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.
It has the makings of a Roald Dahl doodle, but this is all quirk, no charm.
The Boxtrolls is impressively nasty fare for gothic fantasists of all ages.
There’s slapstick and silliness to entertain small children and nefarious plots for the adult audience to untangle, making this a far more handsome prospect than any of its characters could imagine.
Typical: the kids return to school, and we finally get one of this summer’s few animations to merit sustained study.
Glorious child-friendly animation and clever adult-friendly social commentary.
Lacking the charm and wonder of Coraline, The Boxtrolls has a few fun moments that children might enjoy and a great vocal cast that adults will appreciate including Nick Frost and Richard Ayoade as henchmen Mr Trout and Mr Pickles.
Its problem is a script that is as flat as cardboard. It takes quite a while to work out what is happening or why.
The visuals are dazzling, the voices expressive, and the end-credits sequence offers a laugh-out-loud appraisal of the madness of the animators’ labour-intensive craft.
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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