PARANORMAN

(August 2012)

"Oh, man, that [old graveyard] is baaad news. It’s like, total slasher movie vibe. Why’d [Norman] go up there?”

Laika, the studio owned by Nike co-founder and Chairman Phil Knight and run by his son, Travis, brought us Henry Selick’s excellent adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline in 2009.

Coraline was nominated for Best Animated Feature Film at the 2010 Oscars* and now, Laika’s second stop-motion feature, Paranorman, is also an Oscar nominee in the same category.

Not a bad Oscar batting average, if I may say so myself.

Written by Chris Butler (who worked on storyboards for Coraline and Corpse Bride), and co-directed by Butler with Sam Fell (director of Flushed Away and The Tale of Despereaux), Paranorman is a crazy-awesome ride that horror fans should get a massive kick out of.

“It’s not supposed to be [historically accurate]! It’s supposed to sell postcards and key chains.”

Norman Babcock (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is the town freak, which is bad enough.

But when you live in a town like Blithe Hollow (“A Great Place to Hang!”), where a tragic death that happened centuries ago has become the core of its economy and tourism, and you’re someone who can actually see and speak with the dead, then it’s so.

Much.

Worse.

Blithe Hollow is a town with establishments like The Lucky Witch Casino, Trick or Trim, Hung and Dried, and Witchy Wieners, and whose denizens, sadly, look strangely at the weird kid.

And it’s a town that Norman reluctantly finds himself needing to save when the fit hits the shan.

“Son! Step away from the zombies!”

With a brilliantly stylized, off-kilter look to its world and characters and a great voice cast which includes John Goodman, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Casey Affleck, Paranorman is a funny and touching tale that is a warm, heartfelt love letter to horror fans and misfits everywhere.   

Thanx, Laika. Seriously.

This is putting all that Nike cash to awesome use.

“Perfect. Now the geeks are in charge.”

* Coraline was up against Wes Anderson’s brilliant Fantastic Mr. Fox, among others, but the 2010 Best Animated Feature Film Oscar was ultimately brought home by Pixar’s Up.

(Paranorman OS’ courtesy of impawards.com.)

AFTERTHOUGHTS (83)
THE NEW KID ON THE ANIMATION BLOCK

A film that I’ve been waiting on for quite a while now has finally been scheduled. Hoorah!
I’ve been waiting for it since it was bringing together two terribly talented fellows, Neil Gaiman and Henry Selick.
That film, if you haven’t already guessed, is Coraline.
I mean, one of Gaiman’s darkest pieces disguised as book for all ages, adapted for the big screen by the man who directed not just The Nightmare Before Christmas, but also the underrated James and the Giant Peach and Monkeybone.
Where do I sign up?

Scheduled for an Oscar-qualifying run late this year, Coraline will get a wide theatrical release on February 6, 2009.
It will be the first feature for Laika, an animation studio based in Portland, Oregon, which specializes in both CG and stop-motion feature films.
Laika (for which Selick is supervising director) is backed by Nike founder Phil Knight, who is estimated to be a billionaire nearly eight times over.
That much green is fueling not just Coraline, but also a number of other potential titles, including Here Be Monsters!, based on the Alan Snow books; Paranorman, by Coraline story chief Chris Butler, whose logline involves, “…a small town under a secret curse. Only a 13-year-old boy can keep the town from being overrun by zombies, but no one will listen to him”; and another original story concerning the origins of Halloween, by Selick and Open Season writer/producer, John Carls.


According to Laika VP of development acquisitions, Fiona Kenshole, Laika’s position in the burgeoning field of animated features puts it “…to the left of Pixar and to the right of Nightmare Before Christmas.”
That sounds like just the shot in the arm animation needs with the frightening preponderance of CG cartoons featuring cutesy talking animals gamboling about in achingly familiar fish-out-of-water plots.
Best of luck, Laika!
May the Nike swoosh be with you…

Parting shot: Among the voice talents for Coraline are Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, Ian McShane, and the brilliant Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French as Miss Forcible and Miss Spink.
I say again, “Hurrah!”

(Coraline OS’s courtesy of moviesbythebook.com and dakotafanning.free.fr.)