Let the Oscar race begin with two new fall films: "The Boxtrolls," a stop-motion animation, and Reese Witherspoon in "The Good Lie," which debuted this week.

Some critics are saying that both films could bring Oscar gold or at least another nomination.

From Laika Studios, the animation studio and the makers behind "Coraline," "ParaNorman" and Tim Burton's "A Nightmare Before Christmas" comes "The Boxtrolls" in similar stop-motion animation and dark humor style. This film is based off of Alan Snow's first novel series "Here be Monsters." In the book series, it is the adventures of a group of magical creatures, trolls, and it takes place under a bridge known as the Ratbridge.

In the film, Boxtrolls are a community of cardboard creatures who have raised an orphaned human boy named Eggs, and they all live in an underground tunnel beneath the streets of Cheesebridge. A man called Archibald Snatcher wants to eliminate the creatures, but Eggs is determined to protect the Boxtrolls with help from his friend Winnie, Deadline reported.

"Boxtrolls" has two directors, Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi.

"All we really look for is great, emotional human stories and also stories that we think will look great in stop-motion animation, and this sort of steampunk, Victorian, Monty Python world seemed perfect," Stacchi told Yahoo! Movies about the content of their film.

The voices featured in the stop-motion animation are Ben Kingsley who voices Snatcher, Elle Fanning who voices Winnie, and the comedy dynamic duo of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Also featured is Tracy Morgan, who recently was in near-fatal condition because of a car crash.



Now, from the Academy-award winning producers of "The Blind Side" comes "The Good Lie," starring Witherspoon. Do you remember in "The Blind Side" when Sandra Bullock's character adopted and raised Michael Oher, who was homeless and traumatized but later became a football hero? Similarly, Witherspoon's character brings four Sudanese refugees to the U.S. and attempts to acclimate them into American life, Entertainment Weekly reported.

The film's tagline, "Miracles are made by people who refuse to stop believing," is really trying to push the envelope with heart and sacrifice.

"The Boxtrolls" comes out Sept. 26, and "The Good Lie" opens on Oct. 3.