"ParaNorman"
2012
PG
Produced by: Arianne Sutner, Travis Knight
Directed by: Sam Fell, Chris Butler
Written by:Chris Butler
Starring: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Tucker Albrizzi, Anna Kendrick
Lakia Entertainment

4.43/5 stars
Consensus:Beautifully animated and with lots of meaningful social commentary, ParaNorman was both funny and intriguing. A great film and one I'd recommend


Plot:"Norman Babcock" is a typical school kid, except for just one thing. He can see the dead. As a result most of the people in his life, and town, view him as an outsider and ostracize him. In the mean time Norman and his friend(s) (fellow outcast, Neil, who is teased for being overweight) learn about a "witch's curse" in school. They soon find out from local crazy man, "Mr. Prenderghast"(hilariously voiced by John Goodman), that Norman must use his powers to stop the curse and prevent the "witch's curse" from raising the dead. Its a solid and endearing plot if not slightly predictable at times (note the word slightly). It fits perfectly in line with films like Coraline(2009) and The Nightmare Before Christmas(1993).


Directing: Seemed solid, both directors have a fairly small directing resume, but extensive animation history. This shows in the film as it has beautiful art direction and is fantastically animated. The mood and elements of the film all felt similar with plenty of nods to "old school" zombie films such as Night of the Living Dead(1968) or Evil Dead(1981). The directing was consistent and solid throughout. ****

Acting: This film has a star studded cast, including actors such as Casey Affleck and John Goodman. One can only imagine how much fun it would have been to be in this film as a voice actor. The script is witty and funny, and the characters appealing and extreme. I was especially impressed by John Goodman's brief, but important and well done role of "Mr. Prenderghast". Since this was voice acting that was the main standout character because of how extreme and crazy John Goodman had to go with his voice. ****

Editing: Was solid and consistent, some very cool visual effects were done with the characters. One scene in particular stands out towards the beginning of the film. Our hero "Norman Babcock" is walking on the street on his way to school. Since one of his abilities is to see the dead, he is talking to the deceased no one else can see on his way. His unseeing neighbors stare in disbelief as the boy waltzs on, greeting here and there to persons only seen by him (and us) but not his narrow-minded neighbors. The editing was superb and helped the audience understand the closed and narrow minded paradigm of Norman's neighbors. The switching between perspectives of which the ghosts could be seen and not be seen was extremely well done. ****1/2

Art Direction: This category is the real stand out for this film. The art direction ROCKS. The animated characters, the town, down to the forest where the witch lives, are thought out and beautifully animated. It was all very low key/green lighting and just so cool. Everything was geared towards an old school horror/zombie flick and was just plain fun to watch. You can tell the directors came from an animation field and they really had an eye for solid animation in ParaNorman because the film is gorgeous! *****

Cinematography: As I've stated the animation was beautiful and the camera work fit right in to place by all means in this film. It was well shot and thoughtfully composed. Again with lots of nods to typical "b-horror"-esq shots (i.e. backing away from something, like a monster or in this case, a zombie, and backing into the very thing you're avoiding, it groans slowly etc etc.) The cinematography was well done, but not breath taking or anything too stand outish. ****

Screenplay: The other real gem about this film is the hysterical 1 liners. For example:
"Swear you'll do it!"
"Like.. the 'f'' word...?"
The screenplay and the witty commentary both in dialogue and on screen action where my second favorite part about the film(art direction being the first). It was really  entertaining and incredibly well written. At times the characters or plot elements seemed predictable, but the immense and thoughtful social commentary and the witty and engaging dialect more then amply make up for this mild short coming. ****1/2

CGI/Special Effects: Its an animated film. Clay-mation style films are extremely endearing, no exceptions here. The CGI that does appear is thoughtful and tasteful, but for the most part the film is animated, and superbly animated at that. *****