DVD Movie Review #6 Paranorman

Hello, I am back again. I didn't get to do much DVD watching the last week but this weekend we are remedying the situation by trying a nice horror movie marathon. This review is for the movie Paranorman. This is the movie that comes from the same people that brought us Coraline. Paranorman utilizes the same style of animation and witht eh same creepiness.

This movie stars Norman, a little boy who has the power to see ghosts much like another lovely little movie we all might know. He is of course looked at as a freak when he is at school with his only friends being outcasts much like himself. Norman quickly has adventure thrust upon him as he is asked to try and keep a witch from spreading chaos and destruction on his home town.

Unlike the last movie I reviewed Paranorman is ore about giving you light scars for children and a lot of horror movie references for people. This movie reminds me of Frankenwennie in a way as it does like to pay homage to the genre. Whereas Frankenweenie likes to pay attention to the 30s and 40s horror this one is more inclined to reference the 1960s-1980s time periods. Many of the touches are subtle and the feel is pretty good. This movie definately brings across it's point when it comes to creating a lightly creepy family friendly atmosphere. I do feel that the movie doesn't take as much time as it should to let us enjoy the character interactions and the subtlety.

The movie is a beautiful sight to enjoy showing the full range of ability by this group. I loved their interactions and work when doing Coraline and at the same time love it here as well. it is hard to believe that stop capture animation has come as far as it has. The voice acting and music are also very well done utilizing talent such as John Goodman and even leaving with a fun song sung by the voice acting staff. This is top notch in this area I am saddened that it did not take any nods in that category at the academy awards but stop capture is largely ignored in those areas.

Of course I shouldn't hold off in relation to the story. I feel that there are some nice twists on the traditional genre that are good to give the audience a little bit of extra enjoyment in the film. I really did enjoy the twist involving the zombies and the witch though it did seem to become a little predictable at the end. Don't really care too much overall as the whole comes out well. This film has managed to gain an academy award nomination for best animated feature. It surprised me when it came up but but it was a nomination well deserved.

I give this particualr movie a rating of 8/10.

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