Defining success is a difficult thing to categorise: critically, the likes of Boyhood, Birdman, The Imitation Game, Foxcatcher and Gone Girl lead the pack; commercially, Transformers: Age of Extinction, Guardians of Galaxy, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay and Maleficent thrived. A digital word of mouth is another interesting definition and Google Trend’s end of year report publishes the most searched, and perhaps most popular, releases of 2014.
Frozen – Directors: Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee – Starring: Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Josh Gad
Interstellar – Christopher Nolan – Matthew MacConaughey, Mackenzie Foy, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Casey Affleck, Michael Caine
Divergent – Neil Burger – Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Kate Winslet, Jai Courtney, Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort
Gone Girl – David Fincher – Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Tyler Perry, Neil Patrick Harris
Lone Survivor – Peter Berg – Mark Wahlberg, Emile Hirsch, Taylor Kitsch, Ben Foster
Godzilla – Gareth Edwards – Bryan Cranston, Aaron Taylor Johnson, Ken Watanabe, Sally Hawkins, Elizabeth Olsen
22 Jump Street – Phil Lord and Chris Miller – Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Ice Cube, Wyatt Russell
Big Hero 6 – Don Hall, Chris Williams – Ryan Potter, Scott Adsit, TJ Miller, Maya Rudolph, Alan Tudyk
Annabelle – John R Leonetti – Annabelle Wallis, Ward Horton
Maleficent – Robert Stromberg – Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Sam Riley, Juno Temple, Imelda Staunton, Sharlto Copley
The most surprising entry hear is Annabelle, a low budget and universally trashed horror flick that’s beaten off the likes of The Fault in Our Stars, The Lego Movie, How to Train Your Dragon 2, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Edge of Tomorrow, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay. Marvel’s four smash hits (Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, X-Men: Days of Future Past) has conceded to a Disney triple bill (Maleficent, Big Hero 6, Frozen).
Starring: Isaac Hempstead Wright, Ben Kingsley, Elle Fanning, Jared Harris, Richard Ayoade, Nick Frost, Jared Harris, Dee Bradley Baker, Steve Blum, Tracy Morgan, Toni Collette, Simon Pegg
Laika are the biggest rising stars in the world of animation at the moment. Their promise originated with the incredible Coraline which was followed up by the entertaining ParaNorman. Their purpose seems to be showcasing animation with more of a bite than your usual Disney fare. Their third feature, The Boxtrolls, will be the test on whether the studio can be in for the long haul so the result are understandably crucial.
The gothic, dairy-obsessed town of Cheesebridge are supposedly plagued by baby kidnapping monsters called Boxtrolls. They are in fact harmless creatures scavenging the town of its mechanical goods but Archibald Snatcher (Kingsley) is dispatched to hunt them down by local aristocrat Lord Portley Rind (Harris). Years later, Portley Rind’s adventurous daughter Winnie (Fanning) discovers the Boxtrolls’ true nature when she encounters a boy they’ve adopted, Eggs (Hempstead Wright).
Considering that Coraline’s scares slowly developed before lunging out in the final third, ParaNorman may have approached horror from the obvious route with zombies and death galore. This time round, the approach seems to be more of a family fantasy adventure, stripping away much of the more blatantly sinister apparel. What remains it certainly an entertaining watch but maybe not quite exciting. The events play out in a slightly unengaging, borderline predictable, manner.
You’d expect that, deprived of the studio’s use of horror to rely on, writers Adam Pava and Irena Brignull would perhaps more heavily invest in the comedy but are aren’t quite enough laugh out loud gags to satisfy. It does however introduce some brilliantly loveable character. Eggs is a far less bland hero than the aforementioned Norman. He has an interesting character arc in which he comes to terms with not actually being a Boxtroll.
The actual plot kickstarts with a chance encounter between Eggs and the strong willed young girl Winnie, voiced by Super 8’s Elle Fanning (putting on an English accent for the second time this year after Maleficent). Confidently rebelling from her oblivious father, she possesses a strangely dark obsession with The Boxtrolls and their supposedly murderous ways.
