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Film: The Boxtrolls; It's not about us. RLY. ;p

Posted by Dante on Sunday, September 28 2014 at 9:24:11PM

I never assume that every film is secretly all about us.

Harry Potter; about us.
Twilight; about us.

And I don't assume that playing a Pedophile ( a la Jeremy Irons ) makes you one; any more than playing Beethoven means that Gary Oldman secretly is composing symphonies. ( Which would be a silly thing to say about any actor other than James Franco. ) ;p

Even a director with a significant ouvre isn't automatically one of us. Louis Malle's works include one with child marriage ( Pretty Baby, ) the greatest non-Carroll "Alice" film ( Black Moon, ) and one with a hyperactive LG as chaos personified ( Zazie dans le Metro. ) But unless he comes out and tells me why he made those three, out of a very long career, I don't assume.

That said, if you are inclined to see Pedo themes everywhere The Boxtrolls has more fuel than any other film in a loooooong while.

The Boxtrolls is a stop-motion animated film from studio Laika; who came on strong with Coraline ( voiced by Dakota Fanning ) several years ago.

The protagonist is a boy who has been raised from infancy by the Boxtrolls. Boxtrolls dwell underground, dine on bugs, and come out of the sewers at night to scavenge parts from people's cast-off bric-a-brac. They wear discarded boxes instead of clothes, and can retract into their boxes in case they need to hide in plain sight. Lacking proper names they are called by whatever label is on their box. The human child is called "Eggs."

Aboveground, a troop of exterminators promote the myth that Boxtrolls kidnap and eat "delicious" babies. They have the run of the town after the fear-induced curfew so that nobody sees them hunting harmless Boxtrolls. Their unsavoury leader wants, as a reward for their complete extermination, induction into the town council ( who seem more interested in tasting gourmet cheeses than in passing legislation to benefit children; like a much needed new school. )

Spoiler Alert!
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One of the means of stoking the fear is an annual reenactment of the tragedy of one of the "devoured" babies. The traveling players who perform this pantomime are actually the exterminators. And Eggs is the very child who was supposedly reduced to the "rivers of blood and piles of baby-bones" that decorate the Boxtroll's lair.

The head of the town council has a daughter ( voiced by Elle Fanning ) who rather enthusiastically believes all the tales of lurid gore. But she has both accidentally found herself outside after curfew, and has seen the boy who believes he is a Boxtroll.

She soon finds that the exterminators not only tried to harm Eggs, but dispatched his father whose last fatherly act was to give his infant son to the Boxtrolls for safekeeping.

Furthermore, while the daughter ( Winifred ) knows that parents are supposed to support their children and listen to them, her warnings fall on deaf ears as her own father is spending more time cheese-eating with the council and being seduced ( rather literally ) by the head exterminator.

Clearly the Boxtrolls fill the role of surrogate parent who will actually listen and act to raise children who are harmed by the antis exterminators or neglected by selfish parents.

And as to Winifred's enthusiasm for the lurid myth. She sees the harm it does to her. And replaced it with a relish for telling the gruesome end of the villain.

This is a well done film that's fun even for those who see no message about us. And if they come away seeing that "save the children" is a pretext for a power-grab by those who will act to harm children if it furthers their agenda......... so much the better. And if they might pause to think that those who "crave the flesh of their delicious babies" might actually be allies in helping children, then its done a good job.

But no, it's not about us. :)

Dante

Dante





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