As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
- Families come in all shapes and sizes...
- The adorable father-son moments between Fish and Eggs, particularly at the beginning of the film while Eggs is still a toddler. Making music together, eating together, playing around together, Fish bringing Eggs toys he finds during hunts, "tucking him in" at night, and generally just spending all their time together, it's all too cute. Also this.◊
- When they first see each other, Eggs and Winnie each tilt their heads at each other curiously. Later, when Eggs sees the mysterious man hanging upside-down, they exchange head tilts as well. We later learn that the man is Eggs' father. In a way, Eggs takes a shine to Winnie because she subconsciously reminds him of his father.
- When Winifred describes the concept of a father to Eggs, she describes qualities like "always having time for you, playing with you, always listening to you, keeping you safe when it gets dark" among other things. Eggs more or less instantly states "Like Fish!" Aww.
- Winnie having an understanding of what a good father is all about, despite her own father's upbringings.
- "It was a pleasure meeting you... and Winnie, I do mean it."
- Eggs' real father, despite going crazy after being tortured and imprisoned upside down by Snatcher for a decade, encourages his son to get the boxtrolls to "evolve" like Eggs has. When it seems that the boxtrolls have been crushed to death, Eggs' father rejoices as he sees them sneak away.
- The entire thing can be considered a reprise of how Eggs looked to Lord Portley-Rind as a father figure to help solve his problem. Earlier, he thought Lord Portly-Rind would be an upstanding father figure to hear out his problems, only to be turned away. Here, Mr. Trubshaw may seem battered and crazy, but regardless of that, he still has the capacity to listen to Egg's plea for help. In turn, he gives Eggs the advice he needed to help the boxtrolls, showing that indeed, a good father can guide you.
- Sweeter yet, Mr. Trubshaw still has the mental capacity to acknowledge Eggs as "[his] son", even after ten years of torture.
- Heck, the fact that Eggs' father saw past the freakish exterior of the boxtrolls and recognized them as kindred spirits thanks to their shared love of inventing. When they later help him with a machine, without hesitation he offers Eggs for Fish to hold, showing a great deal of trust in his new friends.
- After the boxtrolls and Winnie save Eggs, he happily reunites with them and lifts and twirls Winnie around.
- Winnie's father giving up his hat for Winnie's safety, even if he does hesitate to do so at first. When she gets back to him, he puts an arm around her and shields her in a protective fashion.
- In the novelization, he does so without hesitation, even comforting Winnie that everything would be okay.
- When Trubshaw comes forward, the people of Cheesebridge not only identify him (and easily at that), but they clearly remember him well. Rather than only remembering him simply as "that Trubshaw dad who forgot to lock his door", they quickly recall he was an inventor. One gets the feeling it's because Trubshaw was so revered that they resented the boxtrolls so much for supposedly eating him.
- Eggs trying to stop Snatcher, already swelled up to grotesque proportions from the wheel of cheese, from eating another bite of cheese (which eventually kills him). Despite everything Snatcher has done to his biological and adopted family, he still tries to save him from destroying himself with his own ambitions.
- A year later, Lord Portley-Rind has apparently become a better father, as evidenced by him proudly supporting Winnie's stage show. Lady Portley-Rind also seems happier, not only because her husband is no longer lusting after "Frou-Frou", but she genuinely enjoys her daughter's show.
- At the end of the movie, Eggs rides off in a carriage with both his biological and adoptive father, having earned his happy ending. The boxtrolls integrating with society is pretty heartwarming too.
