ParaNorman (Chris Butler and Sam Fell, 2012)

[Jeff]

I was shocked at how much I loved the second stop-motion feature from Laika, ParaNorman. For me it ranks right alongside their wonderful Coraline, maybe higher. While some of the characters come off as kid-flick archetypes at first, most are revealed to have some surprising depth. It seemed like something that was going to have mindless fun toying with zombie tropes, but has a lot more to offer than that, ultimately focusing on the importance of tolerance of folks that are different than you and broaching the idea that maybe violent revenge isn't the best solution to bullying by the small-minded. It's not nearly as preachy as I just made it sound.

Beyond all that, this is some of the coolest stop-motion I've ever seen, with fantastic character designs and sets. I skipped the 3-D for this one, and while there are some scenes where I suspect it would have been employed magnificently, it has such a dark aesthetic already that I can only imagine that the glasses would plunge it into complete blackness. The score by Jon Brion is one of the best of the year, and the voice work is all wonderful (Elaine Stritch!).

Older, more thoughtful kids will certainly love this, but I think it has even more appeal for adults. Except for some climactic action sequences (there's at least one too many), this avoids the frenetic pacing of most modern animation, and feels in many ways like an 80s kids' adventure film. Stick around through the beautiful end credits (which are perfectly accompanied by The White Stripes' "Little Ghost") for a very brief time-lapse look at the creation of Norman.

[MichaelB]

I've been really looking forward to this, especially after taking my kids to see the lacklustre Brave and the dreadful Ice Age 4: Continental Drift. They're huge fans of Coraline, so this should be an easy sell.

[matrixschmatrix]

I'm broadly on board with Jeff on ParaNorman- I particularly liked how sweetly realized the main character was, and the metatextual references to other horror movies stayed nicely on the level of quick laughs if you get 'em, not big deal if you don't, never swallowing the narrative, and of course the visuals were amazing.

I can't go so far as to say that it hit the levels of Coraline for me, though, and as good as it was it made me wish for a script that had the depth of imagination that Gaiman's often show- it had a very nice liberal message about how every problem can be solved by talking to people and how people who hate you are really just afraid of you, but I guess for me it didn't break out of the children's movie mold as far as it seemed like it might (though the reversal wherein the townspeople visually take the place of the zombies was very nicely executed.)

Overall, though, I went in with high expectations (due both to Jeff's praise and the gorgeous trailer) and they were more than met- and if your biggest objection to a movie is that it's so well done that it makes you wish it were amazing instead of just very good, that's not much of an attack. And the music was 100% great, with references to giallo music, Halloween, and the movie's own trailer- so that maybe pushes it from a B+ to an A- for me.

[MichaelB]

I was shocked at how much I loved the second stop-motion feature from Laika, ParaNorman. For me it ranks right alongside their wonderful Coraline, maybe higher. While some of the characters come off as kid-flick archetypes at first, most are revealed to have some surprising depth. It seemed like something that was going to have mindless fun toying with zombie tropes, but has a lot more to offer than that, ultimately focusing on the importance of tolerance of folks that are different than you and broaching the idea that maybe violent revenge isn't the best solution to bullying by the small-minded. It's not nearly as preachy as I just made it sound.

No, not at all - I was very impressed with how subtly these points were delivered, allowing for the kids'-film context. My kids (nine and seven) absolutely loved it - I kept glancing at my daughter during the full-on zombie invasion just to make sure she wasn't scared, but she was cackling with glee and spent the rest of the afternoon chasing her brother around our house going "More brains! Must have brains!".

It's certainly the best kids' film I've taken them to in some time, way ahead of the tedious Ice Age 4: Continental Drift or the visually spectacular but dramatically inert Brave. I'm not quite sure it's up there with Coraline for lasting potency, but I'll definitely be buying the Blu-ray.