The Boxtrolls and Mr. Peabody & Sherman (both 2014)

What an odd time for animation. Even if we watch a film where the plot only ever hums and characters never pop, we can still marvel at the onscreen techno wonder. Everything looks amazing! “The Boxtrolls” and “Mr. Peabody & Sherman” – the former stop motion mixed with CGI, the latter all CGI – are prime examples. Hum. No pop. “Boxtrolls” comes from studio Laika, who made “Coraline,” an edgy horror tale for cool kids. But “Trolls” misfires with title characters -- tiny ogres live under a Victorian-era city and dress in discarded cardboard -- that fail to spark or overcome their human counterparts, including a status-hungry villain (Ben Kingsley) with a penchant for cabaret. Bummer. Only a fourth-wall-crashing Monty Pythonesque riff on “free will” fired my brain, during the end credits. A remake of the old cartoon shorts about a time-traveling dog and his not-so-bright human boy, “Peabody” is full of a breezy slapstick, bad puns, and warped histories of the Trojan War, Mona Lisa, and more. It relies on poop jokes and greatly underserves a female companion, but it gets in a Mel Brooks cameo as Einstein, and I love Mel Brooks. Boxtrolls: C+ Peabody: B

ParaNorman (2012)

First off: An admission. I held the real ParaNorman the day after watching Laika Animation kid comedy/ horror “ParaNorman,” the studio’s stop-motion follow up to 2009’s “Coraline.” I was and remain in awe. This tale of a loner boy (voiced by Kodi Smit-McPhee of “The Road”) who can see and talk to the spirits of the dead –- including his own late grandma -- is not as grand, terrifying, or eyeballs-out amazing as the earlier film, but directors Sam Bell and Chris Butler had no room to go up. Oh, well. Naturally, Norman’s powers do not sit well with family or teachers, and when the boy starts seeing tell-tale signs of doom for his witch-obsessed town, every small trace of luck he has vanishes. Next up: Hero time. This creepy cool film bucks rules and isn’t afraid to go edgy as Norman once refers to the “F” bomb without saying it. The attention to detail astounds: Bony fingers peel wood, and the boy’s zombie slippers are a sight to behold. Only the ending sinks with too many story pauses and a complete lack of the grandmom who previously said she’d always protect Norman. Story hiccup? No idea. A marvelous watch. A-