A young boy named Eggs (Which is the name of the box he's wearing), has been raised by a bunch of Trolls that where boxes called BoxTrolls, and Eggs thinks that he is a BoxTroll. However, in the human world above them, people fear the BoxTrolls thinking that they're evil monstrous creatures that eat people, and a crooked man wearing a red hat, plans to find them and kill every BoxTroll to not only save the town, but to become a leader of a bunch of Cheese loving aristocrats. Eggs's BoxTroll father Fish, gets taken away by the exterminators, and goes to the human world to find him, while being accompanied by a rich little girl named Winnie. As odd as the plot, idea, and concepts sound, it's done really, really well!
Our main character Eggs (Issac-Hempstead-Wright) is a really good and likable character. I love seeing him interacting with the BoxTrolls; he has a very likable and fun personality; he has great character development as he goes from being a confused boy, to a hero and inspiration for the scared creatures that society has shunned; and the fish out of water jokes they give him, are really, really funny. The only issue I have (Which doesn't really kill the movie) is how does he know English, if he's raised by a bunch creatures that don't talk in English? Eggs's human friend Winnie (Elle Fanning) is another character I really loved. At first, I thought she was going to be annoying and bland, however, she actually does have character. Her friendship with Eggs is cute; her character development in the film is just as great as Eggs's development; her personality is just as fun and likable as Eggs's personality; and the sadistic humorous side they give her is always funny, and Fanning really sells out the humor that she's given.
Next we have the villain Snatcher (Ben Kingsley) and this character has got to be one of the best villains I've ever seen! First off, I love his design. He looks very dark, creepy, ugly, and sinister, and the red suit and top hat they give him looks really cool. In a way, he does look and remind me a lot of The Child Catcher from "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" since his design is similar, and the fact that he catches BoxTrolls as opposed to Children, but they gave this character enough originality for him to stand on his own, than being a cheap copy. He's vicious, he's classy, he's scary, he's sadistic, and he's funny, especially the scenes when he has an allergic reaction to whenever eats cheese, but loves cheese and wants to be part of the cheese aristocrat group so much that he doesn't care if its killing him and making him look butt ugly. This villain even disguises himself as a woman on many occasions to spread awareness of how evil the BoxTrolls are, which are indeed really funny scenes as well, especially that comical musical number he's given that's both funny but villainous at the same time. Sadly, that's the only musical number in this movie! Can we get at least get one more song? This villain even has a really cool machine that the film's been building up too, for the film's climax. As for his henchman, we get three of them, who are really funny, and I love that two of them question if what they're doing is good, while the little one is just as crazy and evil as the leader.
The BoxTrolls themselves, instead of being loud, annoying, obnoxious, and copies of the minions from "Despicable Me", they're actually really great creatures that aren't as annoying as they look or sound. They're funny; they're innocent; they're cute; they're subtle; are very creative looking; and the world they live in is not only cool, but is always fun and interesting to see how they live, and what they do. The stop-motion claymation, with a bit of CGI (Of course) looks so great, creative, and lifelike that it looks flawless, It's so great, that at times I wonder when are they using Stop-Motion, and when they're using CGI. It looks just as great and creative as the Stop-Motion from films like "The Nightmare Before Christmas", "James And The Giant Peach", and "Coraline". The film does have a very dark and grim edge to it, and at times becomes very tense and frightening for kids, but trust me, as you let the film play on, it's not that scary. The film itself does indeed have plenty of colorful and creative scenery; cute moments; and humorous scenes to not make the film not too dark for kids. The humor, is great and I always found myself laughing. Again, Eggs's fish out of water jokes are funny; the BoxTrolls have some cute, funny moments; all the characters themselves have something funny to offer; but the jokes that the film obsesses over are Cheese jokes ("Wallace & Gromet" anyone?). Yeah, pretty odd and ridiculous for a film about creatures, but it's done so well, that it actually is really funny, as well as fitting in with the surrealness of the film. The film also has some great morals and themes about identity, courage, and materialism, and they are executed extremely well.
For a film that I thought was going to be stupid, I was actually really amazed by this film. It has so many great things going for it, that it's really impressive, and a treat to watch. This is indeed a MUST SEE!
RATING 5/5
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