The Boxtrolls

Compared to animation giants like Disney and Pixar, Laika is very young and inexperienced.  Founded only 10 years ago, their films are mostly a very stylized form of stop-motion animation.  However, their films are also consistently well done.  I was especially blown away by their debut feature, Coraline, earning Laika their first Oscar nomination.  Paranorman is also enjoyable and did well.  I feel that their latest feature, The Boxtrolls is the studio’s most daring film yet.

In the town of Cheesebridge, a boy known as Eggs is raised by the mysterious Boxtrolls.  The townspeople are led to believe that the Boxtrolls are terrible thieving creatures that steal babies in the night.  However, the Boxtrolls are gentle beings that only take trash and use what they find to fix things in their sprawling home under the town.  One night, Eggs’ surrogate father, Fish, is taken by the power-hungry exterminator, Archibald Snatcher (voiced by Ben Kingsley).  Eggs ventures to the surface to save Fish, makes a new friend and exposes Snatcher for the villain he is to the whole town.

Storywise, The Boxtrolls is very strange yet fascinating.  There is a hierarchy Snatcher is trying to climb by ridding the town of Boxtrolls where he will be rewarded with a respectable white hat and cheese tasting parties.  And cheese is weirdly important to Cheesebridge, so much so that the citizens would rather have a giant fancy new wheel of it than a children’s hospital and certain people with severe allergies choose to ignore them.  But I digress, there’s more than cheese at play here…  There’s jelly as well.

What I liked most about The Boxtrolls, as I do with all of Laika’s films to date, is the visual style.  It’s not exactly pretty, yet could not take my eyes away.  Cheesebridge above ground has a Victorian feel, with their characters being more stiff and proper.  Down in the Boxtrolls’ lair things are more haphazard, fun and colorful.  The way the Boxtrolls are so inventive and mechanically minded gives them a steampunk feel, outlined in cardboard.  I believe the unique visual and animation style is what landed The Boxtrolls their Oscar nomination for best animated feature.

Overall, The Boxtrolls is a fine film, though many might find it strange.  Those hoping for a glossy kiddie movie with cheery Disney tones should look elsewhere.  The Boxtrolls rises above the cutesy fray and gets kinda gross and slightly scary for little ones.  But for those who enjoy a good animated film, especially stop-motion animation, check this one out and give it a chance.  And for an extra treat in how involved this style of animation is, stay until after the credits.  You might be pleasantly surprised.  

“Someone’s got the cheese fits again.”

Hugo

Young Hugo (Asa Butterfield) finds comfort in imagining that the entire world is a machine, because in a machine, there are no extra parts.  In that idea, he, everyone and everything around him have a purpose.

It is obvious to see where he develops this understanding.  Before his father (Jude Law) died, he taught Hugo how to fix clockwork.  Now as an orphan, he keeps all the clocks running in a Paris train station.  Like a twentieth century Quisimoto, he observes the people within the station from his hiding places.  They have their purposes inside the station.  Passengers, conductors, the flower shop girl, cafe owner with a little dog are all benign.  However, the toy shop keeper (Ben Kingsley) is out to get Hugo for stealing and the inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen) would send him to the orphanage if he ever got a hold of him.

Along with keeping the station’s clocks running, Hugo is determined to fix an automaton he and his father were working on together.  If working properly, it should write a message, one Hugo hopes would bring him some last connection to his father.  But it requires a mysterious key, and the more Hugo works on the automaton, the more enveloped he becomes in the mystery surrounding it.

One of the fondest memories Hugo has about his father is going to the movies.  Stories Hugo heard of seeing a rocket landing in the eye of the man in the moon sounds like an old legend.  As the mystery unfolds, it brings out the influence and importance of early film, film preservation and the ways movies bring people together.  In terms of themes closes to Martin Scorsese’s heart, Hugo may be one of his proudest works.  His nomination for Best Director is well deserved.

