Para-Norman

My family saw "Coraline" following my son's fabulous vomit explosion at my birthday dinner almost two years ago. And while we ate our fancy reheated dinner out of styrofoam take-out boxes, the film's charmingly grotesque stop-motion figures carried out their retelling of Neil Gaiman's macabre Alice in Wonderland riff. So, I was initially very excited to check out Studio Laika's follow-up, "ParaNorman", especially after seeing the slightly creepy, stylish trailer. But, as reviews came in with a slight "meh" tinge (especially from my favorite movie podcast) and my fears mounted that my oldest son would be too scared to go with me, I decided to take a pass on the theatrical release. Then I got a day off.

Since the only movie playing was "ParaNorman" and my son swore that it wouldn't be too scary for him, I figured we'd give it a shot. And I am really glad we did!

The story follows weird-kid Norman who, as we find in a cool little reveal, talks to ghosts. Following a meeting with his crazy Uncle (John Goodman), Norman embarks on a quest to save his Salem-esque town from a witch's curse.  Following Norman's quest leads us down a lot more unfamiliar paths than the "Sixth Sense", "Night of the Living Dead", and "Hocus Pocus" innards of the film would lead the audience to believe.

But not all is rosy: some of the central themes of the movie such as isolation, bullying, and acceptance aren't as fleshed out as I would have liked.  Others, like the group dynamic of fear take a similarly surface-level look that probably deserved more time honing the message.  I recently read through Frank Miller's seminal Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and found its messages on mob mentality much more thoroughly explored more than 25 years ago so I can't chalk these weaknesses up to sheer difficulty of the subject.  As a parent, I appreciated that the film made an effort to present larger themes than just goofy zombies and one-liners but caution others that there are a lot of murdered ghosts and rotting corpses that could be too intense for younger viewers (my son, true to his word, was not too scared though).  While much of the cast played well and even against type in their roles, including Casey Affleck, Christopher Mintz-Plasse (a.k.a, McLovin) and the kid who played Fat Neil--I do not lie, he is the best fat kid since Russell in "UP" and made me laugh out loud numerous time--some do less well, particularly Jeff Garlin whose exasperated, screaming dad schtick grates terribly on my nerves and caused some of my disbelief at the Norman-family dynamic.

While some of the larger messages were a tad muddied, scene-to-scene most jokes scored with me, someone traditionally ready to tear down children's movie humor.  Watching the Puritan zombies stare in terror at the 21st century world around them was a nice touch and gags like the townsperson torn between the onrushing zombie horde and his bag of chips amused me greatly.  The story moves at a brisk pace so you'll never get bored with any given part and the stop-motion animation weirdly fitting models given the whole proceeding some added points. With some truly touching scenes like those between Neil and his dead dog's ghost (here's where my mom would stop watching) and a solid climax with Norman and the witch exploring the power of fear and hatred, "ParaNorman" presents a Really Good case for your time.

Kid on the left is HI-larious

On a final note one of the big criticisms I saw about "ParaNorman" revolved around the ending of the movie turning "into a video game".  Considering that this comment amounts to a character jumping on a few floating platforms, I declare this a fully ignorant and archaic statement.  Should you see this when reading other movie reviews (and the movie under review isn't "Tron"), please immediately disregard the critic: he/she is a hack.