The Boxtrolls

In 1897, in the hilltop city of Cheesebridge in the European country of Norvenia, rumors spread that Boxtrolls, subterranean trolls who wear cardboard boxes, have kidnapped and killed a baby. When the city's pest exterminator, Archibald Snatcher, tells the city's mayor, Lord Charles Portley-Rind, they strike a deal to allow Snatcher membership in the city's cheese-loving council, the White Hats, if Snatcher can exterminate every Boxtroll. Unbeknownst to Portley-Rind, Snatcher has severe lactose intolerance.

In reality, the Boxtrolls are peaceful and emerge from underground at night to scavenge for discarded items. The Boxtrolls’ leader, Fish, cares for the baby, who he has named Eggs. As Eggs grows up, Snatcher captures several Boxtrolls, leaving him distraught. One night after Lord Portley-Rind's daughter, Winifred, sees Eggs with Fish and another Boxtroll named Shoe, Snatcher captures Fish. Eggs sneaks to the surface to rescue Fish. He emerges in an annual fair to commemorate his disappearance, where he discovers the city's inaccurate portrayal of the Boxtrolls.

He follows Winnie, and she directs him to Snatcher's headquarters, located at an abandoned factory. Eggs rescues Fish, but they are caught while trying to escape. Snatcher recognizes Eggs as the baby and reveals that he is forcing the captured Boxtrolls to build him a machine. Winnie, who covertly followed Eggs, overhears this exchange, helps Fish and Eggs escape from Snatcher and takes shelter with them in the Boxtrolls' caves. Fish explains that Eggs' father was Herbert Trubshaw, a great inventor who discovered that the Boxtrolls were fellow inventors. Snatcher was a close friend of Herbert, but one night, he asked Herbert to build something that could help him kill the Boxtrolls. However, knowing that the Boxtrolls were innocent, Herbert refused, so Snatcher threatened to kidnap Eggs. During the struggle, Herbert gave Eggs to Fish to protect him before seemingly being killed by Snatcher. Winnie agrees to help Eggs tell her father the truth.

At a ball held to commemorate the purchase of a giant cheese wheel called the Briehemoth, Eggs tries to reveal his identity to Portley-Rind, but is confronted by Snatcher, who is disguised as a woman named Madame Frou-Frou. While trying to avoid Snatcher, Eggs inadvertently knocks the cheese wheel into a river. He announces himself as the baby, but Portley-Rind does not believe him.

He tries to persuade the remaining Boxtrolls to flee, but unknowingly demoralizes them. Snatcher digs into their caves with his new exterminating machine and captures them all. Eggs awakens in a cage to discover that Herbert is still alive and imprisoned beside him. He sees the Boxtrolls stacked in a crusher and begs them to stand up for themselves, but they are seemingly killed by the crusher.

Snatcher drives his machine to Lord Portley-Rind's house, shows him the flattened boxes as evidence of the Boxtrolls' extinction, and demands Portley-Rind's white hat in exchange for killing the final Boxtroll, which is actually Eggs disguised. The Boxtrolls, who have escaped from the crusher by leaving their boxes, arrive to free Eggs while Herbert reveals himself, causing Portley-Rind and the citizens to realize that Snatcher had lied to them. Snatcher tries to take Portley-Rind's hat by force while two of his henchmen, Mr. Trout and Mr. Pickles, decide to turn against him. Eggs and the Boxtrolls manage to disable the machine, which crushes Snatcher's right-hand man, Mr. Gristle, to death. Eggs and Snatcher are thrown clear and land on the recovered Briehemoth. This causes Snatcher to swell to a grotesque, monstrous size. Because of this, he holds Winnie hostage and forces Lord Portley-Rind to give up his hat in exchange for her safety, but eventually explodes after eating a piece of a rare cheese. Now that the townspeople know that Boxtrolls are peaceful, both sides agree to form a peaceful coexistence with each other.

Isaac Hempstead Wright (Eggs), Elle Fanning (Winnie) and Ben Kingsley (Archibald Snatcher) promoting the film at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con

• Isaac Hempstead Wright as Eggs Trubshaw,^[5] an orphaned 10-year-old human boy raised by the Boxtrolls, and the adoptive son of Fish^[6]
  • Max Mitchell as Baby Eggs^[7]
• Elle Fanning as Winifred "Winnie" Portley-Rind, Eggs's first human friend and the 10-year-old daughter of Lord and Lady Portley-Rind^[5]
• Ben Kingsley as Archibald Snatcher, a ruthless pest exterminator who wants to become a member of the White Hats despite having severe lactose intolerance.
• Dee Bradley Baker as Fish, Wheels, and Bucket,^[8] three Boxtrolls. Fish is the gentle yet skittish adoptive father of Eggs.^[9][10]
• Steve Blum as Shoe and Sparky,^[8] two Boxtrolls^[9]
• Jared Harris as Lord Charles Portley-Rind,^[5] Winnie's father, the leader of the White Hats, and the mayor of Cheesebridge^[11]
• Toni Collette as Lady Cynthia Portley-Rind,^[5][8] Winnie's mother and Lord Portley-Rind's snobbish wife^[11]
• Nick Frost as Mr. Trout,^[5] Snatcher's corpulent, and intellectual employee^[11]
• Richard Ayoade as Mr. Pickles,^[5] Snatcher's tall, and well-meaning employee^[11]
• Tracy Morgan as Mr. Gristle,^[5] Snatcher's diminutive, and maniacal second-in-command
• Simon Pegg as Herbert Trubshaw,^[5] an eccentric inventor and Eggs' biological father

In June 2008, Laika unveiled a slate of projects in development, among which was also an animated feature film adaptation of the 2005 Alan Snow novel Here Be Monsters!, eventually to become The Boxtrolls. The animation technique was not yet decided upon, but Anthony Stacchi was set to direct the film.^[12] Laika announced on February 7, 2013, that the adaptation would be their next 3D stop-motion feature, under the title The Boxtrolls. Directed by Stacchi and Graham Annable,^[5] Laika CEO Travis Knight noted that the biggest challenge of the film was to condense a 550-page novel down to a 90-minute film.^[13] Initially the film focused on all five species of creatures found in the original book, but Knight noted that the script "ultimately was hollow" with all the monsters, and that "it didn't really have anything to say."^[13] The team ended up focusing on the Boxtrolls as Knight thought "there was something that was really compelling about that group of characters".^[13]

On February 7, 2013, Focus Features originally set the film for an October 17, 2014, release,^[5] In May 2013, the release date was changed to September 26, 2014.^[14] Focus Features holds worldwide distribution rights to The Boxtrolls, and Universal Pictures International released the movie overseas (with eOne Distribution handling Canada).^[5]

On June 11, 2014, two new trailers, one for the US and one for the UK, were released by the studio.^[15] The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival on August 31, 2014.^[16]

A platformer game called The Boxtrolls: Slide N' Sneak was developed for iOS by RED Games.^[18]

On December 4, 2013, composer Dario Marianelli was hired to score The Boxtrolls, the first animated feature film of his career.^[1] On August 30, 2014, it was announced that Back Lot Music would release a soundtrack album for the film on September 23, 2014.^[19]