Here's what you need to know; life's anything but normal for Norman, a quirky, horror-obsessed social outcast shunned by the rest of Blithe Hollow for his unusual gift of talking to ghosts. But Blithe Hollow and the other side are on a collision course as the anniversary of a dark event in the town's past looms, heralding the awakening of evil spirits with a lust for vengeance, and after years of being ridiculed by the town, it now falls to Norman and his unique gift to protect it from the fury of a Witch, and to find a way to end her curse once and for all.
Now That Dead Space is out of the way, here's the introduction to this year's annual spookathon. Usually I plan to do eight reviews, sometimes I do and sometimes I don't, sometimes they go up during Halloween week, sometimes they go up on Christmas eve because I am bad at this. This year the plan was again eight reviews, but then I started playing Dead Space again and now that number has ballooned, as has the special, which has gone from a week to a month. My tradition with these is to begin our descent into horror at the shallow end with something a bit more family friendly, this year it would have been Laika's follow up to the jaw-droppingly excellent Coraline, ParaNorman, and I'm just going to spoil it a bit and tell you that if you've never heard of Laika or haven't seen any of their films, you need to, honestly, they are one of a kind, anyway, ParaNorman.
ParaNorman opens wearing its heart on its sleeve with Norman watching a cheesy horror movie where a screaming woman gets her head eaten by a zombie, the film does very little to hide both its love of those films and its satire of them in this scene, and while it's surface level, it's a very appreciated detail, one that opens the film beautifully. What follows is our introduction to Norman and his dysfunctional family, as he overhears his mum and dad arguing about him after telling them he's spoken to his dead nan again, a topic which has clearly been brought up before and which causes a lot of tension between Norman and his dad. This sequence plays out in such an engaging way and introduces us to Norman perfectly. Like Coraline, Norman's relationship with his parents is very strained, and like Coraline, the film tackles this subject in a surprisingly nuanced way, while injecting an expected dose of comedy to it. Coraline's relationship with her parents was strained by their neglecting of her through their constant working, whereas Norman's parents are distant with him because of his ability, with his mum trying her hardest to see both sides, while his dad becomes hostile at the mention of said ability, with it fostering a fear of Norman in him. Both of these films play with these ideas beautifully; in ParaNorman, one of the film's central ideas is accepting people for who or what they are, which is inevitably tangled up in Norman's family learning to accept him and to not be afraid of his gift, which ties very poetically into the story of the Witch.
Yeah, this is one of those feelgood kind of films about family and acceptance, but it has zombies, so it's a winner. The film's characters are also really good, many of which embodying a stereotype with a liberal helping of self-awareness; Norman's sister, Courtney is a stereotypical cheerleader, his bully, Alvin is a cowardly, nasally meathead, his friend, Neil is a fellow social outcast in whom he finds a kindred spirit, while his friend's brother, Mitch is a stereotypical jock. You can probably tell where this is going; with the opening sequence taking the piss out of cheesy zombie movies, it's obvious that the film is relishing in its love for them by satirising its archetypes, and it's really entertaining when it does, with Mitch and Courtney having a really funny dynamic with and equally funny payoff, and with Alvin learning to respect Norman over the course of the film. As does the audience as ParaNorman's hero is really compelling. From the outset, we understand his problems; he wants to be understood and accepted by his family and his town but isn't, and now thinks that they not only can't, but don't want to which again, very poetically lines up with the villain and her conflict, as both must learn to see the good in people as well as the bad, and not let their fear and hatred of them turn them to evil. And like the very best heroes, Norman does what he has to do, no matter how scary it is, as the saying goes, courage is not the absence of fear, it's acting in spite of it. And then there's the film's villain, which is probably the second strongest thing this film has going for it.
