Young Norman Babcock is a boy with a mysterious ability: he can see, and talk to, ghosts. And there are a lot of them in his hometown of Blithe Hollow, a rather obvious send-up of Salem, Massachusetts- for, exactly 300 years ago, Blithe Hollow's citizens executed a witch for questionable reasons, and the town has been banking on the tourist-attracting tale ever since.
But that old story is more than it seems, as Norman learns one day, when he encounters his creepy uncle, Mr. Penderghast, who can also see ghosts. According to Penderghast, the witch laid a curse on the town on the night she died, and every single year since, someone must read from a book at her gravesite before the sun sets- or else her curse will raise the dead. Penderghast has been taking on this task for many years prior, but unfortunately, he dies that very day- and Norman is confused by his instructions, and fails to reach the grave on time. Thus, the seven citizens who killed the witch so many years ago have returned as zombies, and Norman - alongside his sister Courtney, his friend Neil, Neil's brother Mitch, and the school bully, Alvin - must find a way to stop them, before they tear the town to shreds.
ParaNorman, reportedly, started life as a concept for a Disney movie, way back in the 1980s. If this story is true, then the long wait for the film's completion has been worth it. The story is made mostly out of clichés, but that's not a bad thing- the corny silliness is part of the fun, and they are used wisely, enhancing the plot in necessary, and often very moving, ways. You may be surprised at what you find when you see ParaNorman; it's more than the basic adventure movie that the commercials all say it is.
This is Laika Animation's second feature film, after 2009's Coraline. The two films have much in common: a horror-based setting, outcast heroes, uncommonly dark themes for an animated film, and a clever sense of humor that balances out the scary bits. But beyond plot elements, there is one other thing that the two share: incredibly breathtaking stop-motion animation. Anyone who's familiar with animation will be astonished at some of the effects that ParaNorman pulls off. Most of the film is set outside- an extremely difficult location to depict in a medium where characters exist in very small space. There's a large number of shots where the camera moves around in some crazy angles, which would require one hell of a steady camera and extremely careful animation, since one false move from either could ruin the whole shot.
One brief moment, in particular, stood out to me: Norman's overly-enthusiastic drama teacher is trying to encourage the kids to get more excited about the play they're putting on, and as she gives amusingly over-the-top advice, the camera focuses on her, and there's a shot that pans downward, starting at an overhead view of her body, and finishing at a ground-level shot of the same. It's a simple little thing, but it was quite impressive, as it couldn't have been easy to stay focused on a close-up of a single, relatively small (in real life) object. of Hopefully, ParaNorman will be as big a success as Coraline was, and Laika can continue to wow us with their stop-mo mastery.
Of course, no amount of technology in the world can turn a bad story into a good one (don't quote me on that; that's Pixar's motto), but don't worry- ParaNorman is no slouch there either. It doesn't waste time on unnecessary characters or dumb, pointless moments, a trap that another recent cartoon, The Lorax, fell into. The cast is small and simple, and they're all great characters who develop in natural ways. Norman learns to accept his gifts, and that not all people are inherently bad; Courtney learns that she should love and appreciate her family; the people of Blithe Hollow learn to accept and respect people who are different; and Neil doesn't learn much at all, because he's already an endlessly lovable little goofball, who's probably one of the film's highlights- young actor Tucker Albrizzi gives a great performance.
In fact, the entire voice cast is good. It's refreshingly free of the excessively all-star that so many high-profile cartoons resort to; probably the biggest names in the film are Casey Affleck as Mitch and John Goodman as the supporting role of Penderghast, and most of the other cast members are either largely unknown or, at best, C-listers. I find it rather funny that Christopher Mintz-Plasse, best known as "McLovin" from Superbad, is the voice of Alvin, a big, dumb, brutish bully- quite unlike his own geeky self.
Everyone? Go see ParaNorman. It's funny, scary, exciting, heartwarming... everything anyone could want in a movie. And besides, what other movies are there to see in the middle of August?
Awesome
Fine review Luke. This flick seemed to have plenty of fun with itself and made me laugh more than I actually expected. Problem is, it does take awhile to get it’s story going but once it does get going, it’s a fun little ride.
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