In addition to Best Director, there are ten other Oscar nominations Hugo is competing for: Best Picture, Art Direction, Costume Design, Cinematography, Film Editing, Original Score, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Visual Effects and Adapted Screenplay.  As you can see, many of them come from how technically compelling the film is.

For a film buff, some of the most amazing scenes are watching turn of the century silent movies in production.  To see them recreated, in film so vivid and colorful you feel you are right there, is a surreal experience.  It really does feel like watching dreams being made.  I was first introduced to Georges Melies in college, my professor describing his films as magic tricks.  They truly were and still are.

Personally, I view 3D as a gimmick and fad in film, but the use of 3D in Hugo is like nothing else I have ever seen.  There are no cheap tricks and the colors do not feel dulled.  Instead, the 3D brings out the depth of the scenes in amazing layers.  As Hugo runs through the train station and within its walls, the camera follows in magnificent long-shots that unfold in a lovely fluid movement and we feel transported as the surroundings and layers of steam rush by.  Its been said that Scorsese wore clip-on 3D lenses of over his glasses to assist in the cinematography and get a better grip on how the final film would turn out in 3D.  I have to say, whatever Scorsese did, he should keep on doing it.

“My friends, I address you all tonight as you truly are; wizards, mermaids, travelers, adventurers, magicians.  Come and dream with me.”

If the Academy is looking to award a magical film for all ages that reminds us how important film history and preservation is, Hugo will win the Oscar for Best Picture.

Gandhi

At some point in our lives, most of us were probably told to or taught to fight back, to raise our hands against any wrongdoing.  Most of western civilization encourages this brawn to some extent, but Gandhi once said, “An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”  To never make a physical blow to a threatening opponent may seem ill-advised to some, but the power and bravery that can be shown by non-violence can be astounding.

Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi is a film somewhere between a historical epic and a biopic, but contains the beauty of the human spirit in a way that feels so much more personal than either of those two genres can ever be.  It’s a labor of love, artfully molded perfectly simply to share the story, triumph and spirit of Mahatma Gandhi.

The film shows Gandhi (Ben Kingsley)  from his early adulthood, as an upstanding lawyer in South Africa who begins to protest against the racial discrimination against Indians.  After winning Indians equal rights in South Africa through non-violent protests, he returns to India as a national hero and is sought out to help bring independence to India.  Reluctant at first, reconnects with his fellow Indians, especially the impoverished and forsakes his western possessions and anything that put him at a higher status.  Through a non-violent campaign he leads the Indian people against the British using non-cooperation, but it comes with a price.

What makes Gandhi’s ideas on non-violence most moving and noble is the violence we see inflicted upon these peaceful protesters.  The absolute massacre of women and children under General Dyer (Edward Fox) is heart wrenching and only infuriates us, especially when he gets only a verbal reprimand.  In another scene, men walk up to British guards in wave after wave, knowing that the guards will just beat them.  It’s an act of courage and determination that only shows how brutal the enemy really is.

Some of the film’s best moments are humble, quiet and thoughtful, the exact words I would use to describe Kingsley’s portrayal of Gandhi.  Kingsley was just a newcomer when he took on the momentous role, yet earned the Oscar for lead actor.  There’s a beautiful sort of duality in the personality he uses to portray Gandhi, he can be very soft and stern at the same time.  Even at his weakest moments, during the fasts he holds in order to stop the violence between the Hindus and Muslims, there is a power and strength that comes radiating from the frail little man.  Overall, we see a momentous amount of love and concern for all humanity, and Mahatma Gandhi teaches us a higher way to live without trying to bring anyone else down.  How simple, wonderful and uplifting for all.

I hope most people grew up with a better understanding and knowledge of Gandhi than I did.  Besides picking his image out of history books, guessing that he graced Indian currency and an idea about peaceful protesting and fasting, I could tell you close to nothing about this great man.  Something tells me I’m just one of many.  If you want a good understanding and appreciation of Gandhi’s life, as most intelligent adults who care about humanity should, Gandhi is a must see.

“I want to change their minds, not kill them for weaknesses that we possess.”