Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

The Boxtrolls 3D Blu-ray Movie Review

Laika's stop-motion animation astonishes in 3D...

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown January 20, 2015

Founded in 2005 and widely respected just six years after its first theatrical release, Laika Entertainment has only produced three feature films, but oh what films they've been. Setting aside all else, Laika's stop-motion animation is nothing short of extraordinary. Absorbing. Jaw-dropping. Wondrous. Magical. Stunning, and with an ambition, craftsmanship and artistry that not only set a new industry standard, but continues to raise the bar with each visual spectacle it produces. Sadly, while the studio's animation dazzles, even enraptures critics and audiences more and more with every passing film, Laika's writing and storytelling are beginning to lag behind. Coraline (2009) was mesmerizing and fully realized. A hypnotic descent into a nightmarish rabbit hole that offered a tale as dizzying, gripping and frightening as it was simple and sincere. It resonated because the truth at the heart of its young heroine and her coming-of-age journey resonated more, with adults and older children alike. Then came ParaNorman (2012), which was... entertaining. Fun, certainly. Funny, more so, in its own darkly satirical, lightly lurching cleverness. But breathtaking? Captivating? Not quite. (I was tempted to add "merely" before "entertaining," but there's no need to demonize a little entertainment. It's good for the soul.)

Enter The Boxtrolls (2014), far and away the most beautiful stop-motion adventure Laika has delivered, with a grand, grotesque scale that's almost impossibly gorgeous and most definitely entrancing. Beneath its wildest wonders, though, lurks an uneven, deeply flawed work of art that loses its balance and eventually its focus, teetering into narrative slipperiness and sloppiness without considering the consequences.

From the creators of Coraline (2009) and ParaNorman (2012) comes a new breed of family: the Boxtrolls, a community of quirky, mischievous creatures lovingly raising an orphaned human boy named Eggs (voiced by Game of Thrones' Isaac Hempstead Wright) in the amazing cavernous home they’ve built beneath the streets of Cheesebridge. When the town’s villain, Archibald Snatcher (Ben Kingsley, Hugo), comes up with a plot to get rid of the Boxtrolls, Eggs decides to venture above ground, “into the light,” where he teams up with the fabulously feisty Winnie (Elle Fanning, Maleficent). Together, they devise a daring plan to save Eggs’ family.

The Boxtrolls are a delightful species of good-natured movie monster; lovable, endearing and more selfless than their surface-dwelling persecutors could possibly imagine. Though their words are garbled and their language impenetrable, the expressiveness and innocence of each individual creature makes it instantly memorable, with a personality as distinguishable as the next. In a sea of Boxtrolls, each is worth befriending. Had I seen the film when I was ten, I would have been swept up in that simple fantasy alone... living beneath the streets of a bustling city, sliding through an endless labyrinth of tunnels and sharing misadventures with the best friends a boy could have; the kind that would never judge, never betray and never turn their backs. The animation brings these fascinating creatures into disarming existence, while the voice actors -- a who's who of animation mainstays including Dee Bradley Baker, Steve Blum, Fred Tatasciore, Nika Futterman and Pat Fraley -- lend the Boxtrolls breath, emotion, motivation, warmth, humor and heart. The Boxtrolls won't be overlooked or soon forgotten, even by children who already adore Despicable Me's Minions.

But the farther you move away from the feature's creatures, the more the film starts to split at the seams. The Boxtrolls aren't the stars of their own show. They're not even given equal billing. A support network at best, a gimmick at worst, they serve a cast of human characters who loom larger than life but feel decidedly small and unimportant. Eggs is easily the most winning of the bunch -- with Wright doing his best to voice a rather two-dimensional sketch of a sewer urchin racing to save his family -- but few others leave a lasting impression. Fanning would be a more welcome addition to the cast if her Winnie wasn't so obnoxious (for at least the first half of the film). Kingsley is a terrific villain, with a permanent sneer you can hear long before you see it coming, but Archibald Snatcher is too overbearing and nauseating, and granted far too much redundant screentime. Toni Collette and Jared Harris are wasted as Winnie's parents; more tragically wasted are Nick Frost (Mr. Trout), Richard Ayoade (Mr. Pickles) and Tracy Morgan (Mr. Gristle) as Snatcher's mumbling, bumbling henchmen, and Simon Pegg, who doesn't have a whole lot to do, or say.

More distressing than the characters' lack of, erm, character, is the story's lack of presence and power. I felt for the Boxtrolls. Rarely for Eggs, rarer still for Winnie. I wanted to learn more about the creatures. To get to know each one. Not so when it came to the townspeople. I wanted to root for Fish, Wheels, Shoe, Bucket, Sparky and the rest of the trolls; I didn't want to hate the villains in the way that I did. (Which was every conceivable way.) And I wanted to see the Boxtrolls prevail. Eggs too, I guess. I just didn't realize I'd have to stomach Snatcher, Winnie's father, and the henchmen as often as I did. By the time the film capped off its third ending (at least), I was exhausted and disappointed. Muted, the magnificence of Laika's animation stands unimpeded. With the story and characters in tow, the eye-popping animation is soon overshadowed by tiresome plotting, cliché, and a bloated third act. Hardly the stuff of a stop-motion animated classic.

