“ParaNorman” Movie Review. GEEZ, those ZOMBIES are HAPPILY frolicking AROUND!

“PARANORMAN” Stop-Motion 3D Animated Feature Film

PRESS PREVIEW

The average cinema goer might pop this question, “What on earth is stop motion?”

Well, any dedicated graphic artist will only be too happy to oblige with this answer:

that stop- motion is specifically, a filming technique in which a succession of objects are photographed to create the perfected impressions of “movements”.

In other words, it is the fine art of taking a series of images and then splicing these into a running series.

  Creating stop-motion animation is collectively, a painstaking, time-consuming and repetitive task that requires loads of patience.

It had been reported that the creative labor required to produce a feature like ParaNorman is massive ,that one single scene did take a year to shoot and thousand of expressions had to be  drawn.

THE PLOT?

No, love is not around this time in this spooky tale.

Rather, it is the arrival of the bizarre zombies in droves, with their unfinished businesses.

We are introduced to our  protagonist Norman Babcock (voiced by KODI SMIT-McPHEE) who is a cute yet sensitive kid with sad troubled eyes.

His spiky brown hair conveys the impression he is perpetually living in a “frightful” state.

Norman is a loner because nobody believes in him as he is the easy target of school bullies.

This, despite living with his irksome family in the New England town of Blithe Hollow that’s swarmed by aimless zombies.

Only Norman can “see” these apparitions, as he has the uncanny ability to communicate with the deceased.

Right from the beginning he knows he has to prevent the destruction of his town by by taking on the freaks, zombies and the moronic adults.

But there is only so much a young ghost whisperer can do.

The TARGET AUDIENCE?

Definitely an animated movie aimed at older kids, tweens and the adults, from the producers of  CORALINE.

ParaNorman has a darker premise and it’s more ghoulish than your average kid flick.

 Laika Entertainment is an up-and-coming brand that spins dark tales with an intention to expound life’s insightful lessons. Arresting visuals, meticulously detailed with the stop-motion animation creatively executed.

ParaNorman is in part, a professional, charming and lively work of art that speaks from the heart.

For fans of animated features, this one’s a real treat.