ParaNorman (2012)
Directed by Sam Fell
In the town of Blithe Hollow, Norman Babcock can speak to the dead, but no one other than his eccentric new friend believes his ability is real. One day, Norman's eccentric uncle tells him of a ritual he must perform to protect the town from a curse cast by a witch centuries ago.
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19 films that influenced ParaNorman
What critics say influenced ParaNorman
One marvels at the visuals (production design by Nelson Lowry, "Fantastic Mr. Fox"), though, from the Salem, MA inspired historical district and blue collar neighborhoods to references to horror films from childhood through "The Nightmare Before Christmas."
ParaNorman was animated using 3D sculptures, in the same way as Coraline and The Nightmare Before Christmas were.
Simply put, it is no less than the most confident, fully realized, and just plain imaginative stop-motion animated feature since 1993's holiday classic "The Nightmare Before Christmas."
Though some people will undoubtedly criticize “ParaNorman” for its visual similarities to Henry Selick’s “Coraline” and “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” that’s just because stop-motion animation lends itself to those types of bizarre, ghoulish stories.
ParaNorman shares many aesthetic traits with Coraline and The Nightmare Before Christmas, but thanks to unique character and background designs, it overall looks a little unlike any other stop-motion film.
Stop-motion animation has given rise to some of the most fun-for-kids-and-adults cinematic stories of the last few decades – most famously, The Nightmare Before Christmas.
This is the second stop-motion animated feature from Laika to be made in 3D, but while one can see parallels to their earlier "Coraline," "ParaNorman," written by that film's storyboard supervisor Chris Butler and codirected by him and Sam Fell ("Flushed Away," "The Tale of Despereaux"), has a weaker story which is stretched out far enough to produce sag, ironic for a film whose every frame must be meticulously constructed.
If it reminds some viewers of 2009's "Coraline" (also a stop-motion animated product), that shouldn't be a surprise, considering the otherworldly plot aspects, its child protagonist and the fact that it comes from the same production house, Laika.
August 19, 2012 -- This animated film from the creators of “Coraline” is another film that fits into the Halloween theme of ghosts and witches.
And despite the supernatural parallels, "ParaNorman" isn't nearly as creepy - or as magnificent - as "Coraline," a gorgeous and unsettling masterwork that plumbed childhood fears with a hypnotizing grace.
This 3D stop-motion animated movie is even scarier but much funnier than the same production team's skilfully crafted Coraline in which a plucky little heroine escaped from her lonely mundane world into its horrific mirror image.
The first effort out of the gate is a stop-motion animated movie from Portland’s LAIKA, the studio behind Henry Selick’s Coraline.
Film references range from fairly obvious to sly as can be, from the opening cheesy '80s horror movie that Norman watches on TV, the zombie's yelling out for "Brainnnnnns!" to the cell phone ringtone that plays John Carpenter's immortal " Halloween " theme (this latter detail is followed up by a " Friday the 13th " nod even whilst still aping a direct scene from Carpenter's 1978 slasher watermark).
Many early gags in the stop-motion animation ParaNorman are associated with Norman’s collection of horror paraphernalia, which include a phone with the Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978) theme for its ringtone.
Goodman is also particularly fun as Norman's zany brutish Uncle Prenderghast, with his role feeling somewhat of an homage to Peter Jackson's The Frighteners.
Dripping with hyper-saturated colors, textured with a faux-grainy film stock, and kicking things off with a playfully gruesome zombie attack, it has the air of a fright flick tailor-made for grown-up horror hounds to share with wee ones who aren’t quite ready for more intense fare like The Evil Dead or The Frighteners.
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Everything is here from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), to the black brambles of Disney’s Sleeping Beauty (1959), to references to the Friday the 13th and Halloween series — and, of course, the requisite zombie tropes.
For lovers of the dark, otherworldly and macabre, delighting through the 93-minute "ParaNorman" will be akin to attending a horror-themed amusement park, exploring a desolate and foreboding haunted house, and simultaneously watching 1985's "The Return of the Living Dead" and 1993's " Hocus Pocus " all rolled up into one.
Everything is here from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), to the black brambles of Disney’s Sleeping Beauty (1959), to references to the Friday the 13th and Halloween series — and, of course, the requisite zombie tropes.
For lovers of the dark, otherworldly and macabre, delighting through the 93-minute "ParaNorman" will be akin to attending a horror-themed amusement park, exploring a desolate and foreboding haunted house, and simultaneously watching 1985's "The Return of the Living Dead" and 1993's " Hocus Pocus " all rolled up into one.
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It's almost as if the textures and tone make the story spookier, and we can compare ParaNorman to the computer animated Monster House for a test drive.
For about an hour, ParaNorman is just about what one might expect and hope for from animation studio Laika: a gorgeous-looking stop-motion cartoon that operates somewhere at the intersection of Monster House and The Monster Squad , slyly harkening back to '80s Amblin adventures and B-grade creature features.
You could make a good Halloween triple feature with “Monster House,” “Coraline” and “ParaNorman.”
The eye candy that LAIKA has delivered is revolutionary and so advanced that it makes Sony’s classic Monster House look like absolute crap.
The film makes the animated “Monster House’’ look positively benign.
Perhaps the best way to sell you on this picture is to say it’s sort of like what The Goonies might’ve been, had The Goonies been beautifully animated and not terrible.
The tale that follows is part Something Wicked This Way Comes, part The Goonies.
And then ParaNorman--which begins as a sweet, strange, quiet little piece about a lonely boy who wants to be left alone with his late-night creature features and the company of his dead grandmother--turns into The Goonies minus the "diversity."