ParaNorman

Plot

In the small town of Blithe Hollow, Massachusetts, Norman Babcock is an 11-year-old boy who speaks with the dead, including his late grandmother and various ghosts in town. Almost no one believes him and he is isolated emotionally from his family while being ridiculed by his peers. His best friend, Neil Downe, is an overweight boy who is bullied himself and finds in Norman a kindred spirit. During rehearsal of a school play commemorating the town's execution of a witch three centuries ago, Norman has a vision of the town's past in which he is pursued through the woods by townsfolk on a witch hunt. Afterward, the boys are confronted by Norman's estranged and seemingly deranged uncle Mr. Prenderghast who tells his nephew that he soon must take up his regular ritual to protect the town. Soon after this encounter, Prenderghast dies from a sudden stroke.

During the official performance of the school play Norman has another vision, creating a public spectacle of himself which leads to his father Perry grounding him. His mother Sandra tells him that his father's stern manner is because he is afraid for him. The next day, Norman sees Prenderghast's spirit who tells him that the ritual must be performed with a certain book before sundown that day; then making him swear to complete the task, Prenderghast's spirit is set free and crosses over. Norman is at first reluctant to go because he is scared but his grandmother tells him it is all right to be scared as long as he does not let it change who he is. Norman sets off to retrieve the book from Prenderghast's house (having to take it from his corpse).

He then goes to the graves of the five men and two women who were cursed by the witch, but finds that the book is merely a series of fairy tales. Alvin, a school bully, arrives and prevents Norman from reading the story before sundown. Norman attempts to continue reading from the book, to no effect. A ghostly storm resembling the witch appears in the air, summoning the cursed dead to arise as zombies, who chase the boys along with Norman's 17-year-old sister, Courtney and Neil's older brother, Mitch down the hill and into town. Having realized that the witch was not buried in the graveyard, Norman contacts classmate Salma (who tells them to access the Town Hall's archives for the location of the witch's unmarked grave) for help. As the kids make their way to the Town Hall, the zombies are attacked by the citizenry. During the riot, Norman and his companions break into the archives but cannot find the information they need. As the mob moves to attack Town Hall, the witch storm appears over the crowd. Norman climbs the Hall's tower to read the book, in a last-ditch effort to finish the ritual, but the witch strikes the book with lightning, hurling Norman from the tower and deep into the archives.

Unconscious, Norman has a dream where he learns that the witch was Agatha Prenderghast, a little girl of his age who was also a medium. Norman realizes that Agatha was wrongfully convicted by the town council when they mistook her powers for witchcraft. After awakening, Norman encounters the zombies and recognizes them as the town council who convicted Agatha. The zombies admit that they only wanted to speak with him to ensure that he would take up the ritual, to minimize the damage of the mistake they made so long ago. Norman attempts to help the zombies slip away so they can guide him to Agatha's grave, but is cornered by the mob. Courtney, Mitch, Neil, and Alvin rally to Norman's side and confront the crowd, arguing that their rage, fear, and misunderstanding make them no different than the cursed townsfolk from long ago. Though the mob calms the witch unleashes her powers to create greater havoc throughout the town.

Judge Hopkins guides Norman's family to the grave in a forest. Before the grave is reached, Agatha's magical powers separate Norman from the others. Norman finds the grave and interacts with Agatha's vengeful spirit, determined to stop the cataclysmic tantrum she has been having over the years. Though she attempts to push him away Norman holds his ground, telling her that he understands how she feels as an outcast, that her vengeance has only made her like the ones who wronged her, and eventually forcing her to remember happier days. Having finally encountered someone who understands her plight, Agatha is able to find a measure of peace and cross over to the afterlife. The storm dissipates, and she and the zombies all fade away. The town cleans up and regards Norman as a hero. In the end, Norman watches a horror film with the ghost of his grandmother and his family, who have grown to accept Norman for who he is.

Voice cast

Kirk Baily, Cam Clarke, Lara Cody, Eddie Frierson, Rif Hutton, Edie Mirman and David Zyler as Blithe Hollow townspeople

Production

The idea of the film came from Chris Butler, who, realizing that the zombie films, often contained a degree of social commentary, thought making such a movie for kids, could help express the challenges kids face growing up.

Production of the stop-motion animation feature took place at Laika's studio in Hillsboro, Oregon. The film was in production for three years with the animating stage of production lasting about two years, beginning in late 2009. Rather than using traditional 3D format cameras, the studio used sixty Canon EOS 5D Mark II DSLR cameras to film the movie. Ad agency Wieden+Kennedy created the advertising campaign for the film. ParaNorman is the first ever stop motion film to utilize full-color 3D printers for replacement animation, after Coraline pioneered and popularized the use of black and white 3D printers, which sped up puppet production considerably and allowed the team to make the large number of puppet faces required for the film. "Quite often it’s the stop-motion movies that are more out there", co-director Fell told The New York Times. "They're a little quirkier, they're a little harder to pin down."

Soundtrack

Jon Brion composed the film's score, and an accompanying soundtrack album was released on August 14, 2012. Bits of other music appear in the film, including theme music from Halloween, the Donovan song "Season of the Witch" (sung by the school play cast) and "Fix Up, Look Sharp" by British rapper Dizzee Rascal. "Little Ghost", a White Stripes song from their 2005 album Get Behind Me Satan, plays at the end, over character cards identifying the main cast. However, one track in the film (an updated version of "Aggie Fights") was not included in the soundtrack.

Home media

ParaNorman was released on DVD and Blu-ray, on November 27, 2012 by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.

Critical response

ParaNorman received largely positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 87% of critics have given the film positive reviews, with a rating average of 7.3/10 based on 160 reviews. The consensus statement reads, "Beautifully animated and solidly scripted, ParaNorman will entertain (and frighten) older children while providing surprisingly thoughtful fare for their parents." Another review aggregator, Metacritic, calculated a score of 72 based on 33 reviews, or "generally favorable reviews". Justin Chang of Variety reviewed the film: "Few movies so taken with death have felt so rudely alive as ParaNorman, the latest handcrafted marvel from the stop-motion artists at Laika." On the other hand, Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter said: "It has its entertaining moments, but this paranormal stop-motion animated comedy-chiller cries out for more activity."

Box office

ParaNorman earned $56,003,051 in North America, and $51,136,348 overseas, for a worldwide total of $107,139,399. The film premiered in Mexico on August 3, 2012 opening in second place with box office receipts of $2.2 million, behind The Dark Knight Rises. For its opening weekend in North America, the film placed third with receipts of $14 million behind The Expendables 2 and The Bourne Legacy. Travis Knight, head of the studio that produced the film, believed the box office total was fine, but that it did not live up to his expectations.

Gay character

The film has drawn some attention for the revelation in its final scenes that Mitch is gay, making him the first openly gay character in a mainstream animated film. Nancy French of the National Review Online suggested that the film could lead parents "to answer unwanted questions about sex and homosexuality on the way home from the movie theater". Conversely, Mike Ryan of The Huffington Post cited Mitch's inclusion as one of the reasons why ParaNorman is "remarkable". Co-director Chris Butler said that the character was explicitly connected with the film's message: "If we're saying to anyone that watches this movie don't judge other people, then we've got to have the strength of our convictions." In 2013 GLAAD nominated ParaNorman as its first-ever PG-rated movie for its annual GLAAD Media Awards.