This fun, if formula-bound kids’ tale employs the same snappy 3D stop-motion animation seen in “Coraline” (2009). Instead of an eleven year-old girl seeing the dead and dealing with a supernatural female, “ParaNorman” shows an eleven year-old boy doing the same. Norman (voiced by Kodi Smit-McPhee, “Let Me In,” “The Road”) is the typical outcast coping with all the usual character types, from an illiterate bully to his ditsy big sister. Our misunderstood hero is a horror film buff who watches lots of TV. On the couch sits the chatty, dotty spirit of his late grandmother (Elaine Stritch). He is a letdown to his dad. The stereotypical fat kid is his only living friend. Norman greets all his dead ones on the way to school. Note the seabird ghost strangled with a plastic six-pack holder, and the dog “run over by an animal rescue van… tragic and ironic.” Norman lives in Blithe Hollow, a New England town with the tacky tourist come-on: “A Great Place to Hang.” The 300th anniversary of a 1712 witch-hanging looms. Norman learns from his dying weird uncle that he must assume the mantle of a secret family lineage. His task is talking to the hung witch Agatha to keep her and her seven zombified jurors in their place. Action sequences ensue. Good-for-you truisms come too: “there’s nothing wrong with being afraid as long as you don’t let it change who you are.” Looks like writer Chris Butler and co-director Sam Fell (“The Tale of Despereaux,” “Flushed Away”) overcame any fear they’d change the uplift agenda of almost every other animated film about eleven-year-olds made for the same. With the voices of Tucker Albrizzi, Anna Kendrick, Casey Affleck, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Leslie Mann, Jeff Garlin, Bernard Hill, Jodelle Ferland, Tempestt Bledsoe, Alex Borstein, John Goodman. 92m. (Bill Stamets)
Ray Pride is Newcity’s Senior Editor and Film Critic. He is a contributing editor of Filmmaker magazine.
Ray’s history of Chicago Ghost Signs is planned for publication next year. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram. More photography on Instagram.
Seeing The Elephant: A Review Of Babylon The boisterous, brawling yet melancholy "Babylon," is a variation on film history, but more drawing for drama. It's gaudy and mean, celebratory and sorrowful.
Heart: A Review of Soul The real world is soulful, too, in Pixar's bountiful life of the mind.
Heart of Darkness: A Review of The Batman The three-hour film noir unfolds briskly, an intensive study in the pervasive interplay of power, money and corruption in what seems like perpetual rainy night.
A Drag Getting Old: A Review Of Indiana Jones 5 In the protracted opening couple of reels, a very young, computer-crafted Harrison Ford plays a younger cultural marauder who first encounters the dull MacGuffin of the title.
This fun, if formula-bound kids’ tale employs the same snappy 3D stop-motion animation seen in “Coraline” (2009). Instead of an eleven year-old girl seeing the dead and dealing with a supernatural female, “ParaNorman” shows an eleven year-old boy doing the same. Norman (voiced by Kodi Smit-McPhee, “Let Me In,” “The Road”) is the typical outcast coping with all the usual character types, from an illiterate bully to his ditsy big sister. Our misunderstood hero is a horror film buff who watches lots of TV. On the couch sits the chatty, dotty spirit of his late grandmother (Elaine Stritch). He is a letdown to his dad. The stereotypical fat kid is his only living friend. Norman greets all his dead ones on the way to school. Note the seabird ghost strangled with a plastic six-pack holder, and the dog “run over by an animal rescue van… tragic and ironic.” Norman lives in Blithe Hollow, a New England town with the tacky tourist come-on: “A Great Place to Hang.” The 300th anniversary of a 1712 witch-hanging looms. Norman learns from his dying weird uncle that he must assume the mantle of a secret family lineage. His task is talking to the hung witch Agatha to keep her and her seven zombified jurors in their place. Action sequences ensue. Good-for-you truisms come too: “there’s nothing wrong with being afraid as long as you don’t let it change who you are.” Looks like writer Chris Butler and co-director Sam Fell (“The Tale of Despereaux,” “Flushed Away”) overcame any fear they’d change the uplift agenda of almost every other animated film about eleven-year-olds made for the same. With the voices of Tucker Albrizzi, Anna Kendrick, Casey Affleck, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Leslie Mann, Jeff Garlin, Bernard Hill, Jodelle Ferland, Tempestt Bledsoe, Alex Borstein, John Goodman. 92m. (Bill Stamets)
