ParaNorman-2012

Director Chris Butler, Sam Fell

Starring Kodi Smit-McPhee, Anna Kendrick

Scott’s Review #453

Reviewed July 23, 2016

Grade: B+

ParaNorman (2012) is a highly imaginative and very enjoyable, animated film that I admired a great deal.

Creative colors and images are key and the film is stop-motion.

Despite being animated it is not a kid’s movie but rather geared toward the teenager or older demographic.

It is among the strongest, along with Frankenweenie, a similar type film, of the five nominated films for Best Animated feature, in the year 2012.

ParaNorman is so similar to Frankenweenie that they could almost be simultaneously reviewed or watched on the same day.  Both center around an isolated young male coping with his surroundings and both contain a light horror feel to them.

In ParaNorman, an army of zombies invades a small, suburban town, and our hero, Norman, a strange young man who can communicate with the dead, must save the day.

The film contains sympathetic peers, but the adults in the film present various obstacles.

I have gone on record as being not much of an animated film fan, but I do view the best of each year and this one impressed me immensely.

Oscar Nominations: Best Animated Feature Film