ParaNorman

Plot synopsis:
In the small New England town of Blithe Hollow, Massachusetts, a boy named Norman Babcock is able to speak with the dead, including his late grandmother and various ghosts in town. Unfortunately, almost no one among the living believes his ability is genuine and he is isolated emotionally from his family while being ridiculed and bullied by most of his peers for his seemingly strange abilities.However, Norman makes a friend with Neil Downe, an eccentric overweight boy who is bullied himself and finds Norman's earnest admission as a medium an intriguing part of a kindred spirit. During rehearsal of a school play commemorating the town's witch execution of 300 years ago, Norman has a harrowing vision of the town's past and being pursued as a witch by the town's citizenry. Afterward, the boys are confronted by Norman's estranged and seemingly deranged uncle Mr. Prenderghast who tells his nephew that the vision is a sign that he soon must take up his regular ritual to protect the town.Norman refuses to take him seriously, but soon has another vision during the school play, creating a public spectacle of himself which leads to his embarrassed parents unjustly grounding him. Now completely despondent and isolated, Norman is confronted by the ghost of the recently deceased Prenderghast in the restroom who tells him that the ritual must be performed with a special book before sundown that day, before departing for the afterlife. After some consideration, Norman sets off to Prenderghast's residence to retrieve the book. Believing that Neil would not truly understand his situation, he drives him away. He arrives at the graves of the town's ancestors/founders, including Judge Hopkins, who were supposedly cursed by the witch they condemned, but finds the book is merely a collection of fairy tales.Before Norman can ponder the situation, Alvin, a bully who overheard Norman's encounter in the restroom, intrudes and interferes with the reading until after sundown. With that, a ghostly storm resembling the witch appears in the air while the cursed dead arise and pursue the boys until they meet Norman's sister, Courtney, Neil and his older brother, Mitch, who have come to retrieve Norman. Together, the kids are relentlessly pursued by the zombies into town, but Norman manages to contact a classmate named Salma, who tells them to access the Town Hall's archives for the location of the witch's unmarked grave.As the kids make their way to the Town Hall, the zombies eventually lose them and find themselves confused by modern society and then are beset by the citizenry, who attack them en masse. During the riot, the kids break into the archives but cannot find any information they need. As the mob moves to attack Town Hall, Norman (in frustration) temporarily drives away his companions only for them to be trapped by the mob. However, the Witch storm appears and Norman climbs the Hall's tower to desperately attempt to read the book to stop her, but the witch blasts it with lightning and causes him to fall back down into the archives.Unconscious, Norman has a dream where he learns that the witch was actually Agatha Prenderghast, an innocent little girl of his age who was also a medium, unjustly condemned by the town's superstitious and frightened elite, who were then cursed to reawaken as the undead by Agatha as she was taken for execution. After awakening, Norman encounters the zombies and realizes that all they wanted was to speak with him to ensure he would take up the ritual to minimize the harm of the terrible mistake they made with Agatha. However, Norman decides that this gesture is not enough and resolves to find Agatha's ghost to arrive at a permanent solution.Norman attempts to help the zombies slip away to have them guide him to Agatha's grave, but are cornered by the mob. However, Courtney, who has come to realize her brother's true abilities, heroism and task, confronts the crowd and convinces them to back off. As the witch storm rages ever more destructively, Judge Hopkins guides Norman's family to the grave in a forest. Unfortunately, Agatha's magic separates Norman from the others and he must reach the grave on his own to save the town.Norman finds the grave, and soon confronted by the vengeful spirit of Agatha, interacting with her in the spirit dimension. She tries to drive him away, but Norman resolutely holds his ground, telling her that he understands how she feels as an outcast. As she struggles to drive him away, Norman endures her assault and eventually convinces her that, despite her legitimate grievance, her thirst for vengeance is accomplishing nothing but inflicting more pain and persuades her to stop. Norman tries to convince her that even in the darkest times, there must have been someone who was kind to her. Focusing only on the tragedies and forgetting the good things in her life is what reduced her to a malevolent force devoid of her true identity.Eventually, the girl, nicknamed Aggie, calms down at Norman's eloquence, recalling her true personality and happy memories with her mother. She is able to find a measure of peace, knowing that she is not alone and one person in the town understands her, allowing her to let go and move on to the afterlife. At that resolution, the storm dissipates, and she and the zombies all peacefully fade away. As day breaks, the town cleans up and regards Norman as a hero even when the outside media tries to explain the disturbance as merely a powerful storm.Norman, realizing that he, too, should stop focusing on his memories of being ostracized and pushing others away, accepts Neil's companionship. At the end, Norman watches a horror film with the ghost of his Grandmother again, and his family eagerly joins him.

