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In theatres today: ParaNorman

Carly dives into the world of the new animated zombie comedy.

By Carly Deziel
In theatres today: ParaNorman

Photo courtesy of Alliance Films.

Fans of the 2009 first-ever 3D stop-motion animated tale, Coraline, will be even more blown away with the studios newest release, ParaNorman. This visually stunning film takes clay animation to a whole new experience.

The Premise:
ParaNorman is set in the town of Blithe Hollow, where the locals profit from mining the town’s history as the site of a famous witch hunt 300 years ago. Eleven-year-old Norman Babcock (voiced by Kodi Smit-McPhee) spends much of his days appreciating the finer points of scary movies and studying ghost lore. In fact, Norman is gifted with the ability to see and speak with the dead, such as his beloved, but deceased, grandmother. Most days, he prefers their company to that of his ignorant father (Jeff Garlin), spacey mother (Leslie Mann) and deeply superficial older sister, Courtney (Anna Kendrick). But when Norman’s town comes under attack by a curse from a dead witch, it’s up to Norman to bravely summon up all the elements that make a hero — courage and compassion — as he finds his paranormal activities pushed to their otherworldly limits.

What we loved:
Despite this being a spooky tale on the outside — filled with ghost, goblins and zombie characters who will likely freak out your little ones — at the core of this film is a truly touching story of friendship, accepting differences and overcoming fears. For parents there is plenty of witty humour and dialogue throughout this entire movie that will have you entertained from start to finish.

Parental advisory:
As noted above there are definitely some scary characters and, unless your little people in the house are not easily scared, I would recommend this flick is for kids eight years old and up.

Canadian Rating: PG

This article was originally published on Aug 17, 2012

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