Film Review - Paranorman (2013)

Paranorman is a stop motion animated horror film and has Kodi Smit-McPhee as the voice of Norman, a young boy who has the ability to talk to the dead but when an ancient curse threatens his home town, he faces a Whyalla wipe-out right there on his home turf and could shock him right out of his brain.

I went into Paranorman with a sense of mixed feelings as the last couple of years have only produced average results for animated movies, would this film be the one to break the spell or continue the curse of the genre.

Well, happily this is the film that has broken the drought as it is a real delight from start to finish, the film has a great sense of humour, a real love of the genre, great writing and characterization and a real beating heart at its centre that feels genuine rather than forced which has been the case with the last couple of years worth of movies in the genre.

The film's stop motion animation is just beautiful to watch and it really gives you a sense of humanity in terms of its style and the cinematography is great as well with the many uses of darkness and colours throughout.

However, the 3D work done for the film is simply rubbish as it makes the whole thing look dark, dim and murky and takes away from the beautiful animation work done for the film as well as the cinematography.

But despite that, Paranorman is a real delight and will be great fun for all ages but see it in 2D if you can, 4 out of 5.