The Boxtrolls

In a hill-top town of Cheesebridge, Norvenia during the Victorian era, rumors abound that subterranean trolls (known as Boxtrolls for the cardboard boxes they wear) have kidnapped a baby. Pest exterminator Archibald Snatcher strikes a deal with the city's leader Lord Portley-Rind to exterminate every Boxtroll in exchange for membership in the city's cheese-loving council called the White Hats, despite the fact that he is severely allergic to cheese.

In actuality, the Boxtrolls are peaceful and emerge from underground at night to scavenge for discarded items with which to make useful inventions. A human boy named Eggs lives among them, cared for by a Boxtroll named Fish. As Eggs grows up, he becomes dismayed by the disappearing Boxtrolls seized by Snatcher. After Lord Portley-Rind's daughter Winnie sees Eggs with two Boxtrolls, Snatcher captures Fish. Eggs sneaks to the surface to find Fish and emerges in an annual fair to commemorate the disappearance of the "Trubshaw Baby" who was allegedly killed by Boxtrolls.

Disgusted by the town's inaccurate portrayal of the creatures, Eggs follows Winnie. After a brief exchange, he asks her for directions to Snatcher's headquarters, located at an abandoned factory, where Eggs rescues Fish. They are caught in the escape. Snatcher recognizes Eggs as the Trubshaw Baby and reveals that all the captured Boxtrolls are building him a machine. Winnie, who covertly followed Eggs, overhears this exchange. She then helps Fish and Eggs escape from Snatcher and they take shelter in the Boxtrolls' caves, where Fish explains that Eggs' father had given him to them to protect him from Snatcher. Winnie agrees to help Eggs tell Portley-Rind the truth.

At a ball held to commemorate the purchase of a giant cheese wheel called the Briehemoth, which was foolishly made using the funds for a children's hospital, Eggs tries to confront Portley-Rind, but is confronted by Snatcher (disguised as a woman named "Madame Frou-Frou"). Whilst trying to avoid Snatcher, Eggs inadvertently knocks the cheese wheel into a river. Eggs announces himself to the party as the Trubshaw Baby, but no one believes him, including Portley-Rind, who is too upset about losing the cheese wheel.

Eggs tries to persuade the remaining Boxtrolls to flee for their own safety, but unknowingly demoralises them. Snatcher digs into the caves and captures them all. Eggs awakens to find his father Herbert Trubshaw a prisoner beside him. He sees the Boxtrolls stacked in a crusher and begs them to leave their boxes and run, but they are seemingly killed by the crusher.

Snatcher drives his machine to Lord Portley-Rind's house, shows him the flattened boxes as proof of the Boxtrolls' extinction, and demands Portley-Rind's white hat in exchange for killing the last Boxtroll, which is actually Eggs disguised. The Boxtrolls, who have escaped from the crusher, free Eggs while Herbert reveals himself, causing Portley-Rind and the citizens to realize that Snatcher lied to them. With his plot exposed, Snatcher tries to take Portley-Rind's hat by force, but two of Snatcher's henchmen Mr. Trout and Mr. Pickles redeemed themselves by helping the Boxtrolls disable the machine, which falls on Snatcher's right-hand man Mr. Gristle, crushing him to death. Eggs and Snatcher are thrown clear and land on the recovered Briehemoth, which triggers Snatcher's cheese allergy and causes him to swell to an enormous size. He seizes Winnie and forces Lord Portley-Rind to give up his hat in exchange for her safety, but after tasting an aged cheese sample, his cheese allergy finally sets off and he explodes into pieces. With Snatcher's plot foiled, the townspeople and Boxtrolls agreed to form a peaceful coexistence with each other, Winnie tells the tale of Snatcher's end to a crowd while Fish and Eggs drive off in one of Herbert's contraptions.

