STACK #123 Jan 2015

DVD&BD FEATURE

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Directors Anthony Stacchi and Graham Annable, together with Laika animation studio and a talented voice cast, turn Alan Snow’s book Here Be Monsters! into “the biggest stop motion film ever made” –THE BOXTROLLS.

(HerbertTrubshaw), Nick Frost (Mr.Trout), Richard Ayoade (Mr. Pickles), we kind of figured those guys would be into making an animated stop motion film. But for folks like Sir Ben Kingsley, our villain, Snatcher, he did not really have a history of doing animated features and an actor of his stature, you would have imagine he would have been offered the opportunity many times. So to get him as our villain was just a real coup for us. He just brought so much to that character. And then of course Isaac HempsteadWright as Eggs was just this perfect mix of sincerity and scruffiness that our hero needed to have. AS: We always knew when we first read the book that the Boxtrolls were the most unique creation that Alan Snow had. We liked how he described them in the book.The fact that they did not have a language.That they just had these emotive gurgles. I knew that Graham, who was in the story department here, specialised in [these type of] animating and storyboarding pantomime characters. What was your approach to bringing the Boxtrolls themselves to life?

What attracted you to The Boxtrolls ? Anthony Stacchi: I had always wanted to do a stop motion film. I had worked a little bit on them in past points in my career, but I had never been able to direct one. I went up to visit Laika, and whenTravis (Laika Studios CEO,Travis Knight) showed me what they were doing on Coraline (2009), he gave me the great Alan Snow book, Here be Monsters! to read. I thought it was the perfect marriage of source material and a studio capable of making what has now got to be the biggest stop motion film ever made. Why is stop motion the perfect medium to tell this story? GrahamAnnable: I think part of it is the source material. Alan’s book, the setting – a steampunk, Victorian background. It brings so many textures into play and stop motion offers such a unique way of representing animation. It just all fit right, it all melded together in a really perfect way. What was the biggest challenge in putting The Boxtrolls movie together? AS: There are a lot of challenges to making a stop motion movie. But the biggest challenge on this one is the same as every animated film – getting the story right. I first visited [Laika] seven years ago and first read the book then. Most of the seven years [since] was taken up with honing down Alan Snow’s massive book into a movie that was emotionally fulfilling and could fit into 90 minutes. What were you looking for when you were putting the cast ensemble together? GA: I think we’ve been really fortunate. We made our little wish list as directors of who we would love to have in the film, and we pretty much have been able to get the folks we’ve wanted. We knew, with Simon Pegg

GA: I mean this is what brought me to the project. What I gravitated towards was the fact that there were these incredible sequences in the film that did not have a line of dialogue. It was all through expression and gesture and these two Boxtrolls, Fish and Shoe, who are interacting with the little baby and no one is saying a word. It is all through the sound design and the animation that really communicates it. How did you divide directing duties? AS: Every animated film is storyboarded. That is the blueprint to make the film. So we always work together all day long to make the blueprint, to do the storyboards. And then when we hit production… GA :Yeah, when we hit production, that is when (I think) everyone loves the fact that we have two directors because we can divide and conquer. AS: For eighteen months. What kind of movie are viewers in store for? AS: It is a really fun movie. It is an action- adventure family film with a really big heart, about a boy in search of who he is and where he belongs in the world. What is your favourite cheese? AS: Gorgonzola! Because it has got a funny name. GA: Me, I am a simple man. I am going with Cheddar.

• The Boxtrolls is out on Jan 15

JANUARY 2015 JB Hi-Fi www.jbhifi.com.au

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