I took my daughter to see the Boxtrolls the other day. I had not heard nor read anything about this movie before going. I must say I was pleasantly surprised.
My daughter will be 9 before the month is over, and she really seemed to enjoy the movie, which surprised me as I do not think this movie is for everyone and I sort of felt it was more for adults then children. It's not that it was overly mature, it is just that the deeper story seemed more social as in class, status, and politics.
First off, the movie is rather stunning to look at. I went in expecting animation, but this movie appears to be stop motion heavy...I wanted to say claymation, but the characters did not have a clay look, so I guess stop motion is the technic used. I just cannot imagine how long it took to make this film.
I will say the first 10 to 20 minutes felt a little confusion or slow, but it might have been that I was just lost on where the movie was going.
Without given too much away, this movie had a real Monty Python style, feel, and influence to it. I really did like a lot of Python when I was growing up and this is the closest thing I have seen to anything Python since they broke up (well maybe outside of a fish called Wonda).
I did not look up to see if there was any real Python influence, but near the end, a scene was taking right out of the Meaning of Life...and this was long after I determined the film was Python influenced...then the credts came up and I saw that Eric Idle did the trolls theme song or something...so who knows.
Anyway, this film might not be for everyone, but if you are a fan of Python or stop motion, you should really consider seeing this...but then again, my daughter did love it, so it may be for more folks than I give it credit for.