(no subject)
Sometimes I do this thing where after I watch a movie I liked I go read a bunch of reviews of it and then my feelings are magnified 2000%. This is pretty much what is happening with ParaNorman! It does not hurt that I have found the end credits song "Little Ghost" on YouTube and am listening to it on repeat. It's a good song, okay.
This movie is just--at this point I'm almost blind to kids' cartoons being a bit darker/weirder than you'd expect, because if that happens a lot then it is not really unexpected, is it. Tim Burton's been doing that for decades, after all. But Tim Burton's darkness doesn't really add anything beyond a cool mood. ParaNorman, on the other hand, manages to keep an undercurrent of not-quite-"child-friendly" emotion throughout the movie, coming to a crescendo when you realize a kids' movie just made a plot point of a rather horrible spoilery thing. There's dark, and there's "are you sure this movie is PG?".
Moreover, I don't think I've seen any other kids' movie where the main character spends 80% of it being absolutely miserable; no wonder everyone who sees the movie wants to give him a hug, because god does he need it. He doesn't even make a big deal about it, and no one really comments on it, either. He's just accepted it as a part of his life. Needs hugs. (And also needs to hang out with Dipper, Mabel, Coraline, Wybie, Raz, Lily, and all the other kids in everything ever, apparently. Is "Mystery Crew" what they're calling it? Whatever, it'd do Norman good to have multiple friends.)
When I was a kid, I had kind of a retrospectively creepy interest in stuff where guys were terrified and in mortal peril. I suspect younger-me would have watched this movie ten thousand times. When a character's default state is "cute and miserable"...
Basically I am just trying to say that this is kind of an awesome movie, especially once you've had the opportunity to think about it. If it is available for viewing where you live, you should go see it! If nothing else, you can stare slack-jawed at how amazing the animation is. Apparently they built over 800 faces for Norman alone? Damn.
This movie is just--at this point I'm almost blind to kids' cartoons being a bit darker/weirder than you'd expect, because if that happens a lot then it is not really unexpected, is it. Tim Burton's been doing that for decades, after all. But Tim Burton's darkness doesn't really add anything beyond a cool mood. ParaNorman, on the other hand, manages to keep an undercurrent of not-quite-"child-friendly" emotion throughout the movie, coming to a crescendo when you realize a kids' movie just made a plot point of a rather horrible spoilery thing. There's dark, and there's "are you sure this movie is PG?".
Moreover, I don't think I've seen any other kids' movie where the main character spends 80% of it being absolutely miserable; no wonder everyone who sees the movie wants to give him a hug, because god does he need it. He doesn't even make a big deal about it, and no one really comments on it, either. He's just accepted it as a part of his life. Needs hugs. (And also needs to hang out with Dipper, Mabel, Coraline, Wybie, Raz, Lily, and all the other kids in everything ever, apparently. Is "Mystery Crew" what they're calling it? Whatever, it'd do Norman good to have multiple friends.)
When I was a kid, I had kind of a retrospectively creepy interest in stuff where guys were terrified and in mortal peril. I suspect younger-me would have watched this movie ten thousand times. When a character's default state is "cute and miserable"...
Basically I am just trying to say that this is kind of an awesome movie, especially once you've had the opportunity to think about it. If it is available for viewing where you live, you should go see it! If nothing else, you can stare slack-jawed at how amazing the animation is. Apparently they built over 800 faces for Norman alone? Damn.