Tags: fantasy, paranormal, horror, clever, revenge, entertaining

Review:
I absolutely adore stop motion animation, and I genuinely fell in love with Coraline, LAIKA's previous effort, but the trailers for the film didn't capture my interest in the story in the way I hoped they would and this film also didn't have the benefit of being helmed by the brilliant Henry Selick (Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach, Coraline).
ParaNorman tells a story about a young boy named Norman who has the unusual ability to see and talk to the dead, an ability which has led him to be ostracized by the other members of his community, including his own family.
As beautiful as the animation in Brave was, ParaNorman is easily the most visually impressive film I have seen this year.
I think I still prefer Coraline which definitely benefited from the combination of Neil Gaiman's fantastic story and Henry Selick's experienced hand, but ParaNorman is a truly fantastic film and it's definitely worth a look.
ParaNorman looks like a throwback to the good old campy stop-motion animated films.
Without spending too much time discussing the plot, this movie is essentially a film about a misfit kid who ultimately must save the town that has misunderstood and mistreated him for most of his life.
Can it deliver another new unique vision in this style or will it just end up being another generic animated film?ParaNorman follows a misunderstood boy who is able to speak to the dead.
There are some classic monster movie moments that adults will appreciate as well as some subject matter that is a bit glossed over, but clearly takes a momentary step out of the family film.This is easily not only one of the best stop-motion films to come along in some time; it's one of the best animated films.
ParaNorman delivers in every way filled with comedy, horror, and action all wrapped up in a strange twisted visual tale that you will not soon forget.http://www.examiner.com/movie-in-dallas/bobby-blakey.
Unlike any other animated movie, this one picks a new sort of approach, that would probably entertain both adults and children.The film was shot using a Canon 5D Mark II DSLR Camera.
However, to generate all the different faces needed for the characters, the film company Laika used 3D printers.The movie takes place in the creepy town of Blithe Hollow, whose name is a mash up of two other ghost stories, Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit(1945) and Washington Irving's The Legend of The Sleepy Hollow(1949).
The movie is a little too horror oriented, but funny and suitable for children nonetheless.The characters are well drawn, so you can understand each of their personalities: you have the nice fat kid called Neil (voiced by Tucker Albrizzi), the usual blonde teen (voiced by Anna Kendrick), the bully (voiced by Christopher Mintz-Plasse), and the dumb jock (voiced by Casey Affleck).
The story of ParaNorman seemed a bit like a great-fun tribute to cheesy B-movies with funny characters.
I'd say the final fight is the best of the year, by far.To sum up, ParaNorman is a poetic, sometimes frightening and funny animation movie that everybody has to watch.
I recently watched again, and reviewed here, MONSTER HOUSE, which is, like PARANORMAN, an animated horror movie for kids (actually, both feature as main character a boy who has a fat-and-funny friend).
This is clearly the sort-of little stop-motion film of year (and I said sort-of little since it had a pretty big publicity campaign here in Mexico City) while Tim Burton's upcoming FRANKENWEENIE is like the big and long-awaited one.There is some good news.
The main character Norman is not the classic happy kid as well; you'll love him by just seeing his liking for horror – actually, not every day we have an animated movie that opens like something out of a Grindhouse.
After seeing many low quality animation movies recently, Laika has made a masterpiece with Paranorman.I was anticipating this movie for a long time and it exceeded my expectations at a great extense.
The story is pretty much about a picked on and friendless kid who is becoming the hero of his town when a curse breaks loose in his small New England town.I enjoyed every single minute of this movie trying to see what Laika did differently than other companies could have done.
'PARANORMAN': Three Stars (Out of Five)An Academy Award nominee for Best Animated Feature Film (of 2012), and one of the better reviewed movies of the year, this stop-motion animated film tells the story of a boy who can communicate with dead people who's called on to save his town from a 300-year old curse.
I have a hard time getting in to animated kid's films like this (especially stop-motion ones).
This movie definitely has it's fair share of both these things but it also has a little more character and emotional depth than most animated films of this type.
It also has been praised (as well as condemned) for having the first openly gay character in a kid's film (which I think is a very good thing).
The movie still has it's flaws and it isn't as cool as critics make it out to be but it is a decent, better than average animated kid's film.Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6yq7kwUUDQ.
His local town is one full of legends and curses and with the help of a few semi-friends Norman is the only who can save it from a (not so) wicked witch.Paranorman isn't quite a kiddie film.
Sure, kids will enjoy the animation and a few of the more obvious physical jokes but the subject matter and tone of the film is a little too grown up.
