ParaNorman
Universal Pictures International, Focus Features, Laika Entertainment, USA, 2012.
Norman (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is a kid who likes all things zombie. He can see dead people. His parents do not understand him. He is also bullied at school. He gets a friend, lonely fat kid Neil (Tucker Albrizzi).
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| Norman |
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| School kids shun Norman |
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| Norman meets Neil |
Town of Blithe Hollow is best known for hanging of witch 300 years ago. The judge and the jury members were cursed by the witch. The anniversary of the trial is approaching and the school kids are rehearsing a play. Norman's uncle Prenderghast (John Goodman) is a half-crazy alcoholic. If this was a live-action movie made in the 1990s, probably George Buck Flower would have been cast to play him. Prenderghast tells that Norman has to stop the witch's curse. He dies and becomes a ghost. Norman does not believe him but begins to have visions about the world of the dead. Reading a book at witch's grave would stop the curse but bully Alvin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) ruins the plan.
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| Prenderghast |
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| Zombies rise from grave |
Soon a bunch of zombies rises from their graves. Neil and Norman's sister Courtney (Anna Kendrick) and Neil's brother Mitch (Casey Affleck) go to rescue Norman and Alvin. Courtney and Mitch seem like usual stock teen horror characters, but they have couple of surprising sides. However the zombies become fugitives when the townsfolk form a lynching mob. Norman must find a way to calm the angry witch and put the dead back to rest.
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| Courtney and Mitch |
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| The zombies |
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| Driving away from the zombies |
The CGI-enhanced stop-motion animation looks great. The story is darkly humorous with references to 1970-80s horror films. Norman's phone has "Halloween" ring tone and zombie's hand runs around like Facehugger. When the zombies appear the synthesizer music does homage to Italian zombie films. The darkly beautiful style is on a par with other Laika Studios productions "Corpse Bride" and "Coraline" Also "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas" is not too far off. While having some surprisingly creepy scenes the story has also a strong anti-bullying theme. The movie plays with expectations regarding zombie movies, at first the story seems to take an usual teen horror route. However the zombies are revealed to be harmless and the twist revealing the story of the witch makes the story moving with themes of prejudice, fear of the unknown and mob mentality. For small kids it is too frightening but otherwise it is fun and thoughtful Halloween family flick.
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| Let's go play some hockey! |
Rating: 
Very good
Very good
Voice actors: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Tucker Albrizzi, Anna Kendrick, Casey Affleck, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Leslie Mann, Jeff Garlin, Elaine Stritch, Bernard Hill, Jodelle Ferland, Tempestt Bledsoe, Alex Borstein, John Goodman, Hannah Noyes, Jack Blessing, Ranjani Brow, Michael Corbett, David Cowgill, Nicholas Guest, Emily Hahn, Bridget Hoffman, Wendy Hoffman, Holly Klein, Alicia Lagano, Scott Menville, Nick Petok, Ariel Winter, Jeremy Shada
Directors: Chris Butler, Sam Fell
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