You may have seen The Boxtrolls bus cruising around your neighborhood, but that is just a peak of these adorable creatures you’ll get to meet on the big screen. From the makers of Coraline and ParaNorman, both of which were Academy Award nominees for Best Animated Feature Film, comes an adventure that is unlikely to be forgotten. The Boxtrolls is a family film that features actual issues between parents and children as well as those in higher power, in a fun, entertaining and unforgettable experience.

Entertainment Affair was at roundtable interviews and spoke with the filmmakers and main cast of the The Boxtrolls. We found out about the fascinating making process of this stop-motion animation feature from the moviemakers themselves. Director’s Anthony Stacchi and Graham Annable explained how this ‘community of quirky, mischievous, fantastical creature’s who lovingly raised Eggs (a human boy) were created by a 3D printer, a machine which has evolved after every use. The Boxtrolls is the third feature production for the animation studio, LAIKA Entertainment. “This is just like magic. When you see it coming out of a printer, you know it basically looks like a giant zerox machine and what comes out of it is these little objects,” said director Anthony Stacchi.

Everything in The Boxtrolls is printed in color right out the machine. The director’s mentioned that while they have worked with the 3D printer in their previous films, this time it’s different. “Both Coraline and ParaNorman were, you know amazing projects on their own, but this story setting kinda demanded that we try to create a world that was bigger than anything we’d done before. I mean the scale of the book that Alan Snow had written Here Be Monsters, just kinda demanded a much bigger world… I think that the Boxtrolls, we really focused on making this film bigger. So at its core it’s still all stop-motion, it’s puppets on sets… look of it and we didn’t want to lose anything that’s inherently amazing and charming about that. But we wanted to see if we could expand the feeling of the film to be a lot bigger around it and it turned into a real hybrid,” said Graham Annable.

This film may be animated, but its target audience includes children, teens, and adults alike. Producer of the film and President and CEO of LAIKA, Travis Knight elaborated, “The threshold for the kinds of films we make, we make films that are intended for families. I think that our definition of family is more expansive. Our definition of a family film is more expansive than I think most places, but that is what we do. We do not make films that are targeted for adults and not kids. We do not make films that are targeted for kids and not adults. We want the entire family to be engaged, which is why we try to have layers in our film. Things are appealing for kids, things are appealing for teens, and things that are appealing for adults.” He also explained his choice of actors and why most of the cast is England. “It’s more complicated than it maybe needed to be… Getting to the authenticity of it, it’s a very Dickensian story and we’re dealing with all kind of the socioeconomic, you know elements that dickens always would deal with. To help make that idea come across, we felt that it was important to have a largely British cast.”

Among the talented actors bringing the characters to life is Ben Kingsley, who plays a deviously cunning villain who dreams of becoming an aristocrat, Archibald Snatcher. He is the leader of a gang and will do anything to get to sit down with Lord Portley-Rind (Jared Harris) and The White Hats. Kingsley talked about his character and his experience in the film. “Snatcher, for some reason, I never quite got to the reason, I didn’t need to… I just knew, ‘ah this man has absolutely no tolerance whatsoever for rejection.’ He’s not capable of moving on. If you slam a door on his face, he will dynamite it down.” While a single bite of cheese would turn Snatcher into a monster, he would never allow that to get in the way. Kingsley continues, “The cheese is a metaphor for power and also the addiction to cheese is a metaphor for the worst thing we can give you is power… Not that the ruling elite of that town is so good anyway because Lord Portley-Rind is a father who slams the door in his daughter’s face all the time. His daughter is a completely rejected child.”

Winnie, the daughter of Lord Portley-Rind is played by Elle Fanning. She described her character and talked about playing a different role, one she admits was a favorite. “She had a lot of sass. I respect that, her attitude, I loved it! Cause’ I never played a character like that before who was a kind of bratty in that way. I had a lot of fun… She definitely grows on you because you realize she means well. She’s sensitive and she wants to gain the attention from her dad and she’s trying to help Eggs realize he’s a boy and not a boxtroll.” During her attempt to help Eggs, Winnie also grows.

Eggs, who is played by Isaac Hempstead Wright (Bran Stark on Game of Thrones), is a boy who grew up believing he was a boxtroll. Isaac talked about seeing his character on the big screen after years of filmmaking and confesses it was difficult to recognize himself at first. “I almost kind of didn’t really recognize myself because the thing is, when you do a live action thing, you can really see yourself because it is you on the screen, but you’re just dressed up. Here, its’ just sort of your voice but it’s coming through something else and there’s a definite sort of disconnect; it doesn’t really feel like you as much as live action does… It was really cool to see it finally come together cause I’ve seen so many snippets over the years.”

For the cast and those who’ve been anticipating this highly unforgettable animated experience, the wait is finally over. Cheese, hats, and boxes may be the main ingredients in this film, but relationships and human traits are among the many elements that makes this film interesting and entertaining. The Boxtrolls is a smart and adorable fun filled adventure for the entire family.

The Boxtrolls opens in theaters Friday, September 25^th, 2014.