Her bonding with Eggs takes up the bulk of the second half which leaves the Trolls themselves in annoyingly small roles even though they are the film’s most delightful feature. They’re initially very similar to Despicable Me’s Minions but they don’t have the same violent tendencies, being in fact charmingly gentle. This only makes their relegation all the more frustrating.
Another character confusingly low in screentime is Winnie’s mother. Voicing the role is Oscar nominated actress Toni Collette who gets a high billing but I don’t remember having a single line in the film. Despite possessing the capable acting chops of Jared Harris, the role of the Portley Rind father is wasted on continuous huffing and sighing.
With the Boxtroll’s murders debunked, the true villain unsurprisingly emerges as the monstrous Archibald Snatcher, fantastically voiced by an unrecognisable Ben Kingsley. Whilst malevolently torturing the Trolls, his main desire is to join an elitist, cheese-celebrating gathering called The White Hats but, in a fitting parable, his lust is also his downfall. Compared to the more elegant likes of Maleficent, President Snow or Loki, it’s a nice change of pace to have a genuinely revolting lead villain.
He isn’t alone however; Snatcher is backed up by a trio of bumbling henchman, two of whom aren’t entirely sure is they’re on the right side – the other a bizarre, mindlessly headbutt first, ask later type. Again we don’t get to know any of them particularly well but the lovable tones of Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead) and Richard Ayoade (The IT Crowd) are plenty to go on.
Laika’s use of stop motion his probably what gives it a unique homegrown sense over other studios and here they make stunning use of it. The character transitions are more fluid than ever and the detail in the character’s and sets is astonishing. Sadly the overblown and ambitious finale seems a tad too reliant on CG tinkering but what isn’t these days.
This is an abominably cruel criticism but, tonally, the film’s heart might be too much in the right place – it’s more mischievous than menacing. Even with dashes of darkness, I missed Laika’s usual ferocity but the bags of charm present can’t go ignored. There are some greatly entertaining pieces in character forming but the Boxtrolls themselves steal the segments of the show they are delegated.
“Where are the rivers of blood and the mountains of bones? I was promised rivers of blood!”
A key problem with the Mission: Impossible franchise is the lack of continuity between each instalment. Each director (Brian De Palma, John Woo, JJ Abrams, Brad Bird) has only seen through one film and so each new set of characters who are instantly replaced by the next one. The only stars, besides the Michelle Monaghan cameo in MI4, with multiple appearances to their name would be Tom Cruise (Minority Report, Edge of Tomorrow, Collateral, The Last Samurai, Jerry Maguire, Magnolia, Interview With the Vampire, A Few Good Men, Born of the Fourth of July, Rain Man, Top Gun), Ving Rhames (Pulp Fiction, Dawn of the Dead) and Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, The World’s End, Star Trek).
Jack Reacher’s Christopher McQuarrie will be directed the series’ fifth instalment and has reinstated Ghost Protocol’s cast of Cruise, Rhames, Pegg, Paula Patton (Precious) and Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker, The Avengers). He’s now lining up a villain in the form of Prometheus’ Sean Harris. Other additions to the cast include Rebecca Ferguson (The White Queen) and Alec Baldwin (The Hunt for Red October, 30 Rock, Beetlejuice).
In the early nineties, Ben Affleck was one of the rising stars of the moment following Good Will Hunting however the turn of the century transformed him into what we can best describe as a joke with the infamous flops Daredevil, Pearl Harbour and Gigli. The star’s resurgence came when he tried his hand at directing with the critical hits Gone Baby Gone and The Town which were followed by the Best Picture winning Argo. His hopes to release crime drama Live By Night were put on hold, sadly, when he accepted the role of Batman. The film is now back on track with a new release date and a trio of stars. Affleck will be acting alongside Zoe Saldana (Star Trek, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avatar), Elle Fanning (Super 8, Maleficent, We Bought a Zoo) and Sienna Miller (Casanova, Foxcatcher, Stardust).
