ParaNorman| B+
Being
the weird kid sucks. Yes, the rise of the Internet and fanboy culture has
allowed adult geeks to inherit, if not the Earth, then a goodly portion of pop
culture, but the ugly truth of the playground still remains: Nerds are not
welcome.
Norman
Babcock (voiced by Kodi Smit-McPhee) is an unfortunate member of that caste,
making him an outcast and a target for the school bully, Alvin (Christopher
Mintz-Plasse). Lonely, sullen and preoccupied with the supernatural (zombies in
particular), Norman’s the freak no one wants to be around — not his classmates,
not his father (Jeff Garlin) and certainly not his teenage sister Courtney
(Anna Kendrick). But Norman’s preoccupation with the dead isn’t just a gruesome
hobby, it’s a life-calling. Like Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense,
he can see and talk to ghosts. But unlike Shyamalan’s haunted drama, Norman’s interactions are mostly benign. That is, until his weird uncle, Mr. Prenderghast
(John Goodman), starts talking about a witch’s curse. Soon the town is fighting
off zombies and Norman is the only one who can break the spell. Teamed with his
new best friend Neil (Tucker Albrizzi), Alvin, his sister, and Neil’s older
brother Mitch (Casey Affleck), the village oddball must become its savior and
hero.
While
ParaNorman‘s script won’t win any awards for originality, its
handcrafted look and heartfelt execution is simply first-rate. Oregon-based
Laika animation studio follows up its sublime stop-action adaptation of Neil
Gaiman’s Coraline with yet another tale of an alienated child who is
assisted by ghostly characters to solve a spooky mystery. But instead of
unnerving adolescent viewers with the dark truths that challenge childhood
innocence, co-directors Chris Butler (who also wrote the script) and Sam Fell (Flushed
Away) opt for a lighter tone. Diluting the more serious underpinnings of
their story with eccentric humor, frenetic chase scenes and a sumptuously
cinematic style that clever capitalizes on the look and feel of classic horror
films, the filmmakers keep everything decidedly family-friendly.
And
from an entertainment point of view, the approach makes sense. Despite its box
office success, Coraline‘s macabre sensibility was a tough sell to many
tikes. ParaNorman opts for a kinder, gentler plan of attack. Still, it’s
a shame the script’s more ambitious ideas weren’t better integrated into the
story. While kids will have no trouble understanding the film’s message that we
should look past the things that scare us to see what is really going on,
Butler daringly touches on America’s murderously reactionary past. Using the
witch trial past of the story’s town (smartly called Blithe Hollow), he
confronts a community’s need to come to terms with the sins of its forefathers
and the institutional lies that continue today. Though ParaNorman muddles its way through a rather derivative setup, its conclusion is both
chilling and sad, treating both its characters and the audience with respect.
Death is depicted as the real deal, and its implications are handled with both
gravity and sensitivity.
From a visual standpoint, ParaNorman has set the bar for
stop-action animation. The detailed character designs and stylized art
direction are nothing short of tremendous, and the 3-D is just icing on the
cake. The voice cast is similarly wonderful, making you forget you’re watching
animated puppets. Goodman is the standout, chewing up the mic with crazed
gusto, but whoever decided to cast Tucker Albrizzi as Neil deserves a raise. As
the chubby kid with a rock-solid backbone, his character is endlessly amusing
and endearing.
A
moment of praise is also warranted for Jon Brion’s shrewd and spirited score,
which subverts horror genre expectations even as it heightens ParaNorman‘s
emotions. Brion transitioned from writing and producing pop music (the Grays,
Aimee Mann, Rufus Wainwright, Fiona Apple) to composing movie soundtracks, and
his output has been impressive, providing scores for films such as Magnolia,
Punch Drunk Love and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Don’t
let the lackluster trailers turn you off, ParaNorman pushes the
boundaries of what a kid’s movie can be. Striking a remarkable balance between
eerie suspense and goofball horror, it boasts richly detailed visuals and meticulously
crafted animation. More importantly, it has real heart.
This article appears in Aug 15-21, 2012.