At its heart, ParaNorman is a movie about belonging, friendship, community, and forgiveness, celebrating what makes us human in life and in death.
From The Isle of Dogs to My Life as a Zucchini and Fantastic Mr Fox, stop-motion animation has given us some of the most creative films of the past twenty years. Alongside British-based Aardman, one studio has led the way: Laika, the Oregon-based studio behind Coraline, The Corpse Bride, and the beautiful and brilliant ParaNorman.
Released in 2012, ParaNorman celebrates the classic monster movies of the Universal era while paying homage to Steven Spielberg, Joe Dante, and Chris Columbus. But more importantly, ParaNorman would proudly state that weirdness and difference are cool, embracing a core message of diversity and belonging.
The story begins with a geeky homage to 1970s and 1980s cinema—a movie-within-a-movie that quickly cuts to Norman and his Grandmother sitting in front of the TV. However, Norman’s Grandma has been dead for some time, and as young Norman Babcock (Kodi Smit-McPhee) casually chats with her spirit, we quickly learn he has a rare and beautiful talent.
As Norman watches the trashy zombie movie on the TV, his spectral Grandma shows a keen interest in the action, asking, “What’s happening now?” Norman replies, “Well, the zombie is eating her head, Grandma.” His Grandma keeps knitting her spectral top before saying, “He’s gonna ruin his dinner. I’m sure if they just bothered to sit down and talk it through, it’d be a different story.” This segment summarises the movie’s core: a celebration of mortality, difference, and eternal love.
At its heart, ParaNorman is a movie about belonging, friendship, community, and forgiveness, celebrating what makes us human in life and in death. Beautiful, captivating, and funny, with a stunning score by Jon Brion, ParaNorman celebrates everything that makes us unique in a world that often wants us to be the same.
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