It might be that recently the news has been
dominated by the Scottish Independence Referendum (at least, it has here in the
UK), but when I went to see two films at the cinema this weekend I couldn't help but look at them in terms of political messages. With one of these films it wasn't a great
surprise, as it is set during a specific moment of not-too-distant British
history. But the other is something of a
surprise seeing as it's a children's (well, let's call it a family) film. I'll start by reviewing this one first - but
if, after the 'Indy Ref', you've had enough of politics for a while, you might
want to approach this review with caution...
On the surface, you might look at The BoxTrolls and almost think for a moment that Laika - genius stop-motion artists behind
the dark fairytale 'Coraline', and fun '80's inspired Kids & Zombies flick 'ParaNorman' - are losing a bit of their, well, darkness and edginess. This film has been marketed upon the titular
little monsters - so called because they 'wear' boxes, and each are named after
the object pictured on them; they're actually quite cute, growling, gurgling
and babbling in their own, infant-like language. Given the success of a certain other animated
franchise featuring an extremely popular bunch of similar sounding characters, on
one level it makes sense that these are being marketed as the main attraction to
this film. Indeed, children will possibly
be charmed by them as much as they have been by those other, highly marketable
creations.
However, there's much more going on in this
film than your standard, kiddie friendly babbling, raspberry blowing, and prat-falling. Parents of younger children especially should
be aware, because despite the first impressions, that Laika edginess is still
present: there are grotesque villains, some infernal looking contraptions, and
in a couple of scenes, some unpleasant looking, allergy based disfigurements;
these might be a bit too much for toddlers, though my 7 year-old son didn't seem bothered.
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| The BoxTrolls themselves actually turn out to be quite cute and charming... |
But that's part of what makes Laika great at what they do -
they don't shy away from those moments of darkness or grotesqueness that, when
you come down to it, have been present in Children's stories since even before
Fairy Tales even existed. They know that
there is at once a squeamish glee in details such as eating a plateful of bugs
(the BoxTrolls' staple diet), or in seeing a really dastardly villain come to a
suitably sticky, or even gooey, end..!
'The BoxTrolls' tells the story of Eggs,
apparently 'taken' by the eponymous monsters as a baby, raised by them a one of
their own; by day they live in their home under the city, but by night they
come above ground to look for interesting things they can take to repair or
mend. They're certainly not doing any
harm to anyone, but the people of the city live in fear of them, believing them
to be child-snatching, flesh eating monsters.
So the City Council have allowed the vicious Snatcher and his henchmen
to round up and destroy all the BoxTrolls.
Even though the people have rarely seen or encountered the BoxTrolls,
Snatcher has convinced them that they are a danger to them, but when Eggs accidentally meets Winnie, the Daughter of the ruling Lord of the City, together
they stumble across Snatcher’s real plan for the BoxTrolls, and realise who is the
real threat to the city.
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| Winnie, Eggs, and the BoxTrolls uncover a nefarious and villainous plot... |
Laika's artistry - the designs of the
characters and backgrounds, the animation, and the steam-punk(ish) setting - is
as flawless as their previous films.
They've assembled an excellent voice cast for this, too: Sir Ben Kingsley,
Jared Harris, Elle Fanning and new-comer Isaac Hempstead Wright lead with more
than able support from the likes of Nick Frost, Richard Ayoade (seriously, why
has no one ever thought to put his voice to an animated character before? It’s absolutely perfect for the medium!) and
Tracy Morgan - as well as an enjoyable and non-distracting cameo from Simon Pegg. The script raises itself above the usual kid's
animated fare, thanks to some interesting characterization - especially Snatcher's
henchmen, whose debating over whether they're the good guys or in fact the
villain made for several amusing moments.
In fact, I believe parents taking their
kids to see this film will be surprised that there is a level to this film that
will speak to them, as well as the children.
For me, this film had a subtext which I believe is hugely relevant -
especially in Britain. You have a ruling
class who are too wrapped up in their wealth and status, and enjoying the
trappings thereof (in this case it's copious amounts of cheese), to effectively
carry out their responsibilities to the people they're governing. One scene sees them choose to put money in to
a giant cheese round, instead of a much needed public hospital! Then you have a villain whose agenda is to
become part of the ruling class, and to do this has created a culture of fear
amongst the ordinary people, singling out and turning them against an 'underclass' (in this case, literally, because they live underground) - even though the
BoxTrolls, with their recycling activities, are actually a potential benefit to
society. I couldn't help but think of
how tabloid newspapers, owned by billionaires such as Rupert Murdoch, are quick
to promote fear and hatred of the poor (people on benefits) and outsiders
(immigrants) - whilst promoting policies that protect their wealth but hurt the prospects of the people who buy their papers; or, no less insidious, are hiding their own hypocrisy (such as having billions in potentially taxable wealth hidden away in overseas accounts. It has been pointed out that undeclared/un-paid tax far eclipses the amount that goes paid in benefits - just bear that in mind the next time you see a Daily Mail headline
decrying people on benefits).
I'm not sure how well that translates
outside of the UK at the moment, but ultimately there are truths in the way the
cities rulers and the villains' intentions are portrayed in this film. Having seen the trailers, which really played
up mayhem and mischief around the BoxTrolls, I expected something that really
skewed towards younger children. While your
kids will enjoy this (so long as they’re not too young or easily frightened),
like me you may find this film as thought provoking as it is amusing. So this is quite a different film to their
previous offerings, but it’s pleasing to see that Laika's quality is as high
here as it has been in their other films; and again, they've provided a film
that has something for all ages.
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