With The Boxtrolls

Chapter One: Monsters

The sun sets to Cheesebridge, a steep hill-town that looms over the countryside. A jumble of roofs, a tangle of twisting alleys, and perched at the summit, the imposing Cheese Guild Hall and with that the last rays of the setting sun disappear.

In the streets of Cheesebridge a deep voice echoes out of a scratchy megaphone. "Hear ye! Hear ye! Good citizens of Cheesebridge, the curfew is in force. Don’t dawdle or the beasts will tear you limb from limb!"

A banner is seen hanging on a strange rattletrap that winds its way up the streets with a 'Boxtroll Exterminator' written on it. Sinister looking men in blood red top hats hang onto the running boards. The most sinister of them all, Snatcher who rides on the roof.

"They will add your flesh to their rivers of blood and mountains of bones." Snatcher speaks again and as the truck passes by pedestrians gasp and hurry into their  houses, heeding the amplified warning.

Archibald Snatcher holds the megaphone tube to his mouth again as the truck rounds a corner, he spots a boy orates as he zeros in on a boy playing ball in the street. "Child! Do you want to end up like the Trubshaw Baby?"

The boy watches the truck as it passes, curiosity changing to horror.

"Dragged underground and feasted upon one year ago this very night?!"

The terrified boy shakes his head and gasps as he is yanked inside by his mother and his ball bounces out of his hands and rolls across the cobbles. "Lock your windows! Bolt your doors! Hide anything that is not bolted down."

One man grabs his door knocker and bolts inside, another man grabs his mailbox, another a barber pole, and with a terrified look the last man peers out of the peep hole in his door than slams it shut.

"Hide your cheese. Hide your tender and delicious babies!"

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At night, the wind blows trash down on the empty streets and Snatcher’s vehicle rattles from its boiler prowling past with Snatcher still calling out his warning until the sound fades in the distance. "Beware the bloodthirsty monsters! They'll fry your eyes, gnaw on your knees, gobble your gizzards... Beware! BEWARE!"

After Snatcher’s truck has passed the camera lands on a manhole. Carved in the heavy iron cover is a warning: 'HERE BE MONSTERS'.  A long beat of silence for a moment is heard and the manhole cover slowly twists and lifts, a pudgy blue hand emerges. Two pairs of yellow,  glowing eyes peer out. The creatures talk in expressive but unintelligible gurgles and down the street, two more manhole covers lift.

In pairs and in gangs, these Boxtrolls so called for the cardboard boxes they wear emerge from the sewers and  scurry through the streets of the besieged town.  Their long, forboding shadows creep across walls plastered with posters  that read: 'Cheesebridge: A gouda place to live', 'Redhats- Boxtroll Exterminators'.

From a place unseen by the Boxtrolls, a little girl with (colour) haired curiously watches them scurry through streets and alleyways, gurgling quiet directions to each other. She observes them as they move swiftly and travel in packs. She gasp when a lone Boxtroll jump and pull himself up as the girl's companion bark at him then he pops back out of his box and moves along quickly.

The little girl who accidentally got out of the house pats her dog to stop it from barking. Thinking her parents are going to worry about her, she leaves her position and goes back inside her room luckily unseen by her household.

♧♧♧♧♧

Back to the Boxtrolls who are in a small lane in groups stop to collect mechanical stuff. They work together, using their boxes as tools and props. Six Boxtrolls stack up in the background to steal a shop sign, while three Boxtrolls cooperatively steal the wheel from a wooden cart.

One boxtroll uses his box to prop up a corner while the other two release the wheel from the axle. A lone Boxtroll crosses the frame to see what treasures he may find in a trash bin as he knocks it over with a clang, two Boxtrolls scurry past and stack together, stealing the house number from the front of a brownstone.

After gathering their materials six other boxtrolls on the hunt stack together against a fence and one boxtroll makes it over the top, cooperatively pulling the others into the alley behind him as they disappear.