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 "We're never going to make things that are middle of the road
or inoffensive," said Laika's President Travis Knight.
"The Boxtrolls," out in U.S. theaters on Friday, makes stars out
of its odd, grotesque little grunting green monsters who are
named after the cardboard boxes they wear, such as Fish and
Shoe. The creatures are feared by the residents of the whimsical
town Cheesebridge for their alleged human-eating traits.
""We could have gone the standard animation route where they
aren't really monsters. They're fuzzy little adorable balls of
fluff, but that plays against the basic idea of something being
marginalized for what they look like," Knight said.
"This society hates these things because of appearance and how
they've been presented."
Laika, the independent studio behind 2009's "Coraline" and
2012's "ParaNorman," both nominated for Oscars, prides itself on
creating aesthetically different tales from other animation
studios such as Disney, Pixar and DreamWorks.
"Family films have become more watered down because you're
trying to be calculating populous in your approach, where you
have to appeal to every possible demographic," Knight said.
Laika's selling point lies in hand-made artistry, creating
miniature physical sets and puppets and using stop-motion
animation, where each frame was positioned by hand and captured
by camera by 400 artists working over 18 months. The only
computer-generated imagery used was to build the backdrop to the
physical sets.
Based on books by British author Alan Snow and inspired by
British comedy troupe Monty Python, "The Boxtrolls" tells a
coming-of-age tale with a Dickensian twist.
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The Boxtrolls are forced to hide underground, where they are raising
an orphaned human boy they name Eggs, as the hideous Archibald
Snatcher attempts to climb to high society by capturing and
eliminating the misunderstood monsters.
Eggs comes to the Boxtrolls' rescue and tries to find his own
identity with the help of Winnie, an upper class child who is trying
to communicate with her aristocratic father.
While the story is predominantly British in tone and cast, led by
Ben Kingsley as the voice of Snatcher and "Game of Thrones" star
Isaac Hempstead Wright as Eggs, with American actors Elle Fanning
and Tracy Morgan also donning English accents, the directors feel
the story would appeal to a wide audience.
"It's an universal story," said co-director Anthony Stacchi. "It's
the journey from innocence to experience, ... a naive little boy
growing up, and I can see those from Iran, China, from anywhere in
the world."
"The Boxtrolls" earned mixed reviews from critics, with The
Hollywood Reporter calling it "stubbornly unappealing," while UK
film magazine Empire praised its mixture of "slapstick and
silliness" and "nefarious plots."
It is projected by BoxOffice.com to make $14 million in its opening
weekend.
(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Patricia Reaney and
Marguerita Choy)
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