This is a movie that I initially had absolutely no interest
in seeing. After I got the assignment to review it, I checked out some of the
trailers and I started to think that it could possibly be a solid movie. When I
was done checking out the trailers, I went to see the cast and was pretty surprised
by who was cast in the movie. Kodi Smit-McPhee, Anna Kendrick, Casey Affleck,
Leslie Mann, Jeff Garlin, John Goodman, and even McLovin is in the movie. After
seeing the cast I really felt like the movie could be great, and it really is a
great movie overall.
ParaNorman tells the story of Norman, a kid who has the
unfortunate ability of seeing dead people. He is an outcast at school and home
because everyone thinks that he is faking his abilities to get attention. No matter how hard he tries he can’t get
through to the living like he can get through to the dead. He lives in a town
where a witch was burned hundreds of years ago and put a curse on the people who
burned her and he starts having visions of her being burned. He then finds out
that he is the only one who can break the curse and put the witch to rest.
- The Sixth Sense- The shitty version of ParaNorman
The great thing about this movie is that it has the early 80’s
PG vibe to it. What I mean by that is that there are “raunchy” parts in the
movie but it still has a kids movie feels to it. It is kind of like an animated
version of the Goonies and that is a wonderful thing, especially when animated
movies are generally bland except for Pixar movies. I also view this as what
the Sixth Sense could have been, if the Sixth Sense didn’t suck. The idea that
you can see dead people would be traumatizing and you would naturally look to
talk about it with people. I’m just trying to figure out why an animated kids
movie can get that right and not a critically acclaimed drama.
The animation in this film is also astounding, and it easily
bests it predecessor Coraline in every way possible. Everything is smooth while
on screen and there is no jerkiness to the characters’ motions. The effects
used in the film are pretty solid as well such as in scenes where Norman starts
having his vision while rehearsing for his school play. The way the scenery burns away as a transition
to the vision was just a phenomenal choice in my opinion and gave the movie a
really creepy feel in those scenes. There really need to be some more movies
made in the same fashion as Coraline and ParaNorman, because you can see the
hard work that the production team put into the movie because every aspect of
the movie is high quality from the animation to the acting.
- McLovin even stops by to lend his voice to the movie.
This is one of the few animated family movies that I have
seen that is not particularly “happy” and it made the movie much more effective
than the usual brain dead crap that makes its way into theaters on a regular basis.
Idea such as death, bullying, mob mentality, and acceptance are used throughout
the course of the movie and the movie expects you to understand the messages it
is trying to get across to you. It does not sit there and explain what every
reference means and it doesn’t tell you how to feel at certain points.
ParaNorman expects you to form your own responses and it doesn’t dumb anything
down and I really appreciated that aspect of the movie.
This is one of the best movies that I have seen this year,
animated or otherwise. The performances in the movie are excellent and it is
great to see stop motion animation making a comeback in Hollywood. I really wish
I would have seen the movie in 3D but it wasn’t playing in 3D near me, there is
always the Blu-Ray version in the future. Go and see this movie as soon as
possible, it will be well worth your time.
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