When I saw Brave earlier this year, I felt underwhelmed about the light tone, the slapstick and mediocre plot. Paranorman had none of this.
The movie picks a dark tone to stick with, unlike Brave, and it pays off with having a Crap Sack World where the bullying of Norman at home and school is realistic but the filmmakers made the world look great and very visually interesting. The character designs lose the Tim Burton-esque designs and gains a creative edge for face work and designs.
Plot-wise, the film is very unique. The anvil of "Treating people like monsters and freaks makes them monsters and freaks later in life" is subtle but rings very true. Norman is a good protagonist who doesn't indulge in Wangst but is realistically bitter. The rest of the characters first come off as stereotypes but gain alot of good character jokes and development. The zombies, I really loved because of how pathetic they were as monsters, you just felt bad that they were getting pummeled by the townspeople. I really liked that they weren't traditional zombies, just more Jerk Ass Woobie mixed with Punch Clock Villain. The Witch was good character too, really the only one I didn't like was Norman's asshole father (I wished he would just get punched in the face).
The humor was really terrific, really pushed the PG rating and it payed off. I fully recommend it, 5 out of 5.
Loved this so much!
When I saw Brave earlier this year, I felt underwhelmed about the light tone, the slapstick and mediocre plot. Paranorman had none of this.
The movie picks a dark tone to stick with, unlike Brave, and it pays off with having a Crap Sack World where the bullying of Norman at home and school is realistic but the filmmakers made the world look great and very visually interesting. The character designs lose the Tim Burton-esque designs and gains a creative edge for face work and designs.
Plot-wise, the film is very unique. The anvil of "Treating people like monsters and freaks makes them monsters and freaks later in life" is subtle but rings very true. Norman is a good protagonist who doesn't indulge in Wangst but is realistically bitter. The rest of the characters first come off as stereotypes but gain alot of good character jokes and development. The zombies, I really loved because of how pathetic they were as monsters, you just felt bad that they were getting pummeled by the townspeople. I really liked that they weren't traditional zombies, just more Jerk Ass Woobie mixed with Punch Clock Villain. The Witch was good character too, really the only one I didn't like was Norman's asshole father (I wished he would just get punched in the face).
The humor was really terrific, really pushed the PG rating and it payed off. I fully recommend it, 5 out of 5.