"Don't do it. You won't change who you are. Cheese, Hats, Boxes. They don't make you. "You" make you."
-Eggs
From the people who brought you Coraline and Paranorman, we have the Botrolls! This newest installment of stop-motion animation is something I had semi-high hopes for because I adore their two previous films so much. Admittedly, this was a mixed bag for me. On one hand I was glad I saw it, on the other....eh...I probably won't see it again.
This is definitely more kid friendlier than Coraline or Paranorman, but like those films this one still has that odd flavor that you don't find in kid's films (like the villain dressing up as a woman with the head honcho of the town going 'I regret so much now' after he is revealed). Unlike the other two, this one feels like it's trying too hard. You understand the message in the first ten to fifteen minutes of the film, kids probably catch on midway through. For adults, the story is one you've seen over and over, but I must say it's a creative approach to it for the kids.
The animation is astounding. Every few minutes I have to remind myself that this isn't a CG movie, that's how smooth it is. The best thing about these guys is that every movie they make with stop-motion they get that much better at it, and The Boxtrolls has some of the most jaw dropping visuals to a stop-motion film I've ever seen. My favorite is when they hang onto each other as they jump fences, it's insane how smooth that scene is.
The voice acting is good to great. I'm not a big fan of the little girl, voiced by Elle Fanning, although I didn't really like her character so that might have something to do with my disliking her. However, Ben Kingsley and Simon Pegg were my favorites. I could just listen to them all day. Pegg plays a crazy character and his insatiable laughter will have you smiling every time he utters a noise on screen. Kingsley plays the villain, and you just soak up the vileness that oozes out of his voice.
While this is a kid's movie, there are some extreme dialogue scenes for this day and age. I bet you'd be able to get by a decade ago, maybe the 90s, but with parents uber sensitive these days I'm not sure how they would react to the little girl basically fangasming over the thought of Boxtrolls eating, crunching your bones, drinking rivers of blood and so forth. Really, I was a little freaked out because not only was she enjoying those thoughts, but I felt like she would become a Necrophile.
Overall, while this movie is predictable and cliched, head scratching for adults, but funny for kids.....it's a mixed bag that will have kids glued to the screen by the creativeness it showed. I'd say watch this at least once, even if it's just to support the stop-motion genre, because while the story isn't the strongest, the visuals and voice acting is killer.
C+
-Eggs
From the people who brought you Coraline and Paranorman, we have the Botrolls! This newest installment of stop-motion animation is something I had semi-high hopes for because I adore their two previous films so much. Admittedly, this was a mixed bag for me. On one hand I was glad I saw it, on the other....eh...I probably won't see it again.
This is definitely more kid friendlier than Coraline or Paranorman, but like those films this one still has that odd flavor that you don't find in kid's films (like the villain dressing up as a woman with the head honcho of the town going 'I regret so much now' after he is revealed). Unlike the other two, this one feels like it's trying too hard. You understand the message in the first ten to fifteen minutes of the film, kids probably catch on midway through. For adults, the story is one you've seen over and over, but I must say it's a creative approach to it for the kids.
The animation is astounding. Every few minutes I have to remind myself that this isn't a CG movie, that's how smooth it is. The best thing about these guys is that every movie they make with stop-motion they get that much better at it, and The Boxtrolls has some of the most jaw dropping visuals to a stop-motion film I've ever seen. My favorite is when they hang onto each other as they jump fences, it's insane how smooth that scene is.
The voice acting is good to great. I'm not a big fan of the little girl, voiced by Elle Fanning, although I didn't really like her character so that might have something to do with my disliking her. However, Ben Kingsley and Simon Pegg were my favorites. I could just listen to them all day. Pegg plays a crazy character and his insatiable laughter will have you smiling every time he utters a noise on screen. Kingsley plays the villain, and you just soak up the vileness that oozes out of his voice.
While this is a kid's movie, there are some extreme dialogue scenes for this day and age. I bet you'd be able to get by a decade ago, maybe the 90s, but with parents uber sensitive these days I'm not sure how they would react to the little girl basically fangasming over the thought of Boxtrolls eating, crunching your bones, drinking rivers of blood and so forth. Really, I was a little freaked out because not only was she enjoying those thoughts, but I felt like she would become a Necrophile.
Overall, while this movie is predictable and cliched, head scratching for adults, but funny for kids.....it's a mixed bag that will have kids glued to the screen by the creativeness it showed. I'd say watch this at least once, even if it's just to support the stop-motion genre, because while the story isn't the strongest, the visuals and voice acting is killer.
C+
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