Animation Quick Review: ParaNorman

ParaNorman is made by the same studio that brought us Coraline. And from a technical standpoint when it comes to animation, ParaNorman didn't disappoint. The designs had a very over exaggerated feel (dem thighs!) and a A-symmetrical feel to it. The animation was pretty much fluid with no random moments of change in frame rate which happened once or twice in Coraline. But even with that, from the first act of the movie I wasn't that impressed.

 I didn't feel all that interested in the story. Yeah that's a bit odd to say. I mean how can a movie about a boy who can see and talk to the dead be boring. Well it can't. It wasn't boring. But for me at first it wasn't impressive. I can't say the characters were bland. Each had a personality that didn't come of as too extreme nor all that reserved. What was good about the first act however were the creepy scenes. They were pretty effective. Very creative in the animation and genuinely felt scary.

 But despite all the good things about them, I still didn't really care all that much.I couldn't explain it either. What about this film wasn't impressing me? I had no clue. For some reason I was bored with the film.

That was until the twist about the witch was revealed.

I would not dare spoil what the twist is. The way it was presented plus the complete horror of what was revealed about the witch was so shocking to me that I could do nothing but sit up in my chair and lean to the edge of my seat giving the film my full attention. And it's from this moment that the film suddenly made sense to me. What the underlying message was in this film, what type of story it was trying to make. I got it. And when I suddenly realized what that was, I began to highly appreciate this film.Suddenly the dire situation of the threat of the film had purpose and meaning to it. It made the climax of the battle between Norman and the Witch that much more engaging. All this leading to the movies well deserved "quiet moment" had me moved.

And..that's all I can say about this film. I normally don't talk about some films in such vague details but I felt like keeping this to a simple spoiler free review. I wan't people to see this film because it has a very deep message about acceptance.