Duration: 92 min.
Rating stars: 7.5 out of 10 stars.
Released date: August 17, 2012 (U.S)
Director: Sam Fell, Chris Butler.
Written by : Chris Butler.
Movie story:
Norman is a boy takes on ghosts, zombies and grown-ups , trying to save his town from an old curse.
Movie Review:
Norman Babcock is an 11 years old boy who can speak to the dead, but no one except his eccentric new friend, Neil, believes this and he is ostracized by his family while being ridiculed and bullied by most of his peers for his seemingly strange abilities.
Then a 300-year-old witch's curse returns to haunt his small town, raising from the grave her Puritan oppressors in the form of moaning zombies, His uncle Mr. Prenderghast tells him that the vision is a sign that he soon must take up his regular ritual to protect the town.
And with zombies rising from their graves and terrifying the locals, Norman and his pals face a race against time to placate a witch who was killed in the 18th Century. As the mob moves to attack Town Hall, Norman (in frustration) temporarily drives away his companions only for them to be trapped by the mob. However, the Witch storm appears and Norman climbs the Hall's tower to desperately attempt to read the book to stop her, but the witch blasts it with lightning and causes him to fall back down into the archives.
Norman attempts to help the zombies slip away to have them guide him to Agatha's grave, but are cornered by the mob. However, Courtney, who has come to realize her brother's true abilities, heroism and task, confronts the crowd and convinces them to back off. As the witch storm rages ever more destructively,Agatha's magic separates Norman from the others and he must reach the grave on his own to save the town.
Norman finds the grave, and soon confronted by the vengeful spirit of Agatha, interacting with her in the spirit dimension. She tries to drive him away, Norman tries to convince her that even in the darkest times, there must have been someone who was kind to her. Focusing only on the tragedies and forgetting the good things in her life is what reduced her to a malevolent force devoid of her true identity.
Eventually, the girl, nicknamed Aggie, calms down at Norman's eloquence, recalling her true personality and happy memories with her mother. She is able to find a measure of peace, knowing that she is not alone and one person in the town understands her, allowing her to let go and move on to the afterlife. At that resolution, the storm dissipates, and she and the zombies all peacefully fade away. As day breaks, the town cleans up and regards Norman as a hero even when the outside media tries to explain the disturbance as merely a powerful storm. At the end, Norman watches a horror film with the ghost of his Grandmother again, and his family eagerly joins him.
ParaNorman is a film with many strengths. Stop motion animation is always a beautiful and fascinating process, and with new technological advances the filmmakers have been able to bring it to a level of detail and expression that are simply astounding.
While the scope of the story may be smaller than something like Coraline or Nightmare Before Christmas, the scale of the stop motion sets for this town are truly incredible. The film absolutely immerses you in this world that feels like a living, breathing, place. As beautiful as the animation in Brave was, ParaNorman is easily the most visually impressive film I have seen this year.
Reviewd by: Riham Adel