>>84654131It seemed to me that the movie's main problem was that it had too many different elements. Too little butter, too much bread. In fact if anything this seems to be Laika's recurrent problem - too many ideas and not enough control. Like in the Boxtrolls you had about half a dozen different story elements and plot threads. There was: Winnie, Winnie's Dad, Eggs' backstory, Eggs' dad, Eggs' and the Boxtrolls interactions, the Boxtrolls themselves, Eggs + Winnie segments AND the villains. Also there was a lot of flavour to do with the city and the setting as well (which I loved personally, but it's not what you need in an already over-stuffed movie).
Really the movie needed more discipline, and it needed to pair the two main characters up earlier and make their interactions the central focus of the film. You could also see this a little bit in Paranorman, although to a lesser extent, where his ghost-sensing abilities just sort of disappear. I know it has been explained by the studio outside of the movie, but still.
