The Boxtrolls: Steelbook Edition - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Boxtrolls: Steelbook Edition



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
I remember watching the trailer for The Boxtrolls and being delighted that the old Claymation style of animation (even though it’s really not ACTUAL Claymation, but rather digitally created) hasn’t gone the way of the buffalo and that Universal studios keeps greenlighting these flicks. “Paranorman” was decent fun, and “Coraline” was a stunner, but “The Boxtrolls” had a decidedly much more kiddy feel to it vs. the other two mentioned. After watching I have to say that I really enjoyed this one almost as much as I did “Coraline”, even though it is drastically less dark and macabre than that one. “The Boxtrolls” is surprisingly cute and refreshing with just a hint of darkness and plenty of tongue in cheek humor about villains vs. heroes, and even a few potshots at the movie itself.

Underneath the city of Cheesebridge lives a group of little trolls who live in boxes, dubbed (ironically enough), Boxtrolls. This tale is about a young boy who was taken 10 years ago to live amongst the Boxtrolls underneath the city. The uptight city folk are terrified of the boxtrolls, convinced that they eat young children and are basically the boogeyman and Dracula all rolled into one. One Archibald Snatcher (Ben Kingsley) is your mustache twirling villain of the series, a sleazy man who wants nothing more than to be given a “white hat” by the aristocracy of the city (basically becoming one of the elite) and will stop at nothing to achieve his goal. Striking a goal with Lord Portly Rind (Jared Harris), he is promised a white hat if he can wipe out the entire Boxtroll population. Try her certainly does, tracking down the boxtrolls one by one as they come out at night to pillage and steal from the trash.

Little does the town know that the boxtrolls are actually a kind and innocent race of beings, who just like to collect nick knacks and build with them in their lair. The only one who actually knows their secret is the young boy, Eggs (Isaac Wright), the young boy that actually lives with them. Seeing his friends taken one by one, and their numbers dwindling, Eggs must go back to the surface and team up with Lord Portly Rind’s daughter, Winnie (Elle Fanning) to try and change the mind of her father. When that doesn’t work, Eggs has to wage a rescue attempt in order to free his friends from the clutches of the dastardly Mr. Snatcher and his gang of goons (voiced by Nick Frost, Tracy Morgan and Richard Ayoade).

I was gleefully giggling throughout the entire movie as The Boxtrolls turned out to be one of the better animated films that Laika has put out in a long time. It carries some of the same tones as Coraline and Paranorman, but softens them and creates a very unique texture here. The movie has tons of tongue in cheek humor, aimed directly at the movie itself. Playing off of the dichotomy of hero and perceived hero, villain and perceived villain, it dances around the subject and winks very obviously at the viewer while comparing Archibald Snatcher and the Boxtrolls. Snatcher is obviously a villain to the audience, but not exactly to the overly snobby elite with their head stuck in the clouds tasting fancy cheese. We all know the outcome of the film, but the little winks at nods at how many times we perceive things differently than they really are, and the attention we pay to things that are really ludicrous in nature while real evil goes on under our very noses is delightfully true (and sometimes a bit sobering. The humor is mostly childlike, but there are a few mild crudities that are aimed at adults (and actually rather witty I might add, instead of being juvenile). There is just the lightest touch of darkness, as there is intimations of death and destruction, but it’s never up to the creepy factor that “Coraline” or “The Nightmare Before Christmas” achieved. Instead it keeps it at a very mild PG level.

Made for both children and adults, The Boxtrolls manages to bring family entertainment back to the good old days of Claymation animation and witty humor that will appeal to people of all ages. I had a blast watching the movie and loved the originality of the movie. I didn’t realize before watching, but “The Boxtrolls” is actually based on a book by Alan Snow titles “Here be Monsters!”, and it really makes me want to check out the book just to see how faithful the adaptation is. Even if they pull a Roald Dahl on us, I have to say that the end result on film is quite a lot of fun and a worthy addition to any animated fans collection.




Rating:

Rated PG for action, some peril and mild rude humor




4K Video: Video:

As has been the case of the previous 3 Laika 4K releases from Shout Factory, the film has been given a new 4K remaster for this release (I BELIEVE it is different from the 2021 remastering but I can’t be sure) and the results are quite impressive. According to Shout Factory, all 4 films were overseen directly by Laika studios (and headed by CEO Travis Knight and Visual effects supervisor Steve Emerson) and gone over shot for shot and manually color tweaking them for HDR/DV use. The results are quite impressive, with the softer pastels and creamy pinks that Boxtrolls is known for showing up so richly. Primary colors (such as the flames in the monster, or the red coat and hats of the villains) are deep and sharp as can be, while the black shadows of the villain’s lair is intimately revealing of every bit of detail you could imagine. There is a hint of softness to the image simply due to the animation coloring and stylings, but be not afraid, this is one impressive looking 4K upgrade.







Audio:

I rated the old 5.1 DTS-HD MA track a good 4.5/5 2 years ago, and while that holds true, the new Dolby Atmos track takes it just THAT much further into the 5/5 rating territory with the overheads and directional shifts. The score tends to flow a bit easier and I noticed characters zipping all over the place and in every corner made the directional cues that much more apparent. The overheads get quite a bit of use ranging from mild ambiance from the score, to discrete whizzing and zipping of the trolls as they come from the over world down into their underground home. Bass is tight and powerful, especially in the final confrontation with the steam driven mecha where it’s footsteps alone slam down with raw power. All in all, a very nice upgrade to the already excellent 5.1 mix.







Extras:

• NEWLY REMASTERED IN 4K
• DOLY VISION/HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
• NEWLY REMASTERED IN 4K
• Never-Before-Seen The Boxtrolls Animation Test Footage
• "Inside LAIKA' Featurette
• Feature-Length Storyboards
• Foreword by Ramin Zahed, the Editor in Chief of Animation Magazine
• Audio Commentary with Directors Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi
• The Making of The Boxtrolls
• Original Featurettes

Final Score: ​

The Boxtrollsl is a refreshing animated film that colors itself rather unique in regards to modern animated films. It keeps itself childlike without becoming childish, and it keeps enough adult humor in there without becoming too crude and vulgar. The use of old fashioned Claymation blended with modern CGI gives it a beautifully retro, yet modern look that should please fans to no end. The tech specs on this disc are just about flawless and the new extras make it a more filled out package. About the only thing "missing" from the previous releases would be the 3D presentation, and that's pretty much a dead format at this stage. I mentioned in the Blu-ray review back in 2021 that if you were looking at upgrading your old Unviersal Blu-ray then I would probably hesitate. However, in this case I would give things a go ahead as the new 4K remaster in 2160p and the upgraded Atmos actually do give a rather decent path to said upgrade. It's not going to be night and day, but the 4K UHD encode fine tunes the excellent Blu-ray release, and the HDR application is to die for. Extras are, once more, copies of the 2021 Blu-ray release, but that's nothing to really get upset over. (as with Kubo, Shout Factory has released a non steelbook "regular" edition as well in 4K)


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Ben Kingsley, Jared Harris, Nick Frost, Tracy Morgan
Directed by: Anthony Stacchi, Graham Annable
Written by: Irena Brignull, Adam Pava
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 AVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), French, Spanish DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Studio: Shout Factory
Rated: PG
Runtime: 97 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: February 28th 2023

Recommendation: Good Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I enjoyed this one as well. Worth watching.

 

[Todd Anderson]

Sounds like one to stick on the list! Great review, Mike!