ParaNorman is a stop-motion zombie movie with personality

ParaNorman is the story of Norman, a young boy who can speak with the dead.  He sees them everywhere, gets teased and bullied by his school mates.  His family doesn’t believe him, his best friend-Neil is a bit of an outcast himself and it’s up to Norman to save everyone from the return of an evil witch and a pack of zombies.

ParaNorman throws zombie movie clichés on their head and it does so in an artful way that makes the movie more entertaining than it could have been if they played it straight.  Because the movie is in stop –motion the characters have more life and personality that they would have had with computer or traditional animation.

Some twists in a genre are easy to spot and predict.  The twists in ParaNorman both sneak up on you and cut immediately to situations you weren’t expecting.  All of the characters are not what they seem and their explanation is heartbreaking, understandable and forgivable.

I’m a big stop-motion fan.  I admire the hard work and dedication it takes to create the art form.  Having said that, there are good stop-motion films and bad ones, it all boils down the script and story.  While the story in ParaNorman is common at first glance, it’s well paced, not predictable and laced with enough ‘older’ jokes to keep the adults entertained.

There are a couple jokes and comments in the film that make it clear it’s not a Pixar creation.  ParaNorman is from LAIKA, the same folks who did Coraline.  ParaNorman is better than that film though because the supporting characters in this one are stronger and have better lines.  It’s also great to see stop-motion that does not have musical numbers, a soundtrack by Danny Elfman or have Tim Burton’s personality all over it.

The vocal talent in ParaNorman all do a great job, especially Kodi Smit-McPhee (Norman) and Tucker Albrizzi (Neil).  Albrizzi’s tone and emotion as the overweight best friends are exactly that of a 9-year old.  You may recognize a couple of the other voices, but it’s refreshing just hear good performances without thinking about the ‘famous’ actor who’s doing the voice.  All the voices were great and cast for that reason, not for the tabloid value they bring to a production.

ParaNorman is a gorgeous movie.  The 3-D wasn’t necessary, but didn’t detract from it all.  As a viewer you get lost in the animation, models and scenery.  It’s refreshing to see stop-motion and even more so when it’s packaged in such a nice vehicle as ParaNorman.

Even though ParaNorman is a film that can be enjoyed by the kids it’s not too kid friendly.  Some of the images are gross and the monsters are spooky when you first see them.  There were some kids in the theater who were about 5 years old and they didn’t enjoy the movie too much.  Leave the little ones at home if they’re under 7 and they’ll have a great time with you.  ParaNorman is rated PG and runs 93 minutes.

Bonus: this video breaks down how they do stop-motion.