The Boxtrolls from Laika

[Xtaz]

Simply amazing .....

https://www.facebook.com/theboxtrolls

[Wildsided]

Saw the trailer for this when I went to see E for Echo (another terrible movie) for my daughter's birthday. It looks to be the most stupid and pointless animated movie....ever?...yeah I'm going with ever. It makes no sense. A kid raised by trolls who's gimmick is they wear boxes. Who honestly thought that was a solid premise for a film?

 

I know the internet generation will literally watch anything but c'mon!

[largento]

I definitely appreciate the craftsmanship, but I'm with Dan on this one in that the story lacks any kind of appeal to me. Hopefully it's not just a go by the numbers plot, but I can already guess it:

 

1) Baby orphaned. 2) Raised by animals, he's happy until he discovers his own kind. 3) Tries to fit in, but is charmingly naive and makes a fool of himself. 4) The real pull to join his people is a girl. 4)The antagonists attack and thanks to whatever special knowledge and his animal family, he is able to win the day. 5) Sadly, he must choose between the worlds and chooses the girl, only to wink at the audience that some part of his other family lives on in him.

 

Which, of course, is the plot to Disney's Tarzan ...and far too many other animated features. :-)

[NancyGormezano]

So far, I am in complete awe of this production. I usually wait to see animations (long after they hit netflix, if I ever do see them), but this is one I might actually go see.

 

Not only am I impressed with the stylized artistry, but the animation quality looks unbelievably fluid for stop-mo. The voice actors, sound production, cinematography are of course top notch. And I believe the story will have more depth, insight, than most of Disney's dribble. I am only inferring this just from the released clip's dialog and their catch line:

 

"If you can't fit in the world as yourself, sometimes you have to change the world to fit you"

 

I have hopes.

 

So far, this reminds me of "Mary & Max" and "Ratatouille". The only 2 full length feature animations I've ever really enjoyed, from a story and production value, that made me forget they were animations. Did not appreciate Coraline, "nightmare before Xmas, etc

 

EDIT: oh wait, forgot to say that I also looove most Aardman productions - especially any involving Wallace & Grommit

Edited September 6, 2014 by NancyGormezano

[KJ'd Beast]

Visually stop motion movies are terrific they just never satisfy me with story and character. I hope this one is different.

[pixelplucker]

Behind the scenes is better than the movie I guess, still amazing what they did with the environmental effects for stop action that can even be a daunting task in 3d.

 

Personally I like the effects ToreB does here with his 3d that looks like stop action.

[detbear]

Nancy. I agree with the Aardman stuff. The older Wallace & Gromit shorts were simply amazing.

 

I'll hopefully get to see the Box Trolls simply because the amount of physical artistry and detail.

 

By the Way......They create their facial expressions in 3D with textures and then 3D PRINT thousands of them for each character.

The animators have the numbers worked out and they have a system where the faces are like Pose Sliders. each frame that requires

a change, they snap on the appropriate facial plate.

 

I think Laika actually has it's own 3D printing department.

 

Here is a video about how they printed over 31 thousand expression pieces for the ParaNorman Character.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SghJPRWjTnI

[KJ'd Beast]

What is interesting is that everything in a CG film is also hand made. I believe there's the same amount of artistry in both media.

[Roger]

While I liked the art direction and animation in Coraline, I didn't care for the story. It was a bit too creepy for my taste. Especially that tired old horror trope at the end "oh everything is fine and lovely and back to normal EXCEPT the Big Bad actually survives" etc. Blech.

[Fuchur]

So far, this reminds me of "Mary & Max" and "Ratatouille".

 

EDIT: oh wait, forgot to say that I also looove most Aardman productions - especially any involving Wallace & Grommit

finding nemo and monster inc 1? those need to be in that list too or did you not see those? . epic is very close too especially because of the fantastic look and the world in which it plays... walle is very well done too but i do think they did not care about if the viewer gets sucked in or not... are you including none 3d movies here? like the earlier disney movies?

[NancyGormezano]

 

So far, this reminds me of "Mary & Max" and "Ratatouille".

 

EDIT: oh wait, forgot to say that I also looove most Aardman productions - especially any involving Wallace & Grommit

finding nemo and monster inc 1? those need to be in that list too or did you not see those? . epic is very close too especially because of the fantastic look and the world in which it plays... walle is very well done too but i do think they did not care about if the viewer gets sucked in or not... are you including none 3d movies here? like the earlier disney movies?

 

I liked Nemo, Monsters inc, wall-e...saw them as sweet stories for children & they were watchable, (predictable, not in a bad way) & enjoyable for me. But I wouldn't recommend them to my adult friends, who aren't into animation.

 

I prefer stories, animations with more depth, deeper human insight, that can surprise me.

 

I can appreciate eye candy, new technologies, purposeful creative, unique styles, but haven't been motivated to see any 3D stuff as it feels gimmicky, and usually am not interested in the stories that tend to get made in 3D. If it's breaking ground new style, then I find I can get distracted into trying to figure out how they did something.

 

Good voice acting, sound production are also important.

