ParaNorman
★★★

Norman is a kid who is a little obsessed with dead things. Zombies, mostly, And maybe it’s understandable, because he sees ghosts. And talks to them.

Norman’s ability may have something to do with the fact that his town has a long standing relationship with the weird. It’s famed for its witch trials, and it coming up on the 300th anniversary of the hanging of one witch… who has cursed the town. And Norman has to stop it.

It takes a long time to get all that exposition out there. But stick with it. The film gets better and better as it goes on. The second act takes the film in an unexpected direction, that ratchets the film from quirky to funny. The third builds up to a great finale, that is both scary and sweet.

There are almost no recognizable “names” in the voice cast, but you won’t notice. The real star is, of course, the animation. It’s interesting to see how far stop-motion animation has come in the last few years. The characters’ facial expressions are rivalling traditional pen and ink animation for their expressiveness.

Do not leave when the credits start to roll!