Looking at any annual film schedule, its evident that the first half of the year can never quite live up to the second and 2014 is no exception. This year really did get off to a rotten start with 47 Ronin, The Legend of Hercules and I Frankenstein dragging their heals at the box-office but this did pave a way for others; The Wolf of Wall Street and Ride Along both enjoyed three consecutive weeks at the top of the UK and US box-office respectively. Following that came some genuine surprises. Wes Anderson’s ensemble comedy The Grand Budapest Hotel reached 1st and 3rd in the UK and US against all odds and The Lego Movie, one of the most poorly marketed films in recent years, was an unexpected treat and certainly and future cult classic.
The biblical format seemed to increase in popularity around Easter with the low-key Christian dramas Heaven is For Real, Son of God and God’s Not Dead taking nearly thirty times their micro-budgets but these religious flicks aren’t proving successful outside of America, besides Aronofsky’s star-driven epic Noah. The “Katniss-effect” of The Hunger Games has evidently given studios the faith to put stronger female characters into the fray of action and adventure with Angelina Jolie’s Maleficent and Shailene Woodley’s Divergent winning out over Johnny Depp’s Transcendence or Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Sabotage financially. Edge of Tomorrow even managed it to the extent of Tom Cruise needing saving from Emily Blunt’s ultimate warrior.
In the last six months, certain individuals are lighting up the box-office left, right and centre. Former comedian Kevin Hart has lead a trio of success, Ride Along, About Last Night and Think Like a Man Too, while the Jump Street quartet (director Phil Lord and Chris Miller/stars Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill) have a cinematic Midas-touch. It’s evident that Lego’s Chris Pratt can do no wrong and, with Jurassic World and Guardians of the Galaxy coming soon, he’s well on his way to man-of-the-year status. The biggest winners of the year have to be Marvel. Even though their heroes are divided across Sony, Fox and Disney, Stan Lee’s creations of Spider-Man, Captain America (kind-of) and the X-Men are currently the three biggest films of the year so far and they’ll only continue to grow bigger.
Below you can find the international box-office top ten followed by our own personal picks of the year so far as well as the ten to look for in the rest of 2014:
International Box-office Top 10:
Captain America: The Winter Soldier – Director:Anthony and Joe Russo – Starring:Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Robert Redford, Cobie Smulders, Frank Grillo, Emily Van Camp, Samuel L Jackson, Hayley Attwell, Toby Jones – Box-office:$710.8 million
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 – Marc Webb – Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Dane DeHaan, Jamie Foxx, Colm Feore, Felicity Jones, Paul Giamatti, Sally Field, Chris Cooper – $703.3 million
X-Men: Days of Future Past – Bryan Singer – Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult, Peter Dinklage, Ellen Page, Evan Peters, Shawn Ashmore, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen, Josh Helman, Omar Sy, Fan Bingbing, Adan Canto, Booboo Stewart, Lucas Till – $700 million
Maleficent – Robert Stromberg – Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Sharlto Copley, Sam Riley, Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple, Lesley Manville – $531.8 million
Godzilla – Gareth Edwards – Aaron Taylor Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Ken Watanabe, Bryan Cranston, Sally Hawkins, Juliette Binoche – $478.7 million
Rio 2 – Carlos Saldanha – Jesse Eisenberg, Anne Hathaway, Leslie Mann, Bruno Mars, Jemaine Clement, Jamie Foxx, will.i.am – $469.4 million
The Lego Movie – Phil Lord, Chris Miller – Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Ferrell, Will Arnett, Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, Alison Brie, Nick Offerman, Charlie Day, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Cobie Smulders – $467.2 million
Noah – Darren Aronofsky – Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ray Winstone, Emma Watson, Logan Lerman, Douglas Booth, Anthony Hopkins – $356.2 million
