ParaNorman (2012)

 

Chances are this is the best stop motion animated movie you have never seen and that is a real shame. Marketing for this one was absolutely horrendous and a lot of people don't even seem to be aware this movie exists.

They absolutely should. It is - like pretty much every Laika production - wonderful. Maybe it felt a bit too scary for the younger audience, but in truth: this is not a scary movie in the true horror sense. It pokes fun at tropes, has a field day with references to the classics of horror and yet, in the end it is a story about kids that don't fit in but manage to save the day in spite of what everyone thinks.

Norman seems like a regular kid, but he loves to watch cheesy zombiemovies and has long talks with his grandmother. The only strange thing is that his grandmother has been dead for several years. But Norman can actually see and talk to ghosts, something his family doesn't get and why he is considered a weirdo both at home and especially at school.

One day, his estranged and quite crazy uncle delivers the message that Norman needs to read from a book in order to break the witch's curse, as their little hometown thrives on witch-related 'tourism' stemming from a long lost time when they actually sentenced a witch to death. Things go a bit awry, and five zombies emerge and stumble into town. 

Now Norman has to try and not only bring order back to the town, but also attempt to soothe/stop the witch from destroying everything.

But again: things are not always what they seem...

Just like with 'Coraline' or 'Kubo', this movie looks gorgeous. They went for a very colourful palette yet again and the bright, almost neon-green used for the ghosts and zombie-related stuff works really well. The dialogues are fun and what especially feels fun and refreshing is that a lot of the characters are completely different than what one would expect of them. There is a lot of subversion of tropes and it only makes it all the more enjoyable. 

Also: every shot is eyecandy and they have done great things with camera-angles and moves. It's insanely impressive at times. 

Now, I won't give away spoilers for this one, as especially the ending tugs really hard on the heartstrings, but suffice to say this is one animated feature that deserves a lot more love, so go ahead and discover it as soon as you can.