ParaNorman

ParaNorman offers a visually impressive and inventive experience with its stop-motion animation, creating a uniquely eerie atmosphere that's hard to forget. The animation style is a standout strength, bringing to life a world that's both charming and creepy. The voice cast, including Kodi Smit-McPhee and Anna Kendrick, delivers engaging performances that add depth to their characters.

However, the film's ambitious attempt to blend spooky fun with deeper themes sometimes feels uneven. While the story aims to explore complex issues like fear, acceptance, and understanding, the heavy themes can come across as a bit overwhelming for a family-friendly film. The tonal shifts between lighthearted moments and more serious undertones occasionally disrupt the narrative flow, making it feel disjointed.

Additionally, while the movie's creative approach is commendable, it sometimes leans too heavily on its moral messages, which can feel preachy rather than seamlessly integrated into the story. The blend of humor and horror isn't always perfectly balanced, which might leave some viewers unsure whether to be spooked or amused.

Overall, ParaNorman excels in animation and has a lot of creative flair, but its heavy-handed themes and occasional tonal imbalance can detract from its overall appeal. It's an ambitious film with moments of brilliance, but it might not fully hit the mark for everyone.

Unexpectedly twisted in its own way but beautiful and wierd, so long as the end was worth it it wasn't that bad and the humor was great too,

Paranorman is a well-done animation that flips preconceptions. It is, contrary to some crits, quite deep in meaning and delivery. I would say that the standard comedy related animation is simply a wrapper for a more tragic tale. The ending was poignant and revealing, leaving me with a little bit of sadness.

The film is quite dark at times, but it is ideal for kids to understand that the presented truth is not always the real truth. That the reasons for bad things happening, always has a root. I don't want to spoil the plot, so I will leave it at that. All the characters were likeable, and the film was also funny and enjoyable.

An animation that makes you think of righteousness vs being right.

Without spending too much time discussing the plot, this movie is essentially a film about a misfit kid who ultimately must save the town that has misunderstood and mistreated him for most of his life. Yes, Norman sees dead people. However, everyone is aware of Norman's claim of this power and they either ridicule him (other kids) or are ashamed of his seemingly wild claim and erratic behaviour. Of course Norman's extra-sensory powers will soon be required to rid the town of a curse. The resulting events make for a great story and film.

There are several themes in this film that were well developed and ultimately resolved to my satisfaction. The animation is incredible, and I loved the creative camera shots that the director(s) chose in many scenes: much more advanced than the usual animated film.

I took 2 children to see this movie, a 6-year old girl and a (near) 4 boy. The kids loved the comedic zombie scenes in particular and were laughing out loud for much of it. They were frightened in other parts but in a functional thematic way, not to the point of nightmares. However I did note that some of the deeper themes went right over the kids' heads, and while they weren't too bothered by this fact, I advise that children over 8 might enjoy the film more fully.

The climax of the film is beautifully animated, and very poignant. On the whole a great film. I would state only that the humour surrounding the zombies was hilarious for adults and children alike, and I would have included more of it. Certainly this film is worth the admission. I saw it in 3D, it wasn't mind-blowing 3D but it certainly gave the film more texture.

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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.