ParaNorman falls comfortably into a category of movie I like to call the creepy stop-motion kid's movie. From an outside perspective, it seems like these movies are all trying to be the next Nightmare Before Christmas, Laika studios seems to have a different agenda: tell funny, original stories edgier and deeper than most American animated movies. Oh, and use the most gorgeous, cutting-edge stop-motion animation out there. While the story of a kid who learns to "be himself" through some kind of magical adventure has been absolutely done to death, I can safely say that ParaNorman is not your average family film by a wide margin.
The story follows 11-year-old Norman Babcock, a ghost-whisperer outcast at his school situated in a very Salem-esque town that sells itself as a witchy tourist attraction. About 300 years ago, a witch was hanged for her heathen ways and cursed the townspeople who sentenced her. The story has become nothing more than an excuse for the town to sell cheap knickknacks and dress everyday stores in tacky witch decorations. As the town prepares to celebrate the anniversary of the hanging, Norman starts getting strange visions doom, and the threat of the dead zombies rising from the grave to terrorize the town grows ever near. Norman, with his gift to speak with the dead, is the only hope the town has to survive. Or at least, that's what the story appears to be at first.
It turns out to be much deeper and complex than a typical "be yourself" story. The theme of "revenge on your bullies" is a challenging and well-developed idea that actually applies to the witch character more than it does to Norman. He becomes more confident in his abilities and his relationships with the other characters develops in both predictable and not so predictable ways. The supporting characters are drop-dead hilarious most of the time, but they also grow past their stock cliches to become well-developed in their own right (more so than say, the supporting kid characters in How to Train Your Dragon).
Norman's sister Courtney, his friend Neil, Neil's brother Mitch, and a bully named Alvin all get tangled up in Norman's quest, and they all provide really great comic relief. I love it when a movie can enjoyed by a kid, but an adult can enjoy it for totally different reasons. It's great to see some humor that isn't necessarily politically correct, or what soccer moms deem as "appropriate." Correct me if I'm wrong, but this might be the first animated family movie EVER to have an openly homosexual character in it as well, and that's definitely something noteworthy (even if the reference is more of a punchline than any kind of social statement). There's chemistry between the way the story works, the characters interact, and the humor flows. Not to mention the gags with the crazy townspeople are comedy gold. Dialogue is well-written and the voice acting feels nice and natural, which is greatly appreciated in any animated film.
And now for the really good stuff. ParaNorman looks fantastic; one of the best stop-motion films I've ever witnessed in terms of look alone. Designed by a newbie straight out of art school, the film has a lopsided look that pervades every set, character, and prop on screen. Dr. Seuss would be proud; I don't think there's a single straight line in the entire film. My words here don't do it justice. You need to see the film to really appreciate the extreme exaggerations in the character designs or the gorgeous fluidity of the animation. I understand that some of the elements were accomplished with CGI, but you still get that great feeling of watching real objects moving in the real world in a totally unreal way. It's a charm that is entirely unique to stop-motion animation, and with the way Laika pushes the boundaries of the medium (they produced Coraline as well, if you couldn't tell from every single ad). In theaters, I didn't see the 3D version, and I'm fine with that. I can
make out the hand-crafted artistry a lot easier in nice, bright 2D
anyway.
My big nitpick with the film is a story element. There's no explanation as to why there are dozens of ghosts all over the town in the beginning scene and in the rest of the film they are completely absent. This was cleared up in a deleted scene where Norman's grandmother says that they all fled when the witch's curse was unleashed, and that is a perfect explanation. However, it is missing from the finished film, which makes that aspect a glaring plot hole. Norman doesn't even attempt to seek help from the ghosts around him, which just doesn't make any sense.
My big nitpick with the film is a story element. There's no explanation as to why there are dozens of ghosts all over the town in the beginning scene and in the rest of the film they are completely absent. This was cleared up in a deleted scene where Norman's grandmother says that they all fled when the witch's curse was unleashed, and that is a perfect explanation. However, it is missing from the finished film, which makes that aspect a glaring plot hole. Norman doesn't even attempt to seek help from the ghosts around him, which just doesn't make any sense.
ParaNorman's unremarkable box office numbers left me a little concerned. While I'm sure that stop-motion films are far from dead, we all know that studios, above all, want to make money. Unfortunately, the year 2012 had three major stop-motion films that all underperformed, especially poor Frankenweenie. It's clear that the American public just isn't that excited whenever a new stop-motion film comes out, and that's a damn shame. I'm also continuously perplexed as to how Brave won the Oscar for Best Animated Film that year. I'll get into my personal thoughts on that movie another time, but let me make it clear that it was no "best of anything" picture that year. Oscar politics aside, this is a film that has officially made it into my cycle of yearly Halloween films, not only due to its substance and humor, but for its horror aspects as well. While it does have some fun parodying horror films, it has plenty of creepy imagery all its own. Paranorman is a near-perfect combination of elements that I love.
9/10
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