BoxTrolls Promo Figures

A rare set of Vinyl figures that were sent out to promote the movie. Some pop up on Ebay here and there if you have the funds.

BoxTrolls TrollStrikes Nike Shoes Contest

http://niketrollstrikes.theboxtrolls.com/

As is with tradition, Nike released a limited edition shoe for the movie release of BoxTrolls. I realize I am late in the game on this as the contest ended October 3, 2014.

A twitter contest where you had to create a piece of art from cardboard and post the photo to twitter with the hash tag #TheBoxtrollsNikeShoeContest. One per day, and a new piece of art with every entry.

I really like the look of these shoes much better than the ParaNorman ones. It's unfortunate that I wasn't more on top of things sooner, I would have loved to have won a pair of these shoes.

FAQ here
Rules Here
trollstrikes.theboxtrolls@wk.com.

BoxTrolls Little Review

I have to admit, I was not interested in seeing this movie. I avoided it all together after my disappointment with ParaNorman. That was then.

This is now. I eventually purchased the movie on Blu-Ray and watched it for the first time. I got to say that I really enjoyed it. It was much better than I thought it would be. I actually watched it twice in a row. It kind of starts off a little slow, but eventually picks up and moves at a good pace. The art, sets, and props in this movie are just gorgeous. Laika's 3D printing has come along way in developing their puppets since Coraline.

I enjoyed the movie enough to purchase the original book by Allen Snow, titled Here be Monsters. Wow, totally not the same story at all. These two mediums are too different animals all together. WARNING: SPOILERS. The things that are the same, include (but not limited to) Boxtrolls named Egg (not a human boy), Fish, Shoe, & Match. Snatcher is the villain who also plays Madame Frou-Frou. Cheese and its importance to the town. A character does explode at the end. Snatcher did ride a huge "monster" at the end that was designed to take over the town. Hmm, not sure what else... I did see a Boxtrolls movie adaptation novel, that is probably more like the book, but Here Be Monsters, is a story all on its own. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy the book too. It was fun and really cute. All new characters, more underlings that live under the town, and more craziness.

If you liked Coraline, & ParaNorman, you'd enjoy Boxtrolls (If you haven't seen it yet).

Laika Auction Fundraiser

Heritage Auctions (ebay user "heritageliveauctions") was donated several original props and art by Laika to be auctioned off on eBay for one day only (February 12, 2015). A portion of the proceeds was to be given to The Art of Elysium. You had to sign up for approval to bid beforehand. The auctions included items from Coraline, ParaNorman, and Boxtrolls. A great oppertunity to own a piece from any of Laika's major films. The auction was a huge success and generated more than $1,000,000.

Unfortunately, every auction surpassed my little budget. Auction listings are still visible on eBay. Just do a search for completed/sold listings and use search terms "Laika", "Coraline", "Boxtrolls", "ParaNorman" with "Lot". Good reference photos if anyone is interested.

One of the Auctions that caught my attention, was the listing for the Moving truck from Coraline, Listed Here (temporary working link). Now, what is odd about this listing, is, I believe it was incorrectly labeled. While the moving truck is originally from Coraline, this one in particular, was not. Or at least, was not screen used.

 Moving Van From Auction (Original Photo from Ebay Auction) 48" long x 14" wide x 30" tall

Moving Truck From Coraline (Behind the scenes photo)

Two very different trucks. The truck shown from the auction, granted could have been a prototype. However, the style, wonky lines, paint, makes me think of pre-production art work. However, wouldn't it be neat if this van was built as an Easter egg for ParaNorman?

Star Wars Wampa stopmotion

Jim (aka Fantamation) from TheRPF started out re-creating a Stopmotion puppet of Luke Skywalker riding his Tauntaun from The Empire Strikes Back (shown here).

From there, he was inspired to film the puppet in Stopmotion, but needed to create a scene. So, he decided to recreate the scene of the Wampa killing the Tauntaun, but from a wide shot.

He set to work creating a armature, sculpting the face and hands for the Wampa, and padding a body, Jim had his new puppet. After a couple of days of animating his puppets and a couple of weeks of clean up and effects, he has a
Finished video = Vimeo.com password "fantamation"

Here is the clip inserted into the film: Empire Strikes Back Additional Wampa Footage

photos by Jim (Fantamation) and Kevin (OTnROTSfan)

ParaNorman Movie Review

OK, I watched the movie opening night, and had to get to the theater a half hour before it started to make sure I have a good seat. I ended up walking straight into the theater, and was the first on there. Great, I could choose any seat I wanted. I was kind of surprised that no one else was there, but suspected that the theater would become more packed as the time went by. As the last half hour ticket by, maybe 5 other couples or families showed. That was it. The theater was bare. It could have been that it was the 3D showing, and parents didn't want to fork over the extra cash for it. It could have been the time slot, that parents where taking their kids to see a late showing. Whatever the reason, the turn out, was less than I expected. The movie had a great moral, of trying to teach kids that being weird is OK, and it was very anti-bullying, and over all wanted to get the point across that we should treat everyone with kindness and respect no matter their differences. That aside, I am not sure how I left about the movie as a whole. The visuals where great, the animation was fantastic, the world style was a little bit, well, I guess distracting. You could say that everything felt off, or weird. And that very well could be what they were going for. But, like I said, it was distracting for me. I left the theater thinking that I am going to have to see it again, not because I loved it and cannot wait to see it again, but because I need to come at it with a different mind set. Maybe it's a movie that has to grow on you. Like Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd. I wasn't a fan the first time I watched it, but the more I did, the more I grew to love it. Now, if I had to compare it to Coraline, I would vote Coraline was a better film. Oh, the other thought I had, was that ParaNorman is, in my opinion, a Halloween flick. It should have been released in October. Everything about it gave off 'Halloween' to me. I think it may have had a better turn out if it was released in October.

Got my Tickets

Purchased my tickets and got my 3D glasses. I will use another pair of 3D glasses so I can keep my ParaNorman glasses sealed in the plastic.