LAIKA Announces New Animated Feature - THE BOXTROLLS
LAIKA has announced that they will be partnering up with Focus Features again to bring us their third animated film adventure, called The Boxtrolls! This is the same stop-motion animation company that's brought us films such as ParaNorman and Coraline, which were both fantastic! The plan is to release The Boxtrolls on October 17th, 2014, and as you can see above, they've released a cool little piece of concept art.
The movie will be made using a hybrid of 3D stop-motion and CG animation. It's also based on Alan Snow’s bestselling fantasy adventure novel Here Be Monsters. The film is being directed by Anthony Stacchi (Open Season) and Graham Annable (story artist on Coraline and ParaNorman).
It also has an amazing voice cast that includes Ben Kingsley, Toni Collette, Elle Fanning, Isaac Hempstead-Wright (Game of Thrones), Jared Harris (Mad Men), Simon Pegg (Star Trek), Nick Frost (Hot Fuzz), Richard Ayoade (The IT Crowd), and Tracy Morgan (30 Rock).
The story is "a comedic fable that unfolds in Cheesebridge, a posh Victorian-era town obsessed with wealth, class, and the stinkiest of fine cheeses. Beneath its charming cobblestone streets dwell the Boxtrolls, foul monsters who crawl out of the sewers at night and steal what the townspeople hold most dear: their children and their cheeses. At least, that’s the legend residents have always believed. In truth, the Boxtrolls are an underground cavern-dwelling community of quirky and lovable oddballs who wear recycled cardboard boxes the way turtles wear their shells. The Boxtrolls have raised an orphaned human boy, Eggs (voiced by Hempstead-Wright), since infancy as one of their dumpster-diving and mechanical junk-collecting own. When the Boxtrolls are targeted by villainous pest exterminator Archibald Snatcher (Kingsley), who is bent on eradicating them as his ticket to Cheesebridge society, the kindhearted band of tinkerers must turn to their adopted charge and adventurous rich girl Winnie (Fanning) to bridge two worlds amidst the winds of change – and cheese."
Sounds like it will be yet another great movie from the animation studio! LAIKA President and CEO Travis Knight had this to say in a statement,
'The Boxtrolls' is a visually dazzling mash-up of gripping detective story, absurdist comedy, and steampunk adventure with a surprisingly wholesome heart. It’s Dickens by way of Monty Python. Tony and Graham have crafted a strange and beautiful world replete with fantastical creatures, good-for-nothing reprobates, madcap antics, and rip-roaring feats of derring-do. But at its core, like all LAIKA films, 'The Boxtrolls' is a moving and human story with timelessness and powerful emotional resonance. We’re thrilled to partner with Focus Features and Universal to bring this remarkable story to family audiences around the world.