I didn’t love ParaNorman, I found it to be a gorgeous looking film with a cool concept but a snoozer of a script. But I’m very hopeful for The Boxtrolls. As long as the book it’s based on, Alan Snow‘s “Here Be Monsters”, has a reasonably compelling narrative they’re already off to a better start. And if whomever writes the script can translate that well, even better.

The studios behind ParaNorman, LAIKA and Focus, are teaming up on the new 3D stop-motion and CG hybrid animated feature directed by Anthony Stacchi (Open Season) and Graham Annable (story artist on Coraline and ParaNorman). Ben Kingsley, Toni Collette, Elle Fanning, Isaac Hempstead-Wright, Jared Harris, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Richard Ayoade and Tracy Morgan will provide their voices to the film.

The film is, “a comedic fable that unfolds in Cheesebridge, a posh Victorian-era town obsessed with wealth, class, and the stinkiest of fine cheeses. Beneath its charming cobblestone streets dwell the Boxtrolls, foul monsters who crawl out of the sewers at night and steal what the townspeople hold most dear: their children and their cheeses. At least, that’s the legend residents have always believed. In truth, the Boxtrolls are an underground cavern-dwelling community of quirky and lovable oddballs who wear recycled cardboard boxes the way turtles wear their shells. The Boxtrolls have raised an orphaned human boy, Eggs (voiced by Mr. Hempstead-Wright), since infancy as one of their dumpster-diving and mechanical junk-collecting own. When the Boxtrolls are targeted by villainous pest exterminator Archibald Snatcher (Mr. Kingsley), who is bent on eradicating them as his ticket to Cheesebridge society, the kindhearted band of tinkerers must turn to their adopted charge and adventurous rich girl Winnie (Ms. Fanning) to bridge two worlds amidst the winds of change – and cheese.”

Focus will hold worldwide distribution rights to The Boxtrolls while Universal Pictures International will release the movie overseas (with eOne Distribution handling Canada). It is set for release October 17th, 2014.