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Comment by Adriano Miguel Vazquez on November 4, 2012 at 8:34pm

No other animated film this year was better than this one for me. I absolutely adore this film

Comment by Hector Fernando Andrade JR. II on September 29, 2012 at 8:11am

On Saturday September 18, 2012, I went to go see the 4:20 P.M. movie presentation of ParaNorman in 2D with some friends of my mine.

Based on the movie trailers that I saw of this movie I expected ParaNorman to be a great looking stop-motion animation comedy that's unfortunately slow, unfunny and just plan scary for little kids but I was wrong.

ParaNorman was written by Chris Butler and it's somewhat based on his childhood. I thought he did a fantastic job writing this movie because I'm glad to say that ParaNorman is a wonderful looking stop-motion animated horror comedy movie that's also another one of those animated movies that are surprisingly fun, funny and entertaining.

The voice acting performances by Kody Smit-McPhee, Tucker Albrizzy, Anna Kendrick, Casey Affleck, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Jodelle Micah Ferland are very good and funny.

ParaNorman is directed by Chris Butler and Sam Fell and I thought that that they directed this movie with a fun and pretty mature touch. Sam Fell also directed another stop-motion animated movie that I love called Flushed Away.

I thought the animation of ParaNorman that was created by the animators of Laika looked as wonderful as it did for Coraline. The action scenes in the movie were funny and exicting to watch and I also like the fact that the animators made the characters in the movie look like their voice actors.

Movie composer Jon Brion created and composed some epic music for ParaNorman.

I liked the nice message in ParaNorman which is about Norman learning to appreciate his strange gifts no matter what other people think.

I would recomend ParaNorman more to teenagers and adults than to kids because not olny are the zombies scary but there is also some surprisingly funny lines involving sexual innuendo and profanity so parents might be answering their kid's questions about "The Birds and the bees" for days if they go see this movie.

Overall I thought ParaNorman was a surprisingly fun, funny, entertaining and wonderful looking stop-motion animated horror comedy movie that reminded me a lot of Shrek with the way that it's an animated movie with some humor that's aimed for both teenagers and adults than just to kids.

I give ParaNorman 4 out of 5 stars, a Full Price and I hope you enjoy ParaNorman.

Comment by Kroxigor on September 21, 2012 at 8:20pm

I'm totally buying this movie to put on at Halloween ^_^

Comment by Robert Shaw on August 28, 2012 at 3:21am

More like Para-boredom. Low rental at best. Dull, lazy filmmaking that relied too heavily on visuals. Also, the gag at the end is so obvious if you don't see it coming you weren't watching the movie.

Comment by Hector Fernando Andrade JR. II on August 25, 2012 at 11:39pm

Good review guys.

 

I'm looking forward seeing this movie because I like the story and I love the look of the animation.

Comment by KGishFish on August 25, 2012 at 10:11am

Just saw the movie! (I didn't want to listen to the review before seeing it.) I can't really disagree with you guys that some of the jokes fell flat and the middle act wasn't very strong, I still think this is a fantastic movie. I give it a full price.

Also, the character designer is Heidi Smith.

http://hesmith.blogspot.com/

Comment by Kelly on August 22, 2012 at 3:05am

@Æccentric Time Dandy

Left a comment on your page about what the joke is.

Comment by Æccentric Time Dandy on August 22, 2012 at 1:18am

ok, you guys are driving me crazy. spoilers be damned. what is this final joke that is so progressive?

Comment by Boatloads1017 on August 21, 2012 at 2:28pm

After seeing it for the third time, there's no denying ParaNorman has plenty of problems, mostly with the plotting, character development and overall writing. And yeah, it wears its liberalism on its sleeves. Also, is it just me or do they wear the same exact same clothes EVERY SINGLE SECOND OF EVERY SINGLE DAY? Yeesh, these people need a Kohl's. 

That being said, I love this movie. Unabashedly love it. I love all the little visual references they throw in, right from the get go with the opening AND the closing credits. I love how the only voices I recognized were Jeff Garlin, McLovin and John Goodman (because they're Jeff Garlin, McLovin and John Goodman) and the rest were done so well I couldn't tell you that Tempestt Bledsoe, Casey Affleck, Anna Kendrick or Jodelle Ferland (the little girl from Silent Hill and Tideland) were in it until the credits rolled. There wasn't a single moment where LAIKA's animation disappointed me. I dug the music they used, especially in the "fight" scene at the end and the credits. This is definitely one I'll be picking up on Blu-Ray for movie night with friends. 

Hell, I kinda wish there was a ParaNorman TV series, though if they put it on Disney, Nick or CN, some executive would fuck it up. Just can't have nice things anymore (Gravity Falls and Adventure Time notwithstanding).

Comment by Kelly on August 20, 2012 at 1:23pm

I did not like this movie at all. It looked like it would be fun too. I didn't have particularly high expectations going in and knew nothing about the movie but I still got disappointed.

Siding with Cyrus and Co Host, every flaw you pointed out is true, and even then I though you were a bit kind. The writing was terrible. The jokes were not funny and were mostly jokes done many times by other movies, the story meandered and was so unfocused. They took a premise that could have been really interesting and did nothing with it. The characters, both main cast and background people, were all stupid and their actions and motivations made no sense, and when they did try to explain it was utterly unconvincing.

What got to me the most was when they tried to have an emotional, character developing scene with the characters giving speeches about how they felt. Everything they said either felt like absolute bullshit or trite and uninspired. For "bullshit", among others, I'm referring to what the sister said to Norman in the town hall, without spoiling it, why was she acting that way? She already knows Norman wasn't crazy and that he really could see the dead. It made no sense, that scene was just a contrived way of getting the story to where they needed it and for inserting forced conflict, which didn't even really lead to anything, yet they presented it as this deep emotional scene. And right after they showed how easy it was for her to turn her back on him over something so petty even after knowing how important this all was, the sister and everyone else suddenly decides to turn right around and support him at the end just so they can have their heart-warming, oh-look-they-finally-came-around scene without the movie earning it. There's a big lack of any real character arc (eg: how the sister changed and finally came to understand and accept Norman) and believable motivation for the characters and any attempt was underdeveloped or insincere. Characters did stuff because the story wanted them to, and this is something I'm really tired of in movies and tv.

Which leads to another thing I didn't like about this movie, it's garbled message. I'll have to disagree with Leon, sure they wanted to have a story about acceptance and understanding, but it was done so terribly it doesn't count. In the end it jut felt like they did it because countless other stories have done it, it's cliche without any substance. You learn nothing about acceptance watching this movie other than being mean to people is bad. I'll give it some credit for not making the witch cartoony and evil (doesn't count as spoiler since review mentions it), but what they did with it still was under-developed and disappointing. As for the big special effects scene at the end, hated the dialogue, really liked the design and the visuals, but like what Cyrus said, it didn't feel like it completely made sense in the story. It could've come from another movie.

Lastly, the zombies, which judging by the poster looked like the main draw of the film, were really boring and under-used, it's as if they were just shoved into a movie originally about ghosts because zombies are trendy now. Glad you brought up Monster House, that was a fun Halloween movie that did what this movie failed at with its premise and is a much better alternative to Paranorman. All in all, this movie was full of wasted potential and decent animation wasted on a badly written story. Low rental for me.

About the "liberal" joke at the end, didn't find it inappropriate but like Co Host said, it was a throw-away gag so I didn't care for it much.

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