What do you get when you combine a family of cute monsters, an out-of-the-box quirky script and a scandalous “buggy” adventure? The Boxtrolls! LAIKA films along, with Focus Features and Universal Pictures, is bringing The Boxtrolls to theaters on Sept. 26. LAIKA is a leading animation company based in Oregon, who creates magically detailed, passionate stop-motion/CG films. Their third project, The Boxtrolls, is based on the novel Here By Monsters by Alan Snow and takes us to the town of Cheesebridge where the social classes are obsessed with cheese and destroying the “monsters” who live far below the streets. My family and I were invited to AMC Universal Studios to watch scenes from the upcoming film as well as interact with a cool exclusive Boxtrolls mirror only available at the AMC at City Walk. PLUS, we got to take some really cool pictures with the Boxtrolls at the theme park.
One of the main characters in the film is Eggs, named for the label on his box. Egg was taken in by The Boxtrolls as a baby and raised as one of their own. Eggs is particularly close to Fish and the two have an interesting father/son relationship. The Boxtrolls predecessors were dark fantasy films (Coraline, Paranorman) which my daughter hasn’t seen but she is familiar with stop-motion animation techniques as we are big fans of Aardman Animations (plus we all grew up watching Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Frosty!) The Boxtrolls characters were designed as puppets and have an exaggerated look. Often times the lighting was very dark and moody in the film but the end result is visually stunning.
The Boxtrolls Magic Mirror
I was curious to see how she how my daughter and the young children at the screening would react to The Boxtrolls. We were shown about 20 minutes of footage and my daughter said that she wasn’t scared at all. She was actually raving about how much she adored the characters in The Boxtrolls. She LOVED baby Eggs especially when he fell asleep with his Teddy Bear’s head. She has many unanswered questions and is looking forward to seeing the entire film. Success!
From the theater we moved on to the lobby of the AMC. We interacted with the motion-sensing Boxtrolls Magic Mirror. There are four characters who mimic your moves. The Boxtrolls might take refuge in their box or you might even get a grunt from the lovable sewer-dwellers! How is it magic? Your movements are tracked using Microsfot’s Kinect which is hidden in the mirror (shhh!).
To round off our Boxtrolls experience, we headed over to Universal Studios Hollywood to meet Fish, Shoe and Sparky! They were waiting for us at Universal Plaza at their very own backdrop to snap pictures. I think my favorite is Shoe! How can I resist a troll who embraces victorian styled Ladies’ Shoes?? Visit these spunky characters at Universal Studios Hollywood for some neat photo pops while you are on your way to check out Universal’s new attractions Minion Mayhem and Transformers!
My daughter loves Fish!
I’m assuming this Boxtrolls name is Bicycle. =)
I recently screened the entire film this month and I was one of the lucky bloggers who visited LAIKA in Oregon earlier this year. Stay tuned for my coverage from the sets of LAIKA as well as a film review on LAParent.com! Thanks to Focus and Universal for putting together a fun family day with The Boxtrolls!
* We received passes to Universal Studios along with food vouchers. This will in no way sway our opinion of the product or service. The review is in our own words and is our opinion. Your results and opinions may differ.
