It’s always an adult treat for me to take my grand kids to kid movies. Of course it has a lot to do with just hanging out with them, but it also has a lot to do with how well kids’ movies share adult messages these days. So the other night I took my youngest grand kid…Beckett, who is 4 yrs old, to see newly released The Boxtrolls….just like it sounds…Boxes that are underground dwelling Trolls…..so of course Boxtrolls.
As we were introduced to the characters, we soon learned that people living in this town have believed Boxtrolls to be dangerous people eating monsters that came out at night from underground, and took kids and adults away forever. Some gruesome explanations about their bones being spat out and piled high…..so it was a fearful town that had firm curfews in place for everyone’s safety. The elite towns folks wore white hats and that signified their upper status and importance in this town. They also ate many different cheeses and it was having cheese that was also a great significance to all. Silly but so it was. 
Soon into the plot a young girl, daughter of the head of the town, manages to catch a glimpse of the young boy who had apparently been taken away when he was just a baby boy, by none other than the feared Boxtrolls. This young boy, now 10, has lived and loved his Boxtrolls family who have raised him and protected him since they first met him and his father 10 years earlier. The Boxtrolls were his family. The boy finds out that a wicked and very deceitful man has a deal made with the town’s head to rid the town of all Boxtrolls in return for a White Hat, and the privilege that goes with wearing one. So the movie takes an adventure into the many chase scenes with near misses and slowly Boxtroll by Boxtroll, more and more are captured.
After a tough compassionate pleading scene, our young boy convinces all the captured Boxtrolls to stand up for themselves and fight back or they will be forever lost to this mean slave of a man. The Boxtrolls do get themselves rallied and cleverly find a way out of their enslaved surroundings. All the while the young boy is trying to convince the head of the town that Boxtrolls are kind and loving creatures and they too deserve to be set free.
Our young hero says to the town’s head….It’s not the Cheese you eat, not the Box one wears nor the Hat you wear that makes a person. It’s what’s inside that matters! Make the right choice now!
So as you can see from this crunched down version of the movie, my mind connected to our very own journeys in this MKMMA adventure. I sat with this 4 year old love of my life, and held hands knowing that if nothing else, I would want Beckett to know it’s not what he wears, or eats that will ever matter. It is always about what is inside of him…inside of each of us that makes the difference for a happy and joyful life. We can choose what to believe. We can choose how we feel. We can choose our next choice. 