It’s fantastic. I would have flipped my lid over it at age 8, 9, 10, and I flipped as an adult as well.
My review of The Boxtrolls is now up at Rogerebert.com. The film opens today.
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Thanks for this review, Shelia–I’m excited for this movie, too. When my kids were smaller I took them to see Coraline, and was surprised when my youngest was enthralled while my older son flipped out and wanted to leave early! (He’s usually my movie buddy.) This studio has created its own “look”, hasn’t it? Grotesque, dark, layered. Magical. (If I can now talk my tweens into going with me–)
It really is a magical look. Scary and evocative. A lot of the scenes are at night.
I definitely remember being scared to DEATH of Bill Sikes in those Oliver Twist adaptations – and they certainly don’t shy away here from showing pure evil. They poke fun at it, but it still exists.
I loved it! Let me know what you think when you see it!
The Boxtrolls opened here a few weeks back. I went because I thought that teaser trailer looked interesting, and my local cinema doesn’t offer a huge variety on occasion. Loved it. Thought it was so wonderful.
One of my favourite films of 2014.
Great, right?
I loved the humor of it too. The Curds/Whey joke?
“I regret … so much …” hilarious line reading from Jared Harris!
Beautiful movie.
We actually tried to watch this last weekend, but during the trailers our movie theater blew a speaker! After about a half hour and 5 or 6 false starts, we went home and watched “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen” instead. Little did we know the two movies could have been spiritual twins!
I liked it quite a bit–it reminded me of all the movies that scared and entranced me as a kid, the ones that have stuck with me to this day. I especially liked it that so much of the humor was at the edges of the screen, like the conversations between Pickles and Trout or the activities of the trolls in their cavern. And I agree, Winnie is a great character. I loved her sense of drama and completely realistic bloodthirsty relish in the trolls’ legend.
The kids? My eldest gave it 4 out of 5 stars, but my 11-year-old only 2. He said he didn’t understand some of the humor.
Barb – yes, to your observation about the edges of the screen. Wonderful! Pickles and Trout were great. I loved the really dumb joke about “Curds” and “Whey.” So vaudeville. The whole thing felt very vaudeville to me.
I was wondering about kids’ responses to it, and whether or not they would respond to it. I know I would have – but it’s a different world now.
For the sake of clarity, I should have put in a sentence about how we watched the movie at a matinee yesterday afternoon. (That little lapse, which I noticed right after I posted, has been bugging me all day!) The showing was full of smaller kids and extended families–and was remarkably attentive for the age group–maybe they were petrified by the rolling wheel of cheese?
hahaha I was pretty petrified by that rolling wheel of cheese too. It could flatten my entire neighborhood.
//I was wondering about kids’ responses to it, and whether or not they would respond to it.//
Well, the screening we went to was rather hushed, so the kids were paying attention. Everyone enjoyed the trolls’ antics, but there were a lot of jokes that mostly got to the adults–“Curds” and “Whey,” though, was a general crowd pleaser, and so was the ballroom sequence–“it’s a pleasure to meet you,” and all.
For my kids’ reactions, well, you have to understand that my 11-year-old is the proverbial hard sell. Quite often I’ll ask his opinion of something that I thought he was really interested in, and he’ll shrug and say, “It’s OK.” As a barometer, he told me his favorite movie so far this year was “Guardians of the Galaxy,” and I’ve promised him that we would go to “The Maze Runner” next weekend in exchange for his attending me to “The Boxtrolls.”
My 13-year-old is more of a movie buff, has gone with me to several different kinds of movies, and has had positive things to say about Joss Whedon’s “Much Ado About Nothing” (he laughed at Denisof in the “against my will I am sent to bid you come in to dinner” scene, saying that he was trying way too hard) and the recent musical version of “Les Miserables” (which he has sworn will be the last movie to make him cry). I was also pleasantly surprised when he sat down and watched “Rear Window” with me, becoming completely absorbed.
I love to hear about what kids respond to. It’s fascinating to me. Nothing I love better than to ask my 16 year old nephew what movies he’s seen and then just listen to him talk about them. It’s great stuff.
I love that about Les Miserables and Joss Whedon!