Anthony Stacchi has an appetite for the odd and unattractive that serves animation well. We value the craft of The Boxtrolls, but its underwritten children make us cautious about recommending the adventure.
Fi1m perspective
The peculiar creatures in The Boxtrolls (2014) are more interesting than the children who share their film. Anthony Stacchi and co-director Graham Annable allow their family animation to look unattractive, and that is much of its appeal. We enjoyed the grotesque detail because it gave us something worth studying even when the adventure failed to excite us. It is an animation we would consider for the craft, with a firm reservation about the young leads.
Stacchi came to directing through animation, effects work and storyboarding. His feature debut, the computer-animated Open Season (2006), was made with two other co-directors. The move to Laika's stop-motion production The Boxtrolls put puppets and sets at the centre of the work. His emphasis on their particular physical qualities makes that change of technique worth noticing. We should give Annable his share of the credit for its macabre touches, and his share of responsibility for its weaknesses.
The adaptation of Alan Snow's sprawling novel also involved close work with voice performers, including the development of the villain's elongated vowels. This is the kind of small decision we value in animation: how a character speaks deserves as much thought as how they look. The trouble is that distinctive supporting characters cannot do all the work. The children remain underwritten, and the film gives us too little reason to be excited about what happens next.
With The Monkey King (2023), Stacchi returned to computer animation and adapted the opening chapters of Journey to the West, drawing on Hong Kong comedy. Reviews noted uneven pacing and difficulty balancing frenetic action with character development. Those complaints are close enough to our reservations about The Boxtrolls to make us cautious about recommending him for visual invention alone. Start with The Boxtrolls if stop-motion craft is the draw, and keep expectations for the adventure modest.
Biography
Anthony Stacchi is an American animator, storyboard artist and film director. He graduated from the California Institute of the Arts with a BFA in Film in 1986.
Stacchi began his career as an effects animator at Industrial Light & Magic, working on films including Back to the Future Part II, Hook, The Rocketeer and Ghost. He later served as a storyboard artist on projects such as Antz and Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. His directorial debut was as co-director of Sony Pictures Animation’s first feature, Open Season (2006).
He co-directed the stop-motion film The Boxtrolls (2014) with Graham Annable for Laika. Stacchi also directed the Netflix animated feature The Monkey King (2023).