300: Rise of an Empire – Noam Murro – Eva Green, Sullivan Stapleton, Lena Headey, Jack O’Connell, Rodrigo Santoro, Callan Mulvey, David Wenham – $331.1 million
Edge of Tomorrow – Doug Liman – Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton, Brendan Gleeson, Jonas Armstrong – $298.8 million
Tuorhoth’s Top 10:
X-Men: Days of Future Past – Bryan Singer – Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult, Peter Dinklage, Ellen Page, Evan Peters, Shawn Ashmore, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen, Josh Helman, Omar Sy, Fan Bingbing, Adan Canto, Booboo Stewart, Lucas Till
Godzilla – Gareth Edwards – Aaron Taylor Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Ken Watanabe, Bryan Cranston, Sally Hawkins, Juliette Binoche
The Lego Movie – Phil Lord, Chris Miller – Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Ferrell, Will Arnett, Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, Alison Brie, Nick Offerman, Charlie Day, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Cobie Smulders
Captain America: The Winter Soldier – Anthony and Joe Russo – Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Robert Redford, Cobie Smulders, Frank Grillo, Emily Van Camp, Samuel L Jackson, Hayley Attwell, Toby Jones
Edge of Tomorrow – Doug Liman – Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton, Brendan Gleeson, Jonas Armstrong
The Two Faces of January – Hossein Amini – Viggo Mortensen, Oscar Isaac, Kirsten Dunst
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom – Justin Chadwick – Idris Elba, Naomi Harris
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit – Kenneth Branagh – Chris Pine, Keira Knightley, Kenneth Branagh, Kevin Costner, Nonso Anozie, Gemma Chan
RoboCop – Jose Padilha – Gary Oldman, Joel Kinnaman, Abbie Cornish, Michael Keaton, Jay Baruchel, Jennifer Ehle, Jackie Earle Haley, Aimee Garcia, Michael K Williams, Samuel L Jackson
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 – Marc Webb – Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Dane DeHaan, Jamie Foxx, Colm Feore, Felicity Jones, Paul Giamatti, Sally Field, Chris Cooper
Top 10 Anticipated:
Interstellar – Christopher Nolan – Matthew MacConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine, Topher Grace, Casey Affleck, David Oyelowo, John Lithgow, Matt Damon
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – Peter Jackson – Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Evangeline Lilly, Luke Evans, Cate Blanchett, Orlando Bloom, Aidan Turner, James Nesbitt, Ken Stott, Sylvester McCoy, Lee Pace, Manu Bennett, Benedict Cumberbatch, Hugo Weaving, Christopher Lee
Gone Girl – David Fincher – Ben Affleck, Neil Patrick Harris, Rosamund Pike
Kingsman: The Secret Service – Matthew Vaughn – Taron Egerton, Colin Firth, Michael Caine, Samuel L Jackson, Mark Hamill, Mark Strong
Guardians of the Galaxy – James Gunn – Chris Pratt, Bradley Cooper, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel, Lee Pace, Karen Gillan, Djimon Hounsou, Benicio Del Toro, Josh Brolin, John C Reilly
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – Matt Reeves – Jason Clarke, Andy Serkis, James Franco, Judy Greer, Gary Oldman, Toby Kebbell, Kodi Smit McPhee
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 – Francis Lawrence – Jennifer Lawrence, Donald Sutherland, Woody Harrelson, Julianne Moore, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Jena Malone, Sam Clafin, Elizabeth Banks, Stanley Tucci, Toby Jones, Natalie Dormer, Philip Seymour, Hoffman
Fury – David Ayer – Brad Pitt, Logan Lerman, Jason Isaacs, Michael Pena, Shia LeBeouf
Exodus: Gods and Kings – Ridley Scott – Christian Bale, Aaron Paul, Sigourney Weaver, Joel Edgerton, Ben Kingsley
The Judge – David Dobkin – Robert Downey Jr, Robert Duvall, Billy Bob Thornton, Vera Farmiga
Today, we’re kicking off with the chilling new poster from Disney’s haunting revival of their animation Sleeping Beauty. This comes in the form of a transformed Angelina Jolie taking the sinister role of Maleficent. The outcast returns to her home and curses the young Aurora into an eternal sleep. Director Robert Stromberg also adds Elle Fanning, Sharlto Copley, Juno Temple, Miranda Richardson, Sam Riley, Imelda Staunton, Lesley Manville and Peter Capaldi to his cast. Don’t be confused by Disney’s presence; this’ll be an exciting watch.
