10 Most Underwhelming Movies Of 2014

8. The Boxtrolls

The mainstream animation landscape at the moment is a mixed bag; Dreamworks remains obsessed with dumb concepts, despite the success of How To Train Your Dragon, Pixar are struggling to match previous highs, and while Disney are certainly out of their mid-noughties slump, they're not quite at nineties renaissance levels just yet. The shining light amongst all this was Laika. Making traditional stop-motion movies with a distinct style, their first couple of movies - the inventive Coraline and surprisingly emotional ParaNorman - showed an unmatched sense of artistry and inspired storytelling. And then they made The Boxtrolls. Not ostensibly a bad film, The Boxtrolls is a studio coasting on its own kookiness, which as a third outing is too early for stagnation. The story of a cheese-loving town with a fear of the creatures that live below them is novel (ish) and there's some complex political ideas thrown out there, but it's all too base. You don't expect the details of a heavily structured hierarchy to be dissected in a kids film, but if it doesn't do more than state it then why even bother? It's certainly commendable to still be doing a traditional processes in a computer dominated landscape, but intentions isn't enough. The characters, which are intended to be loveable, fail where the similar Olaf from Frozen succeeded - the trolls are grotesque on the outside, but have nothing to make them work underneath.