‘The Boxtrolls’ Trailer: Trolls Kidnap a Baby (But It’s Kind of Cute)

Although CG is the bread and butter of the animation world, there's no denying the appeal of stop-motion, which is so much cooler and tactile than pixels. For this reason, any new project from Laika, the studio behind 'Coraline' and 'ParaNorman,' is instantly on our radar and their upcoming 'The Boxtrolls' is no different.' Although the film is still over a year away, the first teaser has arrived, giving us the tiniest peek at what the studio has up its sleeve.

If you're looking for a basic plot summary, the teaser won't be of any assistance. If you're looking for a preview of some slick stop-motion animation, cool character designs and a whimsical tone, you're in luck. The teaser is a single shot narrated by a comically droll voice, examining the various kinds of families a child could have, swapping out mothers and fathers and the like to create all kinds of combinations (including gay and lesbian parents, which may be a progressive first for an animated movie). But, all of that is just some fluff to get to the real meat of the teaser, which focuses on a baby being taken into the sewers by the creatures, which are literally trolls that wear boxes. Huh.

The trailer doesn't give us much to go on (especially since it appears to have been made strictly for advertisement purposes and won't appear in the finished film at all), but the existence of a Laika project is all we need, really. These guys make handsome, interesting movies that feel like Pixar with a bit of a razor edge. We're certainly down to see what these Boxtroll fellows are all about.

'The Boxtrolls' arrives in theaters on September 26, 2014 and features the vocal talents of Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Ben Kingsley, Elle Fanning, Toni Collette, Jared Harris and Tracy Morgan.