The film starts off slow, but gradually gets better and it concludes with an epic ending, filled with great animation, effects, and music Writing is fairly strong, some of the jokes don't work, but they are far and in between.Characters are mostly archetypes of characters that have been done before.
The first of three hotly anticipated horror/comedy/stop motion kids films we'll see in the coming weeks and coming three years after Laika's success with Coraline, ParaNorman begins with a flourish which sets it up to be an interesting and funny family film.
Unfortunately it runs out of steam after about fifty minutes when the jokes dry up and the predictable plot takes over from what had been a fun, film which takes a surprisingly candid look at death.The world of ParaNorman is very well animated and in a similar style to Coraline, only this time in colour.
When animation and effects are of the standard of ParaNorman it makes me wonder why stop motion puppets were used in the first place.The opening half especially is littered with witty jokes and references to the likes of Dawn of the Dead, The Exorcist and Friday the 13th for the parents while the kids could enjoy sight gags and the odd joke which only the children in the audience found funny.
So in this regard parental guidance is suggested but for teen and adult viewing, it is a fantastic film with perfect blend of storytelling, great messages, emotions and humor.The film is very different from what we've seen and yet so familiar, i say that in a very good way.
There were also references to some films of the horror genre of which i am not a fan but still caught a few.The stop motion animation is very well done and is very lovely.
Good messages to learn, but may need to be explained as it is a subtle plot point, rather than beating you round the head.All in all, a good romp to watch in and around Halloween, a very well voiced movie with beautiful animation.
Well, with some reservation, yes.The first of the new crop of kiddie horror animations (keep an eye out for Hotel Transylvania, and Tim Burton's Frankenweenie), Paranorman is the simple story of Norman Babcock (Kodi Smit-McPhee) a lonely, misunderstood boy with jug ears and the ability to see dead people.
ParaNorman, is a fantastically intricate stop-motion (or "stop-frame" to you film fans in the UK) animated film that follows Norman, a young boy who is more than a little obsessed with the macabre he can actually see and communicate with ghosts.
Instead each non-typical voice in the film gives their character immense depth and emotion.With all the great animation and wonderfully dreary character designs, the story has a real message and this is not just a film to bring in the kids (again this isn't recommended for kids under say 10 at the very least).
It's a bit heavy handed and force-fed but still entirely relate-able.The challenges Norman faces are bound to be understood by most kids which is just one of the ways that the films' story transcends the setting.
All family is in for a good time.Especially if some of you like stop-motion, zombie or B horror movies, or even if you see them just to have fun of them.
The zombies were funny and it's one of the best animated films, it has a very good character development with ghosts flying in the house doing their unfinished work.Norman the kid is really PARANORMAL and strange.
In one of the scenes ParaNorman is watching an old 80s zombie movie and it has a stereotypical female character which makes reference to 80s movies.
mainly because all of the characters are real objects so they naturally look more detailed than a CGI model.To conclude, ParaNorman is an amazing movie that combines humor, horror, violence and even action to make a great film.
Although it is strange for a Zombie themed kids movie to come out so far away from Halloween, this stop-motion film is funny, entertaining, and surprisingly stylistic.
This film is filled with humor and action that references many classic horror movies, and as a result, almost seems ready made for a cult-following.Norman is a strange kid.
The seven men that the witch killed come back from the dead in Zombie form, and Norman, along Neil, their older siblings, and the school bully, run through town trying to stop it all before anyone gets hurt.The film has a stylized feel, much like the movie Gremlins did.
This movie is a real unexpected treat to watch, and it almost creates a new genre with the horror film for kids.
Reviewer @ MediumRaretv.org Basking in the success of their first stop-motion animated feature film Coraline, Laika studios attempts to duplicate that success with its 3-D comedy, ParaNorman.
When the witch of Blithe descends upon the city, her spiritual form is represented by a fiery storm cloud with a diabolical face that is slightly eerie even in 3-D animation.The comedic antis of a capable cast, which includes John Goodman, Casey Affleck, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Tempestt Bledsoe, further elevates the 3-D comedy, making it a worthwhile watch.The themes of ParaNorman feel a bit repetitive and in your face, but it's still an entertaining film with plenty of laughs for the family..
The story was interesting, but it was presented in a manner that was a tad too heavy on the morales for my liking.It should be said that the voice acting was actually quite good in "ParaNorman", and that did help the movie along a good way.Initially I had perhaps a bit too high expectations for this animation because I like zombies and dark things.
