The Boxtrolls (2014)

“Where are the rivers of blood, and the mountains of bones?” — Winnie

Dive down into the strange underbelly of Cheesebridge with the boxtrolls, a lovable set of foldable stop-motion monsters, here rendered in warm strokes of sketchy animation produced as a collaboration between commercial studio HouseSpecial and animation house LAIKA.

In LAIKA’s latest stop-motion feature, the process gets a technological makeover to become an incredibly beautiful and seamless piece of moving art. The film is a wonder of uncanny, intricate movement and wonderfully detailed environments, each character’s face a vibrant smudge of emotion, each object a finely crafted piece worthy of closer inspection. But just as with the studio’s previous offering, ParaNorman , the film’s title sequence is a horse of an entirely different colour.

Here, in a style reminiscent of the title sequence to Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events and the drawings of illustrator Ronald Searle, HouseSpecial moves the aesthetic of the title sequence away from the film, rendering the monsters as black swaths of ink tumbling through a watercolour city. The lanky serif typeface, designed by LAIKA’s Josh Holtsclaw, lends the sequence a handwrought elegance. Paired with the friendly “Little Boxes” by Portland band Loch Lomond, the end credits sequence presents a cozy summation of the film, reminding viewers of key moments and jokes.







The first two and a half minutes of the end credits sequence is made up of these animated drawings, but what follows is different again: a secret extra scene, or stinger. In the stinger, a minute-long bonus scene, Mr. Trout and Mr. Pickles discuss the connection between their world and ours, a meta conversation that lapses into a behind-the-scenes look as a life-sized crew member enters and exits the shot to animate them. It is this combination of technical mastery and willingness to invite viewers into the process that makes LAIKA and HouseSpecial’s collaborations so delightful. We admire the artistry on multiple levels; we are wowed by its surface beauty, losing ourselves to the narrative dance and the depth of texture, when suddenly we are given a glimpse behind the curtain. In a world of increasing gloss and digital manipulation, a peek at something so meticulously crafted goes a long, long way.

A discussion with title sequence director AARON SORENSON of HouseSpecial.

So, you had previously directed the end credits of ParaNorman . What was the first meeting like for this new sequence, for The Boxtrolls?

When the HouseSpecial team met with directors Anthony Stacchi and Graham Annable at LAIKA, the concept was already fleshed out. Travis Knight, LAIKA’s CEO, wanted to repeat the success of the ParaNorman end credits, so he asked HouseSpecial to help out again. They had some rough concepts and wanted us to collaborate with Michel Breton, the production designer, and Mike Smith, the character designer. I brought my…

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