First and foremost I want you all to go and read this article on ParaNorman written by a mother who wants to protect her children perhaps a little too much http://www.ksl.com/?nid=1009&sid=21853344. Now, I wish to state that I disagree with this person in nearly every respect except for one and I'll get to that in a moment, but I need a few seconds to rage against this article. She gives herself a 0 at the beginning and think that pretty much sums her up.
How dare some one say that they didn't like a movie on simple basis that they paid money for it! The internet is there and its still more than easy to pirate any movie, so I don't want to hear anyone say "The movie was great except for the price tag meh!" But I digress, lets talk about what she did right.
While watching the film, I was laughing and enjoying myself. The humor was fairly innocent with a few older brother/sister jokes thrown in. The filmed, once watched, seemed more directed toward families and not just kids. As an uncle, I get to hang out with my nephew on occasion. We like to watch movies and TV. But more often than not I want to gouge my eyes and rip my ears off because I can't stand Dora la Exploradora (she's latin so deal with it). Movies like ParaNorman make life easier on parents and those chaperoning their kids or younger brothers. The above article did at least get one thing on the spot though, its definitely not aimed towards kids.
As I said the movie remains mostly innocent, until the twist comes, the real twist. The first twist isn't too surprising, but the second and more important twist...gets into some pretty heavy stuff. The woman who wrote the article picked her critiques very poorly. The curse words in the film, for the most part, don't detract from the film (except for one and yeah, its kinda dumb). The butt slap is meant to lighten the mood, since right before that the heavy twist happens (I don't want to say what it is, since it is genius, but its some serious stuff). The homosexual thing as well. Its really not as big a deal as she makes it out to be, since so much other stuff is happening!
Strafing away from the story and characters for a moment, the film is beautifully animated. I'm glad that the motion capture people went through all the trouble they did to make this movie. It looks simply amazing. Even if you think the plot is dumb and over used, go and see it for the animation alone. It takes a lot of work to make these kinds of movies (my knowledge of the process is limited to about this episode of South Park).
After the dice have rolled, the number 8 out of 10 shows up. Its visually fantastic and wonderfully voiced. The moral, although overused, is shined through a slightly different lens to offer new perspectives. The movie does get knocked down a few points for being, slightly more than slightly disturbing at points. If it had been a little more, coy, about it (like Dark Crystal mostly avoiding the whole Genocide of the Gelflings) then I might have liked it more. Its definitely worth at least a rental, if not buying.
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