By ParaNorman is the movie that should be winning best animated picture awards left and right, but isn’t because it had nowhere near as big a budget or marketing push. But everyone who saw it loved it and the fine folks at Laika (who also made Coraline) will now be at it again with their next announced film The Boxtrolls.
What the heck are Boxtrolls? They’re creatures from Alan Snow’s fantasy/adventure novel Here Be Monsters. They live under the streets of Cheesebridge and are thought to be evil. The twist is they aren’t (didn’t see that coming, right?) and they’ve raised a human child.
This sounds like its right up Laika’s alley and the film will once again be done in their signature combination of stop-motion and CGI. The voice cast will include Ben Kingsley, Toni Collette, Elle Fanning, Isaac Hempstead-Wright, Jared Harris, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Richard Ayoade, and Tracy Morgan. Yea, it’s one of those animated movies where they have all these famous people do bit parts, but Laika actually does a good job of putting it all together. The film is set to release on October 17, 2014.
