'ParaNorman: The Thrifting (2025)' is a short film released in cinemas alongside the 13th-anniversary (?) re-release of 'ParaNorman (2012)'. Unfortunately crafted with CGI rather than stop-motion animation, the piece is still beautiful in its own slightly scuzzy way. The main problem with it is that it's simply too insubstantial for its own good, basically building to a single punchline that isn't all that funny and then fading out for so long you expect something subversive to happen during its extended final moments... and it never does. It isn't bad, but it also isn't particularly clear why it exists in the first place. Why resurrect these characters for something as standard as this? It has no real theme, and its humour isn't quite strong enough to provoke laughter. It's enjoyable enough for what it is, but I'd be lying if I said it isn't disappointing. It's a decent effort, don't get me wrong, but it simply pales in comparison to its feature-length predecessor. It's fairly entertaining, but entirely inessential.