Since their classic pairing in Swingers, Jon Favreau (Iron Man, Elf) and Vince Vaughn (Dogeball, The Internship) have gone their separate ways; Vaughn departed to form the immortal Vaughn/Owen Wilson duo with Wedding Crashers while Robert Downey Jr and Favreau formed a multi billion combo in the Iron Man trilogy. They are set to reunite however now that Favreau has signed on for the new thriller Term Life.
Term Life sees heist planner and criminal trick writer Nick Barrow who comes to the epiphany that nearly every vengeful mob boss is after him after the numerous times he’s foiled their plans. He attempts to reconcile with his estranged daughter (Hailee Steinfeld) and reconstruct his life but that itself may have hours left. The film, directed by Peter Billingsley (Couples Retreat – another Favreau/Vaughn production), also stars Bill Paxton, Shea Whigham, Anna Colwell and Jonathan Barks.
One of the biggest releases of this year is a new, kind-of, prequel to a Disney animated classic. Maleficent is the titular character and villain of the original Sleeping Beauty. A surprisingly terrifying new trailer for the film is not only haunted by Angelina Jolie’s Maleficent but Lana Del Rey’s eerie reimagining of “Once Upon a Dream”. First time director Robert Stromberg is calling the shots while Miranda Richardson (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), Sharlto Copley (District 9) and Elle Fanning (Super 8) make up the supporting cast.
Empire Magazine is not only the world’s biggest and best movie magazine; it has a huge fanbase here, at Tuorhoth Movies. To celebrate their 25th Anniversary and the release of X-Men: Days of Future Past, Empire have done something very special which is to release 25 alternate covers for their March 2014 issue. 15 covers have been revealed so far and more are being announced every hour.
There’s posters for all of the stars that you’ve seen already in the trailers, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Lawrence, Patrick Stewart, Peter Dinklage, Ian McKellen and Nicholas Hoult, as well as some we haven’t seen at all. First looks at Quicksilver (Evan Peters), Toad (Evan Jonigkeit), Havok (Lucas Till) and William Stryker (Josh Helman) are granted here. Ellen Page, Booboo Stewart, Fan Bingbing, Halle Berry, Daniel Cudmore, Omar Sy and Adan Canto also star and we can expect their covers to be unveiled very soon. Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Stan Lee, Hugh Jackman, Shawn Ashmore and director Bryan Singer are all offering insights into this special event on Twitter.
Speaking of Twitter, Doctor Who’s official page has launched the first image of The Twelfth Doctor in anticipation of this autumn’s series 8. Jenna Coleman has been confirmed to star as Clara and showrunner Stephen Moffat has hired Ben Wheatley (Kill List, A Field in England) to direct the first two episodes. For a start, I’m not convinced by the shoes or his arms’ impression of The Silence but Peter Capaldi has proved more than once that he’s capable of the charisma required for Who.
Doctor Who series 8 – autumn
X-Men: Days of Future Past – May 22nd
Empire’s X-Men: DoFP special – in shops 30th January
Above is the first official image from this year’s Doctor Who Christmas Special or, as we must now call it, The Time of the Doctor. The title stems from this year’s “of the Doctor” mini series. It started with the series seven finale The Name of the Doctor. The second major instalment of this trilogy was last Saturday’s 50th anniversary special The Day of the Doctor but that was preceded by the short film The Night of the Doctor. The Time of the Doctor will conclude Matt Smith’s time as the Doctor and will also introduce Peter Capaldi as the new incarnation. We won’t see Capaldi properly until Autumn next year when series eight begins with a two part episode directed by Ben Wheatley.
We know Jenna Coleman will star as Clara but no other castings are confirmed. The Silence, the Weeping Angels, the Cyberman and the Daleks are confirmed to be just some of the villains to feature and I think that they’re unlikely to leave Madame Vastra (Neve McIntosh), Jenny (Catrin Stewart) and Commander Strax (Dan Starkey) or indeed River Song (Alex Kingston).
