I’ve come to feel that stop-motion animated films need to be graded on their own scale, separate both from films in general but particularly from computer animated movies.  Partly that’s due to the simple fact that so few stop-motion films are released anymore; The Boxtrolls is the only one due in 2014, while there are at least 10 major studio computer animated movies set to come out this year.  In fact, while seemingly every studio is eager for a computer animated hit, there are very few sources of stop-motion animation, mainly consisting of Laika and Aardman Animations (with an occasional film from Tim Burton when he feels like it).  In the last five years and despite producing only three films, Laika has set itself apart as a film studio with a vision, making interesting, unique films like Coraline and ParaNorman.  With The Boxtrolls, it has solidified its place with the likes of Pixar as a studio that makes movies of the highest quality and vision which demand to be seen, and whose involvement with a film is more important than voice casts, writers or directors in attracting my interest.

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