The Boxtrolls (3D), film review: Lively voice work but a script as flat as cardboard

(PG) Anthony Stacchi, Graham Annable, 97 mins Featuring voices of: Isaac Hempstead-Wright, Elle Fanning, Ben Kingsley, Simon Pegg, Richard Ayoade

Loveable: Animated children's film The Boxtrolls

There's plenty of Tim Burton-like wit and humour behind the Boxtrolls concept. The film boasts some lively voice work, too. Its problem is a script that is as flat as cardboard. It takes quite a while to work out what is happening or why.

For reasons not very clear, exterminators led by Archibald Snatcher (Ben Kingsley) are trying to wipe out the Boxtrolls, loveable, trash-collecting gonks who live in the sewers and use boxes as outfits.

Above ground, the white-hatted humans are too busy eating cheese to pay much attention to the plight of the poor trolls. Individual scenes work well enough but seem to be strung together in utterly random fashion.