The Boxtrolls 3D Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Blu-ray release of The Boxtrolls features a perfect -- not near-perfect -- perfect 2D 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentation that's as striking and sensational as the stop-motion animation it captures. (We'll get to the 3D experience in a moment.) Powdered pastels bloom and dusty cardboard hues bedevil with delicate, dingy confidence. Blacks are absorbing and satisfying, bolstered by consistent, filmic contrast leveling and free from crush, noise and other issues. Detail is excellent too, with clean, naturally defined edges and revealing fine textures. Every imperfection and nuance in the stop-motion world -- whether gracing the puppets, crumbling buildings, cobbled streets, grimy tunnels, tattered boxes or rusty machines -- is intact and immaculate, and the animators' work and tireless efforts are captured beautifully. Moreover, the encode is precise and proficient, without anything in the way of significant artifacting, banding or aliasing.

In 3D, though, The Boxtrolls is an entirely different experience; perhaps even a better one. In this humble cinephile's opinion, there is no more fulfilling 3D jaw-dropper than a stop-motion animated 3D film, and Universal's showcase 1080p/MVC-encoded 3D presentation is, quite simply, as good as they come. I won't go so far as to say it looks as if you've stepped into Laika's stop-motion studio, but I'm tempted. Each character, costume, hat, coat, braid of hair, crumb of cheese, cardboard box, cobblestone, brick, plank of wood and scrap of metal is so lifelike -- so tactile and tangible -- that it's tempting to reach out and touch the puppets, miniature props and sets. The textures come alive with three-dimensional heft, while foregrounds and backgrounds exhibit with such convincing depth of field that you might have to remind yourself it's all an illusion. Granted, a bit of hyperbole there, but seeing is believing. And The Boxtrolls pulls it off without very many gimmicky shots too, making for a more seasoned 3D experience than you might expect from an animated film. Again comes that word "perfect," and though I wouldn't stake my life on it, I'm more than confident most viewers will be as smitten with the 3D presentation as I was. It may only be January -- one month down, eleven to go -- but this one has already carved out a spot among the Top 3D releases of 2015.

The Boxtrolls 3D Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Universal's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track isn't necessarily going to drop jaws like its video presentation or Laika's stop-motion animation, but it does a magnificent job of immersing viewers in the underground world of the Boxtrolls and the hectic streets just above their heads, be it the angry crowds Snatcher riles into a frenzy or the climactic battle Eggs and the Boxtrolls fight on Lord Portley-Rind's doorstep. LFE output is robust and weighty, particularly when it comes to the villains' sinister dealings, their blazing furnaces and industrial trash compactors, and Snatcher's towering ironclad mech. Likewise, rear speaker activity is aggressive and lively, transforming the Boxtrolls' dwellings into a fully enveloping playground of sound that's as engaging as it is enormously fun. Voices are clean and intelligible too, with smartly calculated prioritization and very little in the way of mishaps. (Wright's voice occasionally struck me as a bit thin compared to the rest of the soundscape, but it's hardly a distraction.) All told, the studio's lossless track only elevates the experience of the film.

The Boxtrolls 3D Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary: Directors Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi pull back the curtain on their process, detailing the team's adaptation of the original book, the look and design of The Boxtrolls' world, the atypical, larger- than-life scale of the film, the tricks of the trade used to create a variety of challenging shots, the evolution of the characters and story, voice casting and the subsequent performances, finalizing the animation and visuals, and a start-to-finish overview of virtually everything a stop-motion junkie would hope to learn about. There are a few brief gaps in the track -- seconds of silence tick by as the directors get caught up watching the film -- but it isn't much of an issue.
• Featurettes (HD, 13 minutes): The filmmakers attempt to convey the enormity, craftsmanship and artistry of a stop-motion animated film, and accomplish as much. A feature-length documentary would have been welcome -- come to think of it, it would have been downright fascinating -- but that doesn't mean plenty of information can't be gleaned from the available featurettes, short as they are. Featurettes include:
  
  
  • The Nature of Creation (2:58)
  • Trolls Right Off the Tongue (2:49)
  • Allergic to Easy (2:58)
  • Let's Dance (2:00)
  • On the Shoulders of Giants (2:28)
  
  
• Dare to Be Square: Behind the Scenes of The Boxtrolls (HD, 33 minutes): Five additional production featurettes are collected in a different section, presented as a loosely connected 5-part documentary of sorts. They're longer, more extensive and more focused, but their separation from the bulk "Featurettes" is a tad strange. No matter. Everything on the disc is worth watching. Segments include:
  
  
  • Voicing The Boxtrolls (11:36)
  • Inside the Box (5:20)
  • The Big Cheese: Allergy Snatcher (4:28)
  • Deconstructing the Dance (5:25)
  • Think Big: The Mecha Drill (5:59)
  
  
• Preliminary Animatic Sequences (HD, 17 minutes): Six storyboard animatics round out the package -- "Baby in the Trash," "Eggs in the Underworld," "Man on a Horse," "Trubshaw's Inventorium," "Cheese Shop" and "Tea and Cheese" -- each with optional commentary by Annable and Stacchi.

The Boxtrolls 3D Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Boxtrolls is flawed and occasionally uninspiring, but my oh my, how it dazzles and delights with its stop-motion magic. As the story recedes, the world expands. As the characters shrink, the expressive, endearing creatures stand tall. As the villains steal much too valuable screentime, the Boxtrolls make the most of their limited roles. As the script languishes, the animation soars. And therein lies the problem. Sadly, in this case, beauty really is skin-deep. Universal's Blu-ray release isn't superficial in the least, though, thanks to a stunning video presentation, amazing 3D experience, excellent DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track, and solid complement of special features. Renting may be the safest course of action, but even those who dislike The Boxtrolls won't dislike it that much. There's enough to admire about the film to make a purchase worthwhile, especially with a Blu-ray release this impressive.