Before you go to see it check out this trailer...
Please be aware that movies teach!
Are the lessons in line with what you want them to learn?
Here is part of the review from Plugged In (http://www.pluggedin.com/movies/intheaters/boxtrolls.aspx) Especially pay attention to the comments of Travis Knight, the CEO of Laika Studios.
Which brings me, frustratingly, to my second conclusion: Connecting the dots between the gay-parents-themed lyrics of Loch Lomond's movie-ending song and the film's first trailer, which also dwells on the idea of children being raised by same-sex parents, we're forced to reframe The Boxtrolls in a way we might not initially be inclined to do—but in the way its makers say they want us to.
In that trailer, the narrator tells us, "Sometimes there's a mother. Sometimes there's a father. Sometimes there's a father and a father. Sometimes both fathers are mothers. … Families come in all shapes and sizes, even rectangles." So are the out-of-the-box Boxtrolls used as out-of-the-closet parallels for the idea of having "unusual" and "not-so-mainstream" parents? Is The Boxtrolls really a sly stab at praising homosexual family structures?
Talking about the trailer and the film's message, Laika Studios CEO Travis Knight told The Hollywood Reporter, "We're not in any way trying to be activists. We're just trying to be who we are. All art and all artists have a point of view, a way of looking at the world. We want to make films that are bold and distinctive and enduring and actually have something meaningful to say." He continued, "The Boxtrolls are a very loving community that have been marginalized by the lies and distortions of others. It doesn't take someone who's got a Ph.D. to recognize that of course there are metaphoric elements to the message in our movie."
