| “ | Give up, Trubshaw! Boxtrolls lost a looooooooong time ago! These miserable pests will never be a match for a man with a dream! | „ |
| ~ Snatcher capturing Eggs and the Boxtrolls. |
| “ | For a White Hat? I will destroy every last Boxtroll in this town! | „ |
| ~ Archibald Snatcher - his most famous quote. |
| “ | I'll make those Brie-stuffed pigs bow down to me! I'm gonna be somebody! | „ |
| ~ Archibald Snatcher under the "cheese fits". |
Archibald Penelope Snatcher (also known by his female persona Madame Frou Frou) is the main antagonist of Laika's 3rd full-length animated feature film The Boxtrolls.
He is an psychopathic exterminator and the leader of the Red Hats, secretly planning to become one of the White Hats.
He was voiced by Sir Ben Kingsley, who also played Nizam in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- Constantly slandered the Boxtrolls in order to exterminate them so he would be given a position of a White Hat. What's more, he twisted the story to cover up his own crimes against Eggs and his father.
- Kidnapped Eggs' father off-screen and later held him up for years before he went insane, all while stating that "if he is good, he gets jelly."
- Enslaving Boxtrolls in his factory to make his machine that he can use to capture the remaining Boxtrolls, possibly years.
- He attempted to strangle Eggs with a scarf in a closet.
- When he was chasing Eggs in the party, he was attempted to choke him.
- Destroys Boxtrolls’ home, sadistically taunting Eggs before capturing them to his factory.
- Successfully captured all of the Boxtrolls and later tried to kill them. What makes this worse is that he did the latter in front of Eggs.
- Disguised Eggs as a Boxtroll and later tried to burn him alive in the eyes of the citizens of Cheesebridge.
- Holding Winnie’s hostage to force her father to give him a white hat and even when he did as he told, he refused to let his daughter go so he can force him, Eggs, and Fish to be part of his delusional dreams.
- When told by Eggs when preparing to eat some cheese despite his allergy that getting everything he wants won't at all change him, and he can be who he wants to be, while he considers Eggs' words at first, he ultimately denies them, and considers this role as a powerful figure his destiny, rejecting his chance at redemption and ultimately sealing his fate.
- While he has plenty of comedic moments (with a comical allergic reaction to cheese and dressing in drag disguised as Madame Frou Frou), this isn't a prevention as his actions are still taken seriously while also becoming less comedic throughout the story. Also, while his ironic death is somewhat comedic (as he dies from eating too much cheese by exploding mid-sentence), it is not detracting as the characters saw it as a horrifying and karmic defeat that’s a very fitting punishment for his crimes, but not a sympathetic one.
- Sees his three henchmen as nothing more than stooges, all three of which are not as evil as he. Mr. Pickles and Mr. Trout genuinely believe they are on the side of good against the "evil" Boxtrolls, but they begin having doubts about his plan and turn good when they realize the truth. Mr. Gristle, while less redeemable and more willing to partake in Snatcher's shadier crimes, is more mindless, insane and sadistic towards the Boxtrolls than having a clear moral agency.
- He has no excuse for his actions, outside of one moment during a cheese-filed rant in where he says that his father once told him "if you work hard enough, you get a white hat.", but got nothing instead. While this hints to why he wants to climb up to the top and join the White Hats, he's far past it, given it was never portrayed to be sympathetic but instead his own ego. This also doesn't prove that he loved his father either.
External Links[]
- Archibald Snatcher on the Villains Wiki
