Review of ParaNorman (2012) by Dyron W — 03 Jan 2015

Starring: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Anna Kendrick, Tucker Albrizzi, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse.

Directed By: Chris Butler and Sam Fell.

Rated: PG.

A young boy who can speak to dead people, is tasked with stopping a Witch's curse from destroying his town even though no one believes or listens to him.

I love clay animation. All the extra time and effort that goes into the little details makes it even more enjoyable for me to watch. So after hearing about this movie and seeing it was from the same folks who did Coraline (which was a pretty good movie too), I was looking forward to this one and it did not disappoint. I loved this movie and was glad to see it nominated for Best Animated Film that year. Not the least bit surprised it lost to Brave, but what can you do? Tell everyone how great it is and recommend it, is what!

There was fantastic voice work by all. Kodi Smit-McPhee is great as the voice of Norman and has great chemistry with Anna Kendrick's Courtney and Tucker Albrizzi's Neil. I enjoyed Casey Afleck as the meat head Mitch the most though. It's one of the those roles you could tell the actor had fun doing because it's a fun character. It was also nice to see (hear) Christopher Mintz-Plasse finally play a different role then his normal nerd kid one, albeit it is in animated form. Leslie Mann, Jeff Garner, John Goodman, Alex Borstein, and Tempestt Bledsoe all sound like their are having fun in the adult roles too.

The animation is great and it's amazing what little they used CGI for. Like I said before, all the little details that go into making their world amazes me. All the thought and time that goes into every little hair on each character's head, each wrinkle of clothing, every little movement that breathes life into a character just astounds me. The other thing I love about this movie is it's great message about facing what scares you and dealing with bullies. About how getting revenge against people who are cruel to you (whether children or adults) will never solve anything. It's a message that I feel needs to be heard even more so in today's times.

It has some great scenes and very funny moments. The finale scene when Norman finally faces the witch is touching and amazing with a great musical score too. I highly recommend this movie to families with older kids (or if you are a teen or adult yourself), it is one of my favorites. It might be a little too scary for younger kids at first and their are one or two lines and moments some parents may not like so I would say watch it first and then deciding if it's okay for your kids. I hope since we didn't have a single claymation movie this year, that we get some in 2014 that are as fantastic as this.

10 Reels Out Of 10.

"There's nothing wrong with being scared Norman, so long as you don't let it change who you are.".