Friday, October 31, 2014

The Boxtrolls: Costumes Make the Picture




From the people who brought you marvelous wonders such as Coraline and Paranorman, Laika and Focus Features team up again to present their newest masterpiece The Boxtrolls. In a steampunk meets gothics era, the boxtrolls are being hunted on false accusations. Egg, raised by these creatures, finds himself in the middle of this crisis as more and more of his family is snatched. Teaming up with his friend Winnie, the two fight to find out the truth about this hate toward the boxtrolls and the dark secrets some people in the town of Cheesebridge are hiding.
Laika and Focus have always been known for the hard work and complicated hours of stop-motion that they deal with. But a big part of the entire film (one that is often overlooked) is the costuming. Every stitch, detail, and every single bit of movement has to be engineered to happen the way it does. And it’s taken for granted that the clothes these puppets wear are anything but loose and flowing on their own.
The incredible work that the goes into getting the right feel for the film is remarkable. Deborah Cook has a keen eye, heading the costume designing for this and many of Laika’s other features. It takes hours and hours of pouring over paintings, pictures, magazines, etc., all to get the right look. And without that color palette, without those intricately designed fabrics and chest plates, and without the skill to coordinate an entire movie such as she has, the feature could very well be a bust. But The Boxtrolls are surely something to go see, if not to recognize the incredible work that went into every single frame.


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