Stars the voices of Kodi Smit-McPhee, Anna Kendrick, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse. Directed by Chris Butler and Sam Fell, from a script by Fell. 93 minutes. Rated PG. Critic’s grade: B+
Norman (Kodi Smit-McPhee) sees dead people. In particular, the boy, a horror-loving social outcast dubbed a “freak” by his schoolmates, routinely talks to his supportive grandmother (Elaine Stritch) and can’t go down the street without having conversations with the spirits of local neighbors, a suicide victim, a leather-jacketed tough, and even a dog that met its untimely end thanks to a passing car.
The kid treats all the paranormal activity as just another trial of adolescence, something he has to put up with alongside an annoying, constantly primping older sister Courtney (Anna Kendrick), disbelieving parents (Jeff Garlin and Leslie Mann) and the mean and pimply school bully Alvin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse).
In the context of his hometown, Norman’s visions, in “ParaNorman,” don’t seem so out of place: Everyone in the 300-year-old Blithe Hollow, built on a tourist industry based on a local legend concerning a witch, seems to turn out for the local school’s production of “The Witch’s Curse.”
Respect and a little redemption comes Norman’s way courtesy of his crazy, mysterious Uncle Prendherghast (John Goodman), who, before dying, has a secret for the kid: “The witch’s curse is real, and you’re the one who has to stop it,” he says. Leading a gang of kids, including chubby friend Neil (Tucker Albrizzi), sis, Alvin, and Alvin’s gym-rat older brother Mitch (Casey Affleck), Norman plots to end the curse. Along the way the gang encounters a frightening graveyard, overeager Puritans, zombies, torch-bearing townspeople, and that would-be scary witch.
The bristles of Prenderghast’s massive beard represent just one image/texture that comes alive in the hands of co-directors Chris Butler and Sam Fell, wielding a brand of stop-motion 3D magic that also lifted the visual wizardry of “Coraline.” Butler, the new film’s screenwriter, was the storyboard supervisor on “Coraline,” and both movies were made at the same studio, Laika.
Young viewers undoubtedly will be captured by the slightly scary story, while the older set will be taken by the handcrafted look and feel of the film, and its references to everything from the “Scooby-Doo” cartoon series to vintage B-grade horror and the likes of “Friday the 13th”; the theme from the latter’s soundtrack is the ringtone on Norman’s phone. Positive, uplifting messages — the power of forgiveness, tolerance for others — abound, too. “ParaNorman” counts as one of the most intriguing achievement animations of the year, so far.