Isaac Hempstead Wright (Eggs), Elle Fanning (Winnie) and Ben Kingsley (Archibald Snatcher) promoting the film at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con International

• Isaac Hempstead Wright as Eggs,[5] an orphaned human boy raised by the Boxtrolls, the adoptive son of Fish.[8]
  • Max Mitchell as Baby Eggs[9]
• Ben Kingsley as Archibald Snatcher, a ruthless, arrogant, antagonistic and cunning pest exterminator who also cross-dresses as Madame Frou-Frou.[5][8]
• Elle Fanning as Winifred "Winnie" Portley-Rind, Eggs's first human friend and the daughter of Lord and Lady Portley-Rind.[5]
• Dee Bradley Baker as Fish, Wheels, and Bucket,[10] three Boxtrolls. Fish is the sweet and caring, but slightly dimwitted adoptive father of Eggs. [11][12]
• Steve Blum as Shoe and Sparky,[10] two Boxtrolls.[11]
• Toni Collette as Lady Cynthia Portley-Rind,[5][10] Winnie's mother and Lord Portley-Rind's wife.[13]
• Jared Harris as Lord Charles Portley-Rind,[5] Winnie's father, the cheese-obsessed leader of the White Hats, and the leader of Cheesebridge.[13]
• Nick Frost as Mr. Trout,[5] Snatcher's corpulent, bumbling, yet intellectual bodyguard.[13]
• Richard Ayoade as Mr. Pickles,[5] Snatcher's tall, spindly, well-meaning but misguided bodyguard.[13]
• Tracy Morgan as Mr. Gristle,[5] Snatcher's diminutive and maniacal second-in-command and best friend.
• Simon Pegg as Herbert Trubshaw,[5] an inventor and Eggs's biological father.
• Nika Futterman as Oil Can and Knickers, two Boxtrolls.[9]
• Pat Fraley as Fragile and Sweets, two Boxtrolls.[9]
• Fred Tatasciore as Clocks and Specs, two Boxtrolls.[9]
• Maurice LaMarche as Sir Langsdale[9]
• James Urbaniak as Sir Broderick, Male Workman #1, Male Workman #2[9]
• Brian George as Boulanger, Male Cristocrat #3[9]
• Lori Tritel as Female aristocrat #1[9]
• Laraine Newman as Female Townsfolk #1, Female Townsfolk #2[9]
• Reckless Jack as Background boy[9]

Directors Anthony Stacchi and Graham Annable promoting the film at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con International.

In June 2008, Laika unveiled a slate of projects in development, among which was also an animated feature film adaptation of the Alan Snow novel Here Be Monsters!, eventually to become The Boxtrolls. The animation technique wasn't yet decided upon, but Anthony Stacchi was set to direct the film.[14] Laika announced on February 7, 2013, that the adaptation would be their next 3D stop motion feature, under the title The Boxtrolls. Directed by Stacchi and Graham Annable,[5] Laika CEO Travis Knight noted that the biggest challenge of the film was to condense a 550-page novel down to a 90-minute film.[15] Initially the film focused on all five species of creatures found in the original book, but Knight noted that the script "ultimately was hollow" with all the monsters noting "It didn't really have anything to say."[15] The team ended up focusing on the Boxtrolls as Knight thought "there was something that was really compelling about that group of characters".[15]

On February 7, 2013, Focus Features originally set the film for an October 17, 2014, release,[5] In May 2013, the release date was changed to September 26, 2014.[6] Focus Features holds worldwide distribution rights to The Boxtrolls, and Universal Pictures International released the movie overseas (with eOne Distribution handling Canada).[5]

On June 11, 2014, two new trailers, one for the US and one for the UK, were released by the studio.[16] The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival on August 31, 2014.[17]

On December 4, 2013, composer Dario Marianelli was hired to score The Boxtrolls, the first animated feature film of his career.[1] On August 30, 2014, it was announced that Back Lot Music would release a soundtrack album for the film on September 23, 2014.[19]

Track listing

All music is composed by Dario Marianelli, except as noted.

• Here Be Monsters!
• List of American films of 2014

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• Official website
• The Boxtrolls at Focus Features
• The Boxtrolls at IMDb
• The Boxtrolls at The Big Cartoon DataBase
• The Boxtrolls at Box Office Mojo
• The Boxtrolls at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Boxtrolls at Metacritic