 

It helps if the whole package makes me forget I'm watching an animation for a first time viewing and then makes me want to watch it again to analyze and dissect it. Not many animations do that for me.

[Simon Edmondson]

My personal Fave remains the Iron Giant, I went to see it at the cinema 12 times and would have gone more if it had been possible. For me, it meets all Nancy's criteria, great story, voice acting, and the visuals are terrific too. It came out around about the time of "The Perfect Storm" and a friend made the observation that the storm at the start of the Giant is more impressive than the much lauded cg effects in that. I've known adults watch it who love it and have no particular fondness for animation generally.

 

Personally I preferred The Incredibles to Ratatoille as I have a dislike for anthropomorphised storylines. I can admire the technical skill in Disney features but the narratives and schmaltz (?) often want to make me touch my tonsils. I did enjoy Mary and Max. Have you seen Chico and Rita, set in 50/60's Cuba and New York about Jazz musicians. And, the best film I saw in 2011 ( I think ), called "The Illusionist" by Sylvain Chomet - who also made Belleville Rendezvous - Its based on a Jacques Tati script but set in the UK, mainly Scotland. Moving script, beautiful visuals.

regards

simon

[NancyGormezano]

My personal Fave remains the Iron Giant

 

Have you seen Chico and Rita, set in 50/60's Cuba and New York about Jazz musicians. And, the best film I saw in 2011 ( I think ), called "The Illusionist" by Sylvain Chomet - who also made Belleville Rendezvous - Its based on a Jacques Tati script but set in the UK, mainly Scotland. Moving script, beautiful visuals.

Could not find Iron Giant (on netflix streaming, but available on dvd). Have wanted to see it, as many people have mentioned that as one of their fav's.

 

Just put Chico & Rita on my queue (uhhh...Q is over 100 films long)

 

found this link to L'illusionniste on vimeo (21 minute ? pirated?) - looks interesting, tho sometimes, if I recall correctly, I find Tati can be tedious, will give it a look-see (EDIT: I have seen this, just now remembering I enjoyed it, but didn't remember the details - and yes - good storytelling!)

 

Thanks for the leads!

Edited September 8, 2014 by NancyGormezano

[Simon Edmondson]

Nancy

Knowing your love of dance, you may enjoy this

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10150271442460713&set=vb.801125712&type=2&theater

 

Apologies to others for hijaking the thread.

regards

simon

[Tore]

My personal list of fantastic and wonderfull stop motion and drawn animation movies. All of them feature length except Tutli Putli which runs for 20 minutes. It can be watched for free at the link below. Highly recomended!!

Alice
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095715/

Faust
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109781/

Madame Tutli Putli
https://www.nfb.ca/film/madame_tutli_putli_en

The Triplets of Belleville
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0286244/

Persepolis
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0808417/?ref_=tt_rec_tt

Spirited Away
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0245429/

[NancyGormezano]

Watched Chico & Rita last night, had not heard about it. Good, adult story, and of course excellent sound, music - definitely made me forget it was an animation...couldn't quite make out their technique for achieving their stylized look. Almost looks like it was filmed in live action and then they used a filter to get the graphic novel look? Quite amazing if they didn't. Probably a mix of hand drawn & 3D & rotoscoping? Thanks for the lead, Simon.

 

Tore - Thanks for the suggestions, good list

 

Tried to watch Tutli Putli - but my Internet connection has deteriorated drastically in the last week - so it became too painful to watch with all the buffering interrupts from the canadian channel. I had been wanting to see this for the longest time, so thanks for the link. From what I saw, loved the look, and again marvel at the technique. Story looks interesting as well. Will give it another chance. We (Cupertino) are eventually supposed to get fiber optics - hopefully in my lifetime. Comcast sucks bigtime lately.

 

I had seen Spirited Away - enjoyed it, but as with all Miyazaki stories, I find that I am drawn in at the beginning, follow it all the way thru, and are then very disappointed with his endings. Very unsatisfying, as things, questions do not seem to get resolved.

 

Have seen "triplets" - and remembering that I enjoyed it. And also had tried watching Persepolis (awhile ago) - but I probably wasn't in the mood for "reality". Should give it another go. (It was on Netflix streaming)

[robcat2075]

 

Could not find Iron Giant (on netflix streaming, but available on dvd). Have wanted to see it, as many people have mentioned that as one of their fav's.

 

 

You haven't seen Iron Giant????????????????????

 

WHAT????????????????????????????

 

It's a bit of a boys-only film. Aside from the mother, who has to be there because the kid has to have a parent, it's really about how male characters interact with each other. There's no boy-gets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-rescues-girl element to it at all.

 

It's a classic animated film and yet totally unlike all the princess/romance animated musicals that had dominated the 90's.

 

It is my favorite animated feature.

 

 

[nemyax]

There's no boy-gets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-rescues-girl element to it at all.

The beatnik does get the girl. Admittedly though, he doesn't have to fight for her.

[Simon Edmondson]

http://cinefex.com/blog/boxtrolls/

 

I haven't seen the film myself but, a friend posted this link to a behind the scenes article about the making of it.

bsimmon