What’s it about?
A young orphaned boy raised by underground cave-dwelling trash collectors tries to save his friends from an evil exterminator. Based on the children’s novel ‘Here Be Monsters’ by Alan Snow.
What did we think?
Despite delightfully quirky animation and a genuinely rich story the Boxtrolls is an odd film. It’s a bit too scary for kids under six and anyone over 14 would be left feeling it’s too much of a kids movie. That’s quite a small niche market and the movie would have been stronger if they’d committed to either adults or kids.
The storyline is flat, the creatures are only sort of loveable and while the animation is a marvel its dirty feel isn’t quite appealing. The movie is itself like a cardboard box – so much potential until you open it and discover there wasn’t much in it.