A child's animated primer on the chicanery, skullduggery, and social gamesmanship so dear to the heart of the grownup world, and a gentle affirmation of genuine family life as the antithesis of and antidote for same. Ben Kingsley is simply great as Archibald Snatcher, a noisome, ill-bred schemer who dreams of wearing a ceremonial white hat and sitting in the cheese-tasting room with the city's elite. (Who doesn't want a place at the table?) The elite, of course, want nothing to do with him (not that they're any better than he is), but they promise him entrance if he can rid the city of its dreaded boxtrolls. You know, those nocturnal beasties that stole a baby all those years ago and killed its father. At least, that's how the story goes. Wise and witty, gross and goofy, and only slightly marred by a bit of silliness about self-creation that's contradicted by everything else in the film. (2014) — Matthew Lickona