Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
An orphaned boy raised by underground creatures called Boxtrolls comes up from the sewers and out of his box to save his family and the town from the evil exterminator, Archibald Snatcher.
The Boxtrolls showcases Laika's signature stop-motion artistry at a high level — the tactile, intricate world-building and fluid character animation are genuinely impressive and earn top marks for cinematography. The voice cast is solid but unremarkable, and the plot, while charming, follows a fairly predictable orphan-saves-the-day arc without much surprise. The villain's motivation and the climax feel rushed and undercooked, making the ending the weakest element. The film has Laika's distinctive visual identity but doesn't quite reach the narrative or conceptual heights of Coraline or Kubo, keeping novelty at a respectable but not exceptional level.