Laika follow up Paranormal with a brand new animation based on the work of Alan Snow.
What are Boxtrolls?
‘The Boxtrolls’ is a brand new movie from LAIKA, the animation company who previously gave us ‘ParaNorman’ & ‘Coraline’. The film is a 3D stop-motion and CG hybrid animation directed by Anthony Stacchi.
Here Be Monsters
‘The Boxtrolls’ is based on the novel ‘Here Be Monsters’ written and illustrated by Alan Snow. The book has also been issued as a trilogy of shorter books titled ‘Pants Ahoy!’, ‘The Man in the Iron Socks’, and ‘Cheese Galore!’.
Hand-Drawn Realness
The original book includes over 500 black and white illustrations, all were drawn by author Alan Snow using traditional pens and ink. None of your fancy photoshop tricks for this man!
Say Cheese!
‘The Boxtrolls’ fable unfolds in Cheesebridge, a posh Victorian-era town obsessed with wealth, class, and the stinkiest of fine cheeses. Animators made 55 different models of cheese, different scale sizes were needed for wide and close-up shots.
Pegg & Frost – Together Again
Fans of Simon Pegg & Nick Frost rejoice… the hilarious duo have reunited to voice characters in ‘The Boxtrolls’ movie. It is their first animated movie together since ‘The Adventures Of Tintin’ in 2011.
I know that voice…
As well as Pegg & Frost ‘The Boxtrolls’ boasts an all-star cast including Ben Kingsley, Elle Fanning, Toni Collette, Jared Harris, Richard Ayoade and Tracy Morgan.
Boxtroll’s Director
Director Anthony Stacchi previously directed 2006 animated movie ‘Open Season’ , early in his career he worked as a visual effects animator on cult classics like ‘Back To The Future’ ‘Hook’ & ‘Ghost’.
An Animators Work Is Never Done
Teams of craftsmen, artists and animators took 1 week to complete just 3.7 seconds of on screen footage. Every eye-brow raised in the movie took an animator days to complete.
Smile Please
To create different facial expressions, LAIKA’s uses state of the art 3D printing. Each face has separate sections to slot in eyebrows, eyes and mouths. 55,000 different facial expressions were made this way for the movie, giving animators the potential for 1 million different combinations. The finished 87-minute movie used 125,280 individual character poses.
When Can I See It?
‘The Boxtrolls’ is at irish cinemas Now. Check out the trailer below…