***minor spoilers***
Paranorman is the second film from Laika (Coraline, 2009). It's not clear why stop-motion in the modern era
is usually horror: Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach,
Corpse Bride, Coraline, Frankenweenie. Regardless,
Laika is currently the only full time studio making stop-motion so I want them
to be successful.
Stop motion has been dominated by two players over the past fifteen
years, Tim Burton and Henry Selick.
Laika tapped Selick for 2009's Coraline.
But this time around they had to go with newcomer stop-motion directors
Chris Butler and Sam Fell. Chris Butler,
who wrote the script, is a long time storyboarder (Corpse Bride, Caroline). And Sam Fell is an animation director
(Flushed Away, The Tale of Despereaux).
Paranorman is centered around Norman Babcock who is a bullied outcast
at school. Norman can see dead
people. Which doesn't exactly help
either at school or at home. The film is
set in a Massachusetts in a town with a history similar to the Salem Witch
Trials. And Norman is forced to save his
town from its past.
Visually the film is impressive.
The backgrounds are incredible. But
I found the character designs a bit too cartoonish for the plot. Paranorman lacks the subtle horror of Caroline
but is still successful in being scary.
Not a film for young children, or even kids under 10 in my opinion.
At its heart Paranorman is a film about tolerance and is worth being
checked out.
3/4 stars
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