ParaNorman (2012)

Boring

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

It's very basic and nowhere near as good as Coraline, but is still worth watching. The one thing that really stands out is having the witch be a little girl who was simply misunderstood and treated unfairly. She was an interesting "villain" with a satisfying resolution. This movie gets 73%.

This movie really introduced me to Laika; even though I had seen Coraline earlier, this was the movie that had me doing research.Norman represents every kid with a weird talent or hobby in a small town. He's literally ostracized by an entire town, including his own father, yet he understands that some people just don't have the mental capacity to not fear something different. He's told to not be a freak or weirdo by people who don't even bother to learn about him. He's the Harry Potter of this town of Dursley's.Dealing with death, hopelessness, bullying, and forgiveness/acceptance, this movie creates a real world of monsters and ghosts. It presents a movie where the true evil is bigotry, bystanders, and herd mentality. It's the 13 Reasons of 2012, yet flew under the radar. A girl was murdered, cursed the town, and in the end, is set free by realizing that scared fools make rash decisions, and by being hateful and angry, she became a fool herself.I give it a 10 out of 10, because it presents a kid who doesn't have to be a hero to a bunch of jerks (who don't even learn a lesson outside the dad) but he does, because he's a good person. There's no reward or admiration, he just gets a friend and father who no longer hates him. The real, underwhelming, reality of being a hero.

Paranorman (2012): Dir: Chris Butler, Sam Fell / Voices: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Tucker Albrizzi, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, John Goodman, Jodelle Ferland: While the theme of normality facing the extreme and dangerous may sound appealing, the whole idea of selling the living dead and the occult to a family audience just demonstrates how desensitized society has gone. Zombies and corpses have no place in a family film. This is the sort of material that George A. Romero made famous in hard core films for adults. The plot is a mess at best with a likable young hero named Norman who has the ability to see and communicate with the dead. This is suppose to be funny but in a family film it just comes off as disturbing. There are only two characters of interest. Viewers may relate somewhat to Norman who must prevent a witch's curse by reading a book. Maybe he should read the script of a better film to heighten the witch's interest. His chubby friend from school adds a bit of enthusiasm that is also welcome. Other characters are dull including an over the top bully whom we know will become best chums with Norman by film's end. The parents are the usual sort who do not understand their son. Norman's sister is the usual uptight cheerleader type. Then there is the crazy uncle who must pass a message on to Norman. Plus there is the spirit of the girl who lived in a time where viewing this film would be considered punishable by death. The ads stress the importance of being yourself despite being different but its subject matter isn't the normal animated thrill it is intended. Forget Norman and go for Monsters Inc. Score: 4 / 10

I really wanted to like this as I enjoy this type of animation.I feel like the trailers and marketing for this movie were very misleading. It wasn't at all what I was expecting. It didn't seem to be geared to either children or adults - it felt like it didn't know what sort of audience it wanted to target, and so it ended up missing the mark on all counts.It was very slow and tedious...there were some amusing bits here and there mixed with a whole lot of depressing :( Overall I couldn't wait for it to end.