ParaNorman

In Blithe Hollow, the outcast boy Norman Babcock lives with his father Perry, his mother Sandra and his teenage sister Courtney. Norman is considered a freak by his schoolmates since he speaks to the dead, including his grandmother that watches horror movies on television with him. However nobody believes that Norman has this ability besides his fat friend Neil.

Norman's deranged uncle Mr. Prenderghast meets Norman and tells that he must protect Blithe Hollow from the witch curse. Soon Mr. Prenderghast dies and his ghost explains to Norman that he should get his book and perform a ritual in the witch's grave. Norman finds the book that is a fairytale and then he goes to the seven graves where the men that condemned the witch are buried. However, Norman is interrupted by the school bully Alvin and the dead arise and invade the town. Soon Norman has a dream and finds that the witch is the girl Agatha that was sentenced to death in 1712 due to her medium ability. Now Norman wants to convince Agatha that her revenge is turning her equal to those who killed her.

"Paranorman" is a stop-motion animation with a very funny supernatural story. Norman speaking with his grandma in the beginning and Mitch telling to Courtney that he has a boyfriend in the end are hilarious. The story has also a great message against the prejudice and ignorance. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Paranorman"

Yes, like most "kids" movies, it had it's corny, funny, sometimes just plain silly parts, but... Paranorman left me pleasantly surprised. First and foremost, if you didn't like this movie because you compared it to Caroline, that's your problem. This movie stands well on its own and it's completely unfair to make comparisons. By the time the movie had finished, the beauty of it shone through and, without hesitation, I would say it stands up very well against "blockbuster" films designed for mature audiences. It's neither vulgar or obscene, but there are a few parts in the movie that will go straight over the youngster's heads but you will most certainly get it if you're over the age of thirty and haven't been living in a cave. If you take your kid(s) to see this, be ready; there are a few intense scenes that might have them a little frightened. Regarding the poor guy who didn't want to see the Expendables 2, I didn't see it, either, but I sure heard it. They poorly placed this movie the very next theater over from it.

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The makers of Coraline and the beautifully crafted but story-lacking 9 brought us another animated movie that did not disappoint. Paranorman was in fact a surprising movie. Unlike any other animated movie, this one picks a new sort of approach, that would probably entertain both adults and children.

The film was shot using a Canon 5D Mark II DSLR Camera. To generate the 3D effect, the camera was mounted on a special rig that would take one shot, then slide to a slightly viewpoint to take another shot. However, to generate all the different faces needed for the characters, the film company Laika used 3D printers.

The movie takes place in the creepy town of Blithe Hollow, whose name is a mash up of two other ghost stories, Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit(1945) and Washington Irving's The Legend of The Sleepy Hollow(1949). Paranorman tells the story of 11 years-old Norman (voiced by Kodi Smit- McPhee), who can speak to ghosts. Unfortunately, Norman has no friends because people think he's weird. Even his father (voiced by Jeff Garlin) regrets how his son turned out to be. The movie is a little too horror oriented, but funny and suitable for children nonetheless.

The characters are well drawn, so you can understand each of their personalities: you have the nice fat kid called Neil (voiced by Tucker Albrizzi), the usual blonde teen (voiced by Anna Kendrick), the bully (voiced by Christopher Mintz-Plasse), and the dumb jock (voiced by Casey Affleck). To be honest, my favorite was Neil.

To end with, Paranorman weaves a fantastically dazzling, consistently engaging and touching story. I really appreciated the level of maturity that has gone into this impressive stop-motion animation. A good movie in about every regard, that is fun and entertaining to watch, for both children and adults.

Laika Entertainment, the stop-motion studio behind the modern classics Corpse Bride and Coraline, are back with their latest spooky tale, ParaNorman. Like its predecessors, ParaNorman is a beautiful claymation wonder. Every single frame is filled with such a vast amount of detail it would take several repeat views to catch all the hidden gems.

ParaNorman is also filled with humor. The talented voice actors that bring the clay characters to life provide most of the laughs. From Anna Kendrick's (Up In The Air, 50/50) ditzy cheerleader, to Casey Affleck's (Gone Baby Gone, Ocean's Eleven) dumb jock, to Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Superbad, Kick-Ass) getting to play against his 'McLovin' typecast as the angry school bully. But the biggest laughs by far are dished out by child actor Tucker Albrizzi who is perfectly cast as the voice of Norman's chubby best friend, Neil.

ParaNorman is a visual and comedic force. Despite the tedious and demanding workload and easier computer rendering technology, Laika Entertainment continues the tradition of making stop-motion movies the hard way. With films as stunning as ParaNorman hopefully the technique will live on forever.

The thing of it is, ParaNorman is pretty scary stuff for a PG movie, so you've been properly warned. This isn't some over-sanitized Disney movie. Everything from the lighting to the characters to the tense plot adds up to something you wouldn't want your six-year-old to drag you to, unless you don't mind paying for some therapy. But it's a terrific movie, with a style all its own and a madcap sense of ghoulish delight.

Norman (voice of Kodi Smith-McPhee) is an outcast. Know why? He talks to dead people. And indeed, we see them as well, chatting with our hero along his walk to school. Oh, and his grandmother (voice of Elaine Stritch) talks to him all the time while sitting on the couch in the living room. No one understands poor Norman, who's as resignedly freaked out as Haley Joel Osment in the Sixth Sense, so he has no one to talk to, not his parents (Jeff Garlin and Leslie Mann), not his sister (Anna Kendrick), and not the school bully (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) for sure.

It's only when Norman has an episode during the production of a school play (not coincidentally, about an old legend surrounding the town's dark past) that he gains a friend - another outcast, the portly Neil (Tucker Albrizzi), who teaches Norman that it's best not to let people bother you, to not let them get under your skin. Had the story ended there, we may have had a nice, tidy after-school special. Oh, but it does not! From out of almost nowhere, Norman's black-sheep uncle, Mr. Prenderghast (John Goodman), a heavily bearded, slightly loony chap, informs Norman that he - Norman! - must take the mantle of He Who Holds Off the Witch's Curse. Mr. P. has been doing it for all these years, but he thinks he's about to go. He warns Norman that it's all up to him and he must read from the book and then he dies. That was an intentional run-on sentence, for your pleasure.

Thereby our plot is set in motion! Norman must extricate said book from the dead uncle and then read it by the witch's grave in order to break the curse that no one really believes is real. They don't believe it on account of Mr. Dead Uncle has been reading from the book for his entire life, and someone before him, and so on. But now Dead Uncle is, you know, demised, and just before the witch is to rise from the ashes and wreak havoc! Oh, I should note that the curse goes like this - a little girl was suspected of witchcraft by the town elders and sentenced to death. So you can see why she might want to haunt those elders and the town itself for all eternity.

There are people raised from the dead, and the imagery is quite striking; bones, stringy hair, rent clothing, and the ability to remove an appendage and reattach it. Are these - uh - zombies - out to lay waste to the town? Or are they victims of their own device? It's up to Norman, his brain, and his innate ability to talk to dead people to somehow save the day. Despite being grounded, of course.

ParaNorman works on many levels. Adults will love the stylish, almost Gothic atmosphere; older teens will love the menace of both the zombies and the townspeople, not to mention the witch herself. There are, for an animated film, plenty of scares and dark themes - slightly offset by the themes of loneliness, friendship, heroism, and getting adults to just listen to you. For once! Ahem. Anyway, there's a sort of beauty in ParaNorman, as horror and light comedy are somehow blended to form a rich animated film.