I’m a sucker for stop-motion animation, namely because of all the hard work that goes into making a feature-length stop-motion film. Frankly, stop-motion film deserve a whole lot more respect, and the one production house that’s giving stop-motion the respect it deserves is Portland, Oregon-based Laika. After the successes of Henry Selick’s 2009 adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline and the 2012 original ParaNorman, their next feature is The Boxtrolls, an adaptation of Alan Snow’s Here Be Monsters! that is set for September 26, 2014, and it has received a teaser trailer a little over a year out.
If the film doesn’t have the stop-motion going for it, it has a knock-out voice cast, including but not limited to Isaac Hempstead-Wright (Bran, Game of Thrones), Sir Ben Kingsley (The Mandarin, Iron Man 3), Elle Fanning (Alice, Super 8), Simon Pegg (Gary King, The World’s End), Toni Collette (Tara, United States of Tara), Jared Harris (Ulysses S. Grant, Lincoln), Nick Frost (Andy Knight, The World’s End), Richard Ayoade (Jamarcus, The Watch), and Tracy Morgan (Tracy, 30 Rock).
The film focuses on an orphan named Eggs (Hempstead-Wright) who is taken in and raised by Boxtrolls, underground-dwelling trash-collecting creatures of Cheesebridge, a town that prizes its cheese, as you can no doubt guess from its name. However, if you dig deeper, there’s misunderstanding and adventure to be had, as the townspeople misunderstand the Boxtrolls and Eggs has to go aboveground to prevent a pest exterminator (Kingsley) from wiping out his adopted family, teaming up with Winnie (Fanning).
It’s co-directed by Anthony Stacchi (Open Season) and Graham Annable, which does present a risk, as Stacchi only has one feature under his belt and this will be Annable’s directorial debut; however, Laika probably has faith in Annable, as he contributed to Coraline and ParaNorman as a storyboard artist, so he’s in-house talent, if anything.
Regardless of how you feel about stop-motion and/or Laika’s previous features, The Boxtrolls certainly looks promising, even a little over a year out.
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