Blithe Hollow's Witch and her zombies are fantastic, but it's hard to go into much detail with them without going into spoilers because the film's twist is really good. Not that it's a very shocking twist when it happens, but when it happens in the film, it's a very effective moment, one that personalises the conflict for Norman and forces him to find his faith in the living. The zombies are a classic red herring as the truth of their past actions comes to light and you realise that they are victims of their own mistakes. Meanwhile the Witch is a monster, literally a swirling mass of evil in the sky above the town, but again there is a very strong message of learning to overcome fear and hatred, giving her story a really sweet ending, as well as finishing up Norman's journey. ParanNorman's villains are sympathetic and flawed just like its heroes, and that's a mark of a great story. Another thing that the heroes and villains have in common is how funny they are because ParaNorman is really funny. As I said earlier, the film's band of heroes are a collection of horror stereotypes and there is a lot of comedy in that. Courtney spends the entire film lusting for Mitch, who is completely oblivious not just to her, but to the gravity of the situation they are in. Alvin is a standout, a cowardly, self-aggrandising yob who makes for some of the film's best moments, example; at one point he laments getting trapped in the town hall when there's "an adult video store just across the street."
ParaNorman isn't the most kid friendly film in the world, but it never comes across as edgy or tryhard, its more mature jokes are really funny, and the film has more than enough jokes for kids too. One particularly funny moment is when the zombie puritans arrive in town and are horrified by the degeneracy around them, it's not the cleverest joke in the world, but it makes me laugh every time. The film's smaller characters are another source of comedy, from the cartoonishly dramatic drama teacher to the town Sheriff, who exists solely to take the piss out of arrogant, hypocritical, badge wielding Police. Another area where the film doesn't dumb itself down or play it safe is in its visuals, which can be pretty intense. Like Coraline before it, the film's villain is very imposing and visually striking, and in the film's finale when Norman confronts the Witch, she is truly something to look at; an arcing, pulsing vessel of absolute rage, one that literally starts to tear itself apart as Norman talks. It's not quite as intense as Coraline, but it's no less effective. The film's villain is a reverse of Coraline's in a lot of ways, whereas Other Mother becomes less human over the course of the film, the Witch becomes more human. Eventually Other Mother sheds all of her human characteristics, meanwhile the Witch ultimately sheds all of her monstrous characteristics and learns the same lesson Norman does, that it's okay to be scared and you can't let it change you.
But Earlier I said the film's villain was the second best thing about it, and because this is Laika, the best thing about ParaNorman should be obvious. The film is gorgeous, like everything Laika has made, it's a visual masterpiece and in a lot of ways, it's even better than Coraline. The film just looks cool; the character designs are charming and stylised, the world is asymmetrical and ever so slightly wonky looking, and the animation is in a class of its own. Laika's method of character animation is a bit complicated but very clever. It has a name but the gist of it is they 3-D print the model's faces and swap them out between frames, Coraline also used this method by ParaNorman was their first film to use colour printers, it's a small detail for sure but this is stop-motion, everything hinges on the small details. The film isn't entirely stop-motion either, cleverly using computer and hand drawn animation to realise the world of the film in a way that probably wouldn't be possible with just stop-motion, not that what is and isn't possible in animation has ever stopped Laika. There are still plenty of moments throughout the film where you're left wondering how they did it, as well as all the tiny little things that you probably won't even notice like the models' costumes or the lighting of all of the shots. Again, it's all about the little details and ParaNorman is not a film where corners were cut, it looks incredible from the first frame to the last and after all the times I've watched it, which is about five or six times at this point, the film's presentation and animation just doesn't get old.
There's Nothing Wrong With Being Scared
ParaNorman is great, it's just another fantastic film from Laika, and since I haven't seen Coraline in a few years, I can't say which one I prefer but I bet that line would be thin. There's just something a little special about pretty much everything the film does; its characters are ones you've seen before but done with the perfect amount of self-awareness, while the villains are brilliantly sympathetic and effective. The film has a few really sweet messages of acceptance and overcoming fear, wrapped up in a spooky tale with great drama, great comedy and some decent horror. And then there's the film's presentation, which is unbelievable, ParaNorman is such a good looking film in every way; from the cinematography to the animation to the effects to the sets and models, it's all the absolute best and I love it. And overall, I love this film, it's a wonderfully spooky little family film that's hard not to love, and it's definitely worth watching.
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