Stop motion masters Laika Entertainment have released several new pieces of art for their upcoming movie The Boxtrolls. Our 2013 Most Anticipated Movie of September is due in theaters just over a month from now, and in addition to the above theatrical poster we’re being treated to a character teaser and motion poster.
The film centers on feral child Eggs’s (Game of Thrones’ Isaac Hempstead Wright) reintroduction to human society after being raised by a group of underground gremlins known as the Boxtrolls. The plot appears to be a culture bridging tale, with Eggs trying to save the Boxtrolls from the destructive designs of the fear-mongering Archibald Snatcher (Ben Kingsley). An formidable Brit-heavy voice cast is in place in support of directors Graham Annable (who served as an artist on both ParaNorman and Coraline) and animation vet Anthony Stacchi.
The Boxtrolls continues to ooze the quirky charm in evidence from its earlier teaser and theatrical trailers. Laika’s previous feature efforts, Corpse Bride (2005), Coraline (2009), and ParaNorman (2012), were all nominated for Animated Feature Oscars before falling prey to another stop-motion film (Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit) and pair of Pixar offerings (Up and Brave), respectively. With no 2014 Pixar film, could this finally be the year the studio breaks through in the hardware department? Top competitors figure to be the excellently received The LEGO Movie and the sequel to another Oscar nominee in How to Train Your Dragon 2. Also in the running could be the Marvel/Disney feature Big Hero 6, which hits theaters in November, meaning that the hard luck could continue.
The hope of moviegoers, of course, is that The Boxtrolls lives up to the positive previews and makes deciding any awards race a nigh-impossible task.
The Boxtrolls arrives in theaters September 26.
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