to the top of governments by employing fear and marginalizing minorities.
The allegory, which closely reflects Hitler’s rise to power in Germany, will likely go over the heads of many children, but they will still latch onto the imaginative world and sympathetic characters that directors Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi put forth.
In a medieval looking world where trolls are clothed with scrap cardboard boxes, a red hat wearing Archibald Snatcher — whose headdress signifies his role as the military enforcer of the city — pursues the prestige of a white hat, which signifies wealth and an influential role in government. Snatcher earns his white hat by scaring the citizens and government into thinking that the harmless trolls who live in the sewer are out to eat their children.
Snatcher stages the kidnapping of a boy named Eggs, which eventually leads to his identity crisis as he is raised by trolls. Years later this boy who identifies himself as a troll suppresses his human characteristics in order to fit in with the trolls with whom he feels connected.
Meanwhile, the daughter of the town’s mayor is neglected and yearning for a father figure as her dad spends more time fretting over tasting exotic cheeses with his fat bureaucrat friends than raising her. Although she lives in a place of privilege, she is far more lonely and unhappy than her counterpart, Eggs — a boy who also never got to know his father.
The two meet through a spectacular coincidence and they slowly build a friendship as they share knowledge: she teaches him about human traits and he offers her insight on the underground society of trolls that have been misrepresented through propaganda and Archibald Snatcher’s fear tactics.
The movie has humorous sequences of propaganda cabarets and satirical exaggerations of the bourgeoisie that, while a bit complex, introduce great moments to teach kids the dangers of handing one’s freedoms over to a militaristic regime. These will also make this a viewing experience that older audiences can enjoy as much, if not more, than their youngsters.
Children will enjoy the slapstick turmoil that the trolls find themselves in; they offer something similar to the minions in Despicable Me, but the darker aspects of the material force us to empathize with them.
Parents should be aware that the film deals with a genocide of the trolls, and may want to evaluate whether the film is appropriate for younger children. However, those in the eight to 10 year range will likely be able to handle the disturbing visuals while also appreciating the identity crisis and parental void in the protagonists.
The trolls don’t talk but convey their shtick through body language and facial expressions, so it’s quite remarkable how much I came to care for these sweet, ugly trolls. As the on-screen critters are always up to something, the critters sitting in the seats next to you won’t be crawling or stirring up any trouble.
