Year: 2012
Studio: Laika
Happy Halloween lovely reader(s)! You're probably having a better Halloween than me because this girl has an exam on Saturday! Hooray for the university student life! Now, a lot of you may have expected me to write about The Nightmare Before Christmas, and even I thought I was going to for the longest time. But I thought I'd shake things up a bit and not talk about something non-Disney related for once in my life. I mean, Nightmare could also be a great movie to talk about around Christmas time, just sayin'.I remember one summer when I was trying to decide between ParaNorman and Frankenweenie. Up to that point I had often mixed the two up. Eventually I went for ParaNorman and to this day, I still haven't watched past the first 15 minutes of Frankenweenie. I blame myself for being easily distracted.
Norman isn't a normal young boy. In fact, Norman can see and communicate with the dead. It's tough being the weird kid in the town of Blithe Hollow when you're considered an outcast even in your own family. But one day Norman comes across his uncle who informs him about the witch's curse that has been placed over the town. Suddenly, the undead have come out to play. Zombies begin to crawl out of their graves and seem to be targeting the town. Along with a troupe of unlikely companions, Norman must use his abilities to save the town. In his attempts he discovers the shocking truth about the curse and must find a way to stop it from haunting them ever again.
 |
| Would you trust this gang to save you from a Zombie Apocalypse? |
If you know me, you'll know that I hate watching scary movies. I also hate watching the scary movie series. But that's beside the point. ParaNorman is a toned down "scary" movie that doesn't quite reach the creepiness levels of Coraline. Long story short, I think this movie is great! The plot is pretty easy to follow although it does start off a little slow for my liking. The "watching a horror movie" opening has been done plenty of times but ParaNorman does it well and doesn't take it too seriously. It's a great parallel as to what actually happens in the film. Blithe Hollow reminds me a lot of Salem especially with all the talk about witches and the undead. Along with the spooky forest, it's a great setting for all the hijinks that's about to unfold.
Although the plot may be a bit cliche with zombies, witch's curses and whatnot it still stands well because of its dynamic characters. Our protagonist Norman (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is a clever and awkward young boy who accepts his abilities instead of pretending they don't exist. He could have easily been the kid on The Sixth Sense "I see dead people!" I thought it was really nice that he still communicated with the spirits as if they were personal friends of his and that he wasn't creeped out that his Grandma was still hanging around. He knows people think he's odd but that never stopped him. Courtney (Anna Kendrick) is Norman's older sister and your typical popular girl who has the biggest crush on the jock. Neil (Tucker Albrizzi) is Norman's eccentric friend who always remains positive although he is a main target for the bullies. Mitch (Casey Affleck) is Neil's older brother and the classic oblivious jock who doesn't have a lot going on in his head. Alvin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) is the school bully who picks on Norman and Neil but reluctantly gets caught up in the mission to save the town.
Norman helps Neil talk to his late dog
I don't usually talk about the voice acting in animated films but I will say that I was actually pleasantly surprised. Kodi Smit-McPhee pulls off the innocence and at times anguish of an 11 year old boy well. I will admit that going into it I wasn't too sure how well Anna Kendrick would fair as a voice actress. She was surprisingly amazing and captured the essence of a vapid teenage girl really well without going overboard. Courtney could have easily been annoying but she grows to be an understanding and protective older sister. Tucker Albrizzi was hilarious and I thought his timing was brilliant. He pulls off awkward and carefree and in the end makes Neil so lovable. Casey Affleck could have gone with a more stuck up approach to Mitch but I think he delivered just enough of that "I really can't be bothered" attitude that matched the cool guy exterior. You may know Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Fishlegs from How to Train Your Dragon and you could say the two characters are quite similar. But Christopher Mintz-Plasse is just as great as Alvin and turns him into that not-so tough 13 year-old bully.
If you're a fan of stop-motion animation then you will not be disappointed! Laika is known for its amazing stop-motion features like Coraline and they also had a hand in The Corpse Bride. The technicalities of stop-motion has always fascinated me. Animators must have incredible amounts of patience to move the puppets into every single pose. Picture people on large sets moving around these models on stages that are already decorated as forests and towns. Imagine the long hours of trying to get the poses of the models just right for every single frame? And then you also have to figure out the timing of each movement for each motion to look natural. People, this involves a lot of maths too! The characters all move so fluidly as if it were completely CG and it's so deceiving. I also find it really interesting how each member of the gang is so differently shaped. A lot of hard work goes into stop-motion and it should be recognised much more. I strongly suggest watching this little video here and listen to what Travis Knight has to say about stop-motion and Laika.
Travis Knight, the lead animator talks about the use of stop-motion.
The film toes on the line of being a children's movie and something that would appeal to older audiences. Granted that adults also do enjoy children's movies but ParaNorman doesn't exactly fall directly into that category. There are definitely some blatant crude jokes and adult humour that are very much in your face. I didn't find anything particularly offensive. Although they were pretty unexpected, it didn't stop me from having a good chuckle that they even went there! And there's a little plot twist at the end that catches you and one particular character off guard. And I guess I could make a quick little comment about the score. For the most part I was more engrossed in the plot to actually notice the music but when I did notice it, I thought it was great! The score when Norman confronts Aggie, the witch, was the one that caught my attention the most.
ParaNorman is weirdly entertaining and doesn't take itself too seriously. But when it ditches the humour for more emotionally driven scenes, it still delivers. In saying that, there's enough humour for any adult to enjoy. It may not be a movie for younger children to see with potentially scary zombie scenes and also some of the jokes aren't things you might here in your typical kids movie. I guess I would have liked the uncle's plot to have come a bit more full circle. I felt like after the first part of the movie, he gets dropped and then becomes forgettable. Maybe they could have had a quick little moment with his spirit in the end. I actually prefer this over Coraline. Don't even get me started on how creeped out I was from watching that. I went into that one not knowing what it was about and oh boy. Of the two, I enjoyed ParaNorman a lot more and would definitely recommend it for your Halloween movie line up.
KEEP
8.2/10
Watch the trailer below!
No comments:
Post a Comment