It had the occasional touch of Burton magic similarities here and there, but were nowhere near the angles of Burton's dark, Gothic sense of surrealism.A great animated movie for the kids and young teens, but for adults it doesn't really offer that much, and you'd probably be better off with something in the likes of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" or "Corpse Bride"..
Stop-motion work is very well done; visually, the movie is great (the angry witch scene was quite remarkable).
I would not let my little one watch this as the Zombies and witch would give her nightmares forever.For the older kids and adults there is no gore with the exception of some zombies that look kind of scary but are kind of goofy looking at the same time.This movie does have a lot of death, as the main character can see and talk to ghosts, so that might also be a sensitive topic..
So it's up to him and others to stop both the zombies and the witch from causing mayhem, while also realizing more layers they have.Norman himself just might be one of the best outcasts written for a movie I've seen, as his reasonings for feeling forlorn make sense as only he can see the dead.
Essentially, the original soundtrack was beautifully moving and fun, the characters were casted well, funny scenes, fabulous craftsmanship in the animations and great story!.
The effects in the movie are very well done for a stop motion picture, I actually thinks the effects are better in this film then they were a nightmare before Christmas.
I just watched Paranorman - a film about a boy (called Norman by the way) who can talk to ghosts - and wondered who it was aimed at?
There are tonnes of in-joke references to horror films that, unless you show your five-year-old Halloween and Return of the Living Dead instead of In the Night Garden, they will have no hope of ever picking up on.In these days of 'target audiences' where 'Film A' is meant for women and 'Film B' is meant for children and so on, watching Paranorman made me wonder whether the filmmakers just sat down, made a movie that they liked and never really gave much through to who it was meant for, hoping it would find an audience out there somewhere.
It has loads more heart and character development than other recent 'kids' movies, such as Brave, it looks visually stunning and it's packed full of gags - I just wonder how many children will actually get?
ParaNorman is a very good family animated comedy-horror film.
This movie is well worth watching (even if you only see it once in your life).There are a few hints towards adult references so even if you are not a kid or teen anymore you should get a few laughs out of the film.
The movie is not adult content (rated R) remember it is rated PG so even the kids can watch and enjoy this film.8.5/10.
The language is nothing that they haven't heard before from regular TV programming and some of the more "adult" jokes will just go right over the heads of the younger viewers, so parents don't have to worry about anything their kids aren't supposed to see/hear.This is a very decent, enjoyable family animated movie and is definitely worth a watch..
And the joke at the end goes by so quickly I didn't even realize it until I read some reviews.Altogether 'Paranorman' is a funny and suspenseful flick with a great use of non-computer graphic technology for the characters and some really spooky and gross-out scenes the tween set will enjoy.And somewhere in the story is message for us all..
One of the benefits of this "branching out" has been the rise in the animated horror comedy, right up there with the best of them in recent times is ParaNorman.Norman Babcock is considered to be the weird kid in town, you see he claims to see ghosts.
I know, I'm making little sense, but the animation is capable of scary and funny at the same time.If it's possible for a moment to ignore the technical side, then consider the film's standard themes of accepting people's differences and integrating misfits into the mainstream.
Ah, but it also has the Tim Burton approach to horror (good Tim Burton, of course) where the kid is in a suburbia where some of the adults and the bully teenagers (that is, anyone that isn't Norman or his fat friend Neil), and when the "real" people are faced with the supernatural - in this case a group of zombies who once lived in during those delightful witch trials - they freak out and form a Big Unruly Mob (cue the music!) So far, promising.
What surprised me was that Norman isn't just a goofy kid with a supernatural complex about him, and his parents do care about him (even his sister, after a certain point), but feels the pain of being so alone with his "gift" or "curse" or what- have-you, which he happens to also share with his crazy uncle (John Goodman, so good for the few minutes on screen).They even have the good sense to get a villain who is terrifying, this in the shape of a giant demon-spirit-ghost in the sky that has something to do with the witch trials of the 17th century (the zombies are ex- judges, we learn, who put a girl to death for "seeing' things), and so it's not so simple as to have someone pat to hate.
that is how good ParaNorman is you will love taking your kids to see this once in a life time amazing movie for everyone to enjoy this is one of those movie that you just wish would never end take your kids take everyone to go see the best movie in the whole world this is a great movie for everyone get a ticket everyone to go see the film that will get you cheering loud for this wonderful movie go go go go go see this funny movie that i know you will enjoy .
It manages to come up with hilarious sequences that will leave you in fits of laughter and like all movies for kids this one ends with a good lesson.
Now, Norman and his friends must save the town.Chris Butler wrote and directed this stop-motion animation movie.
This is a well grafted stop motion animated movie that the whole family can enjoy and I personally recommend seeing it.