Movie Review: ParaNorman

I can't sit through the Mike Myers Cat in the Hat movie. Just can't, I get to the part when Mike actually shows up, I stop paying attention, I fall asleep, and I don't wake up again until things get really loud and inexplicably colorful. I tried watching it again, same exact thing happened. I can watch the Jim Carrey Grinch film though and I used to think it was weird that I could watch one but not the other until I tried watching an episode of an old kids show I used to love called KaBlam! Same thing, couldn't pay attention, almost fell asleep; but this was a show that I used to watch. Tested Rocko's Modern Life, able to pay attention; that was when I truly learned the difference between kids stuff and family friendly stuff. Thank goodness ParaNorman is "family friendly stuff."

FILM
ParaNorman is about a kid who sees dead people and has to stop them after a witches curse starts bringing them back to life. What's so great about the film is how dark and progressive the humor is, from beginning to end I couldn't stop thinking to myself, "I can't believe they actually said/did that." See, a kids film panders to kids, it'll be filled with humor that only kids will laugh at and plots only a kid would care about. Cat in the Hat is a kids film, KaBlam was a kids show, it's the type of material only a really conservative family would call family friendly. You know the type of family: don't let their kids watch TV and even have parental blocks on their OWN television. Family friendly stuff understands that an adult is watching the film too and so it's structured more around that. Sure, it'll be filled with kids jokes and the likes but it tends to be packed full of more adult related humor. ParaNorman is that kind of film, Rocko's Modern Life is that kind of show. Seriously, I can't watch Rocko's Modern Life the same way I did when I was a kid because I've passed a point of intelligence that allows me to understand adult stuff and let me tell you: Rocko's Modern Life is super perverted and raunchy. ParaNorman isn't along the perverted/raunchy adult humor lines but it is along the dark humor lines as I mentioned, so many jokes are the type of jokes you'd feel bad for saying at a funeral. That's what I love about the film, how awesomely messed up it could be.

VOICE ACTING
It's also a pretty well done stop motion animation film with some pretty good voice acting. In my opinion, good voice acting makes you wonder who voiced the part or makes you think the person chosen to voice the part was perfect for it. Anna Kendrick, Casey Affleck, and even John Goodman fall into that first category. Goodman's character sounded familiar throughout the film but I couldn't quite place who it was until the credits. Jeff Garlin falls into the second category, his voice is fitting as the overweight dad of Norman. Christopher Mintz-Plasse, however, is a terrible voice actor, but that's probably because he has such a recognizable and probably hard to cover up kind of voice.

AUDIENCE
Yup, I've got a comment to say about the audience, it's been a while since I've mentioned them. If you go see the film, be prepared for the possibility of an annoying kid or two. We had one in our audience. Throughout the entire film this little girl with the loudest laugh I've ever heard kept making comments toward the film, the parents shh'ed her though. It also wasn't until everyone was leaving that I noticed it wasn't a little girl at all, it was a boy. Poor kid, voice like that may give him a crappy childhood, although I'd bet money he grows up to have the voice of Morgan Freeman or the movie trailer guy.

FINALLY
I'd say this was a pretty good film. It's good for the whole family. It's also especially good for fans of the horror fiction genre. I didn't mention this in the film paragraph, but the film is packed full of references to classic horror films. I'll give this film a solid B, see it if you get the chance, it's worth the watch.