Movie One Hundred Ninety Five
ParaNorman is the story of a boy who can speak with the dead and has to save the town from zombies.
In a small New England town called Blithe Hollow, Norman (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is a seemingly normal boy that has the power to see and speak with the dead. While with his chubby friend Neil (Tucker Albrizzi), the boys are approached by Norman’s estranged uncle Prenderghast (John Goodman) who tells Norman that he must protect the town against the witch. Unfortunately, Prenderghast dies before leaving Norman instructions, and has to visit him as a ghost to deliver the message that Norman will need to read a book at the witches burial site before sundown. Norman gets to where he thinks the witch was buried, only to find out he is wrong and now the dead are rising and the curse of the witch is unleashed. It’s up to Norman, his sister, Neil, and Neil’s brother to break the curse.
I have seen reviews for ParaNorman on both sides of the spectrum, some folks love it and some seem to be completely nonplussed by it. While the film certainly has its faults, I was quite charmed by it, largely due to the art style of the stop-motion animation. As a huge fan of the film Coraline, I wanted to see ParaNorman just knowing that it would be made by the Chris Butler, the writer/director. Luckily, ParaNorman looks amazing. There are many times that it lokos like the entire film is CGI, and CGI is used heavily in some scenes, but most of it is actually stop-motion animation and I love that.
The plot of ParaNorman is almost like an introduction to zombie movies for kids. The humor, well most of it, is clearly aimed at a young crowd. I found several of the jokes really lame, but I also found myself laughing out loud. Not quite a horror movie, it doesn’t offer scares but it is a bit intense by the end, though not as all out creepy as parts of Coraline are. It makes for ParaNorman to be slightly uneven but on a whole it’s a fun film that would be good for almost everyone. One last thing to note is that I saw this in 3D (it was only showing in 3D, actually). Normally, I would opt for 2D versions of films but I found the 3D to be good in ParaNorman; not too intrusive and not obnoxious.
If someone asked me if I would recommend ParaNorman, I would heartily say “yes!” and also suggest seeing Coraline. ParaNorman is a film that spoke to me (pun intended). I didn’t love all of it, but what I loved enough of it that made it a pretty good little film.
I give it 4 deconstructed Normans out of 5.
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Intro to zombies for kids. Good assessment. Wish I’d thought of it…
Haha – about 1/2 the theater was families with young kids and none of them seemed scared or anything. The zombies were menacing and kind of gross but without getting TOO scary and/or gross. I can’t think of a better example of a zombie film for a kid to watch.
I can. Day of the Dead. They would poop their pants at the baby scene
lol
Andy
Here’s one movie I’ve never heard of… Do you think an 8yr old boy might enjoy this?
Eric
I know I would have loved it as an 8 year old. I think your little guy would have a good time!
Can’t wait to see this one. I agree with you about the 2D thing. I search out the 2D myself. Can’t stand 3D.
If it’s anywhere near as good as ‘Coraline’, we’re on it. Thanks for the fine review, Andy.
I would be hard pressed to pick a consistent favorite between the two films, to be honest. Thanks!
The trailer definitely had my interest, though I’ve been on the fence for it after reading some of the reviews. I think I’ll try to see it now. Nice review.
I was concerned because for every glowing review I would read I would read a middling to poorly rated one.
I seriously loved this film. While I couldn’t get into Coraline (I need to try to watch it again) or *GASP* The Nightmare Before Christmas, I totally fell in love with this.
http://bizzam.wordpress.com/2012/08/23/paranorman-2012-review/
I have mixed feelings about Nightmare Before Christmas but I absolutely hated Corpse Bride. Loved Coraline, liked ParaNorman a lot.
See, I loved Corpse Bride. I think I need to watch that one again. I might have to pick it up and add it to the October film stack. . . I’m going to try to do nothing but horror films for the month of October. . .
Ooh good plan!
I feel like I need to give it another shot. I saw it in theaters and it just left a horrible taste in my mouth and I kind of just wrote it off.
Very excited for this one! I adored Coraline.
I adored Caroline, so I’ll have to keep an eye out for this one! Great Review1
Thanks!
PS – You still went to spam even with the gmail address so I don’t know what’s going on here. You may want to take it up with WordPress support if it keeps up.
I think I might have discovered why my comments are going into the spam bin! I’ll let you know how that turns out! LOL
Thankfully I haven’t read any reviews of ParaNorman by people who were “completely nonplussed by it.” This is one of the best films of the year. A agree it’s not quite better than Coraline, but I still loved it.
Didn’t love it like so many other people did, but I still had a fun enough time to where I enjoyed the numerous film references and jokes that sometimes made me laugh, and other times made me feel very uncomfortable by how inappropriate they were. Still, it was a bunch of fun none the less. Good review Andy.
Great review. I’ve read mixed reviews as well but I really want to see this one as I LOVED Coraline.
I think if you appreciate Coraline then you’ll really get ParaNorman too!
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