Review of ParaNorman (2012) by Dr. F P — 17 Mar 2013

As a big fan of LAIKA (the animation studio who produced this) I knew about this before the trailers hit so I was excited for quite a while longer than I could have been. Needless to say my anticipation for this was GREAT, who wouldn't love stop motion animation involving zombies, ghosts & misunderstood kids with a subtle moral tale to top it all off? It sounds like they marketed it right at me, I WAS THE AUDIENCE, well actually i'm many years off the target but I do believe that Paranorman is just as fun for adults, even if they're not as childish as me.

Stop motion animation has become one of my favorite uses of story telling ever since watching James & the Giant Peach, it is true that this medium is more sophisticated now than then, and good for it, the scenes in Paranorman towards the end with the little witch girl made me cry because they were so powerfully crafted. It is true that I cry a lot when I see things like this...

Anyway i'll digress, Paranorman is a new movie with a lot of heart, the design is grand, the characters are all likable (even Alvin sometimes) & the kids in the screen were laughing & sort of screaming in their own weird way, although I do think they were out of their comfort zone - the little girl behind me didn't know what to make of it really, though nor did her father.