Two Hercules films are to battle it out in 2014. We’ve no idea how the studios managed this but it’s awfully bad luck as their both hovering over August. One, Hercules, is from director Brett Ratner (X-Men: The Last Stand, Rush Hour, Red Dragon), stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in the title role with John Hurt, Peter Mullan, Rebecca Ferguson, Ian McShane and Joseph Fiennes and goes for a tale set after the traditional Twelve Labours of Hercules legend.
The other is Hercules: The Legend Begins. Renny Harlin, director of Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger and Deep Blue Sea, is calling the shots on a production which doesn’t seem to have many major stars beside Twilight’s Kellan Lutz. The first trailer reveals that this may have enough action and stun in it to go beyond the seemingly limited cast. With two versions of the Greek tale in production, the release is subject for change but it should come in August 8th.
The new trailer for The Boxtrolls has also landed. It serves as a cinematic teaser and a peek behind the scenes of an animation style that’s notoriously technical. Laika are the team behind brilliant stop-motion hits such as ParaNorman and Coraline so we can expect great things from this dark fantasy comedy. Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Elle Fanning, Toni Collete, Ben Kingsley, Richard Ayoade, Jared Harris and Isaac Hempstead Wright all lend their voices while Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi direct.
Maleficent is Angelina Jolie’s potential new huge role. It’s the story of Sleeping Beauty told from the point if view of it’s villain, a misunderstood but ultimately corrupt witch. Elle Fanning (Super 8) plays the young Princess Aurora who falls into Maleficent’s malevolent traps. Sharlto Copley (Elysium, District 9), Peter Capaldi (The Thick of It, Doctor Who), Miranda Richardson (Harry Potter, Blackadder), Sam Riley (Byzantium, On the Road), Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake, Harry Potter), Juno Temple (The Dark Knight Rises, Killer Joe) and Lesley Manville (Another Year, A Christmas Carol) also make up the supporting cast. Hopefully, they can make this darker than the average Disney film but put it a level higher than the plain dullness that made up Snow White and the Huntsman.
That strong concept will be tweaked however now that John Lee Hancock (director of The Blind Side, which won Sandra Bullock an Oscar, an the upcoming Saving Mr. Banks, which could do the same for Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson) has been drafted in to rewrite the opening of Robert Stromberg’s fantasy adventure which will lead to a reshoot. “He’s not directing,” producer Joe Roth tells is, “He wrote pages and I hired a first-time director and it’s good to have him on set. The movie is gorgeous to look at and the last 75 minutes are really entertaining.”
George Clooney writes directs and stars in The Monuments Men, the true story of a team of art experts venturing into the warzones of WW2 to reclaim some of Europe’s cultural treasures before Hitler wipes them out, alongside Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett, Bill Murray, Jean Dujardin, John Goodman, Bob Balaban and Hugh Bonneville. This more action based trailer for the film was released for your entertainment recently. Enjoy!
Laika have been a superb company to watch in the past few years. Coraline (2009) put Pixar and Disney to shame by making a genuinely scary animated film that still worked for the younger audience and made £120 million at the box office. Taking inspiration from Neil Gaiman’s book and, quite obviously, Tim Burton. It terrified and struck a fantastic future for the company. In 2012, Laika returned with ParaNorman. It followed a more slapstick mainstream path of laughter over the scares and general weirdness in Coraline but the film still carried the spooks in some substance. It went head to head with the aforementioned Tim Burton and his horror animation Frankenweenie and did surprisingly well. It’s overall takings at the box office were only about $10 million less than it’s predecessor Coraline.
Laika’s newest production is The Boxtrolls. It stars a perhaps more star studded cast than the studios other works; with Sir Ben Kingsley fresh off Iron Man 3, Super 8 star Elle Fanning and Shaun of the Dead comedy duo Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (also to be seen in Paul, Hot Fuzz, The Adventures of Tintin and their new apocalypse comedy The World’s End). The trailer, although funny, does not inform us much of the story. We do know that the film sees an orphaned boy called Eggs (Game of Thrones star Isaac Hempstead Wright) kidnapped by the underground and misunderstood Boxtrolls, called so as they disguise themselves as boxes. Kingsley voices the villainous Archibald Snatcher attempts to steal the boy. It is unusual to see a teaser trailer, however brief, seen way over a year before release.
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