Watch This: ParaNorman

Movie Poster for ParaNorman

Earlier, I received a call from my friend Jodi and she told me that she was in town nearby. So I of course left my Dad with the puppy, because my Mom was out doing her own thing, and told him that I was going to meet up with my friend! In honesty, it is not every day that a friend comes up from southern Colorado and wants to talk. I take every chance I get. Anyway, we meet up at a sandwich show and spend the next half-hour or so catching up and having a great time with her baby niece (9 months old for those that are curious). Then her sister-in-law comes and picks up her niece and we go about our day continuing to converse and have a great time.

After about an hour of hanging out in a coffee-shop / bookstore, I asked Jodi if she wanted to come home and see the puppy. She could not refuse such an offer (which I knew) and so we went back to my parent's home where we talked some more and played with the puppy. Then we came inside and decided to go and see a movie. Except nothing was really out that caught our eyes, so we decided to do a go to the theater and choose idea. What we ended up watching was ParaNorman, which was a surprising movie to say the least!

ParaNorman [2012]

So as you might expect from the title of this movie (which I will also admit is a little bit confusing), this is a children's movie about a boy named Norman that has a sixth sense, a paranormal ability. See, he can see the ghosts of people that have passed away and not moved on to the next world, and the movie revolves around how that affects his life and his friends, how it makes him seem when the town watches him talking to people that are not there, and of course the overall story. Oh yeah, and this is all done through claymation stop-motion.

The Trailer for ParaNorman

Let me begin by first saying the animation, stop-motion, or whatever you want to call it is impressive in this film. They take some of the scenes and really push the clay to its limits with stunning visual effects that are both astounding and awesome to watch. And you can tell that a lot of time and effort when into this, because after the film finishes and the credits have rolled, they give you a VERY short view into just making the character Norman as well as how long it takes to make him move in a very basic manner. How they show this is through actually building the character in front of your eyes from beginning to end using stop-motion the entire way, and then make him jump up and walk off screen. So do not leave after the credits if you want to see this interesting little scene. But beyond that, take that simple, time-consuming task of making him walk off screen and apply it to the rest of the movie. It truly was baffling and the animation was impressive for how many frames they had to do for a single second. Personally, my favorite part of the stop-motion animation was the finale battle that happens, which was both stunningly done and the animation was impressively perfected. 

Second, the characters that they develop in this story are also very interesting and very unique. They all have their own little quirks and when it all comes together, what you get is an interesting, funny tale about a kid with paranormal abilities as he battles the ghouls on a certain night. I just wanted to point out that while at first you may not like some of the characters, you will definitely grow to enjoy each and every one of their performances in this movie. I think my personal favorite character was the crazy uncle who was voiced by the ever-talented John Goodman. But still, the funniest moments come from the things these characters do and the actions that go along with their words.

The only part of this movie that I felt was a bit dull was both the music and timing of everything. Some scenes that held very little interest dragged on for some time and I felt they could have been sped-up to give the overall feel of the movie more time for the jokes or special effects. Other times I felt that the scene just would not end as they repeated a point that was quite obvious and did not need to be repeated in its own diverse scene. But beyond that, the only reason I probably even noticed that the movie was dragging was the lack of music during certain scenes. I am not saying this movie does not have music, but it sort of lacks the effects of a grand composer working to make every scene magical and mystical with a tune in the background. With that said, there are still some times where the music was perfect, complimenting a joke or going along with the feel, it was just those other scenes that I felt needed a bit of a touch-up.

At any rate, if you are a Nightmare Before Christmas fan and love the darker comedy sorts, if you enjoy kids movies that hold a lot of jokes that adults will get a kick out of, or if you want to just watch some impressive stop-motion claymation, then this might just be the movie for you. So go out and give it a try!

The Spotted Canvas uses the ParaNorman promotional media but is not endorsed or certified by LAIKA, Inc. All of the ParaNorman logos and trademarks displayed on this website are the property of LAIKA, Inc.