Dan Curran was walking past the Eaton Theatre earlier this summer when a movie poster caught his attention. The poster was for the movie The Boxtrolls, an animated film set to hit theatres Friday, Sept. 26.
The poster a little extra significance for Curran and he knew he needed to get his hands on a copy. Curran’s son, Andrew was one of the animators working on the film, his first since earning his master’s degree in stop motion animation from Rochester Institute of Technology.
“He stopped in to see if he could get a copy of the poster,” recalls Leann Owen, manager of the Eaton Theatre. “He told me about his son and I thought it was such a neat story that I knew we needed to get a copy of the film.”
Owen said it took a lot of convincing of the distributor to get a copy of the movie in its opening weekend considering early fall is a slow time for the movie industry.
“It really means something to us to have it opening weekend,” Owen said.
It means something to the Curran family as well. Dan said he’s not sure where his son’s name with appear in the credits, but this will be the one time he stays until the very end.
“There are so many people that work on the technical aspects of a movie like this,” Curran said. “But, I’ll be carefully studying all of the credits.”
Andrew is currently living in Los Angeles, awaiting his next opportunity to work in the industry. Dan said his son has had a love of clay animation since he was a young child. A 2000 Charlotte High School graduate, Andrew transferred to Florida State University after a year at Grand Valley State to take advantage of their fine arts program.
“He’s trying to break into the field, which is very difficult,” Dan said.
Andrew’s role in the movie dealt with shaping and painting the faces of the film’s characters. Laika Studio, based in Portland, Ore., worked on the production of the film for a year and a half.
The Boxtrolls opened at Eaton Theatre in Charlotte on Friday, Sept. 26 at 7 p.m. with additional shows scheduled for Saturday and Sunday at 4:30 and 7 p.m.
