EDIT: I was lead to believe, by my erstwhile writer and strange game Enthusiast, Howell, that we were on the hundredth post at this current time. That is why you might have seen (I doubt it) a version of this post with a "hooray for a hundred" sticker at the end, and some kind of whimsical explanation that I wasn't actually stealing the hundredth post, I just had something to say, and I was buying time until I had something to say, until I thought about my subject here. We are not, I repeat, not on the hundredth post. We are on the ninety-second, with eight drafts saved. This means my colleague miscounted, and I was lead astray. Do no fret though. I shall endeavour to be the hundredth post anyway.
END EDIT.
So anyway. ParaNorman.
I have seen adverts for this movie popping up every now and then, but not very often lately. At a recent movie viewing (yes, the Dark Knight Rises was the current movie of choice. I am considering a review. Possibly a video one) I found a recent trailer for ParaNorman. It intrigued me, and since I have been given a handy... platform for my daily ponderings I decided to look a little more into it and report back here. And I'm rather glad I did.
First, the movie. As you can see, it's a horror, and an animated horror at that. A family friendly animated horror actually, dealing with spirits and other worlds and ghosts and ghouls. And I can already see a certain bulb flashing on in your head. Sometimes these bulbs have different names, say, The Nightmare before Christmas, The Corpse Bride, James and the Giant Peach (be quiet, some scenes from that movie terrified me as a child). The lights inside your head all lead back to one thing however. Tim Burton.
Now, I'm not certain about you... regular people, but I can't help but feel that Tim Burton has become rather saturated in the current market of Family Friendly Comedy Horror lately. A feeling that isn't helped by his latest instalment Frankenweenie.
I'm not here to badmouth Tim Burton. He has done brilliant work in the past, some true treasures, and I would not want to soil his name. I am merely suggesting that... if one person constantly produces items on the same subject, with little competition, the public can become... disillusioned with them. It doesn't mean their work has decreased in skill, it just means that variety is the spice of life. It's just the issue that, if you invented the formula, it would be a little insulting to call the work formulaic, and since his work is the only one present, it seems even worse. I believe this would be the best point to make some kind "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" joke, but I honestly can't think of one. Make one up yourself.
ParaNorman deals with a boy, Norman Babcock. He is a loner, and weird, and generally disliked in school. This is not just because he has hair resembling that of a common or household paintbrush, but because of his ability to talk to the dead. Social seclusion has never caused me to develop a super power, but perhaps the curse of being a recluse is that I am not shunned enough. I shall have to attempt to go out into public some more, and see if a little extra shunning causes me to have the abilities of an arachnid or some such development. Then I shall be a super powered recluse. Enough speculation. Norman discovers an insidious plot, involving a three hundred year old curse, his unfortunately unstable Uncle and the dead rising from their graves. Now he has to save the town by using his gift of speaking to the dead. See what I mean about new?
An indication of what exactly awaits is the fact that ParaNorman is by the animators behind Coraline. You remember that movie? Well, fine, another Trailer for those who have forgotten.
If you amnesiacs in the readership have put away your laudanum and got your memories in the right way round, you will remember that Coraline was a very disturbing movie, with some very good Animation and a fresh story. This is something that it shares with ParaNorman by the look of it, while Frankenweenie up there is literally a combination of different horror movies that have been in film since it was... well, in black and white. Again, I have no issues with Burton's work, but Coraline and ParaNorman seem more enchanting to me because they are new, a new company, a new story, a new take on the world of Family Friendly Animated Horror. Perhaps it is a niche, but I feel it is a niche that needed to be filled.
Now... with the movie discussed I want to put forward my take on the people behind it. The LAIKA/ house animation studio. Facebook page for the studios here if you're interested.
From all I have seen (and I have done hours of extensive research) the people of Laika studios do what they love. I know it's a strange comment to make, but it should give you an idea of their work ethic at least. They want to put time, effort, their own lives and emotions out there... Judging from their own personal web logs, they associate with Norman on an emotional level. No, they never had to deal with mystical powers and talking to the dead, but they were outsiders. They didn't belong in their schools, people thought their weird, perhaps they were shunned by the 'popular kids'.
They obviously brought their experiences with that along for this project, not in the treatment and eventual fate of those considered popular, just in the way Norman is shown handling his situation. Personally, knowing this information, I'm going to be a bit disquieted when I eventually watch the movie now, and consider what personal experiences could have been poured into the moments of bullying, segregation and emotionally crippling situations. Or perhaps I'm just reading too much into this.
These people are weird. They're also dedicated, and they know their audience. "What do I mean by that?" you ask. I mean mailing a buried coffin to Neil Gaiman with a stop motion zombie model inside it. "What the f-" you begin, before I silence your expletive with this link.
Sometimes, when a movie or game is marketed too much, it's because it is recognisably bad and people want to market it as much as possible to sell as many tickets opening night as they can. Something about this marketing ploy seems less greedy to me. I'm not certain what it is exactly. Perhaps it's that this is the first time I've actually heard of it, and I had to look into the movie personally to discover their unusual packages? I don't know. Believe what you will, this only makes me want to watch the movie more.
The official website (along with trailers, character descriptions, animator game, book extract, interviews with the cast and creators... and well... a whole collection of oddities... is here.
Facebook for the ParaNorman movie is located here. Twitter is here. They also are on Instagram under "ParaNorman". I honestly believe there are too many methods of communication in the current world. Sometimes I want to go some place where no one will ever look for me, or visit... an internet recluse if you will... Perhaps I will try Google+.
The official blog... or Tumblr... or whatever they are currently calling a collection of information in one place about specific subjects... is here.
(I like to call such things Encyclopaedias. That is a link to the Encyclopaedia of ParaNorman)
Now... I'm uncertain how this twitter thing occurs... but... oh dear. @ParaNorman and #Weirdwins
Should any of them see this web log, I would very much like to hold a discussion with them where possible. Perhaps there shall be tea. Or if the discussion would be held over a long period of time via some kind of electronic means, perhaps there shall be many cups of tea. If they would like to offer me a writing job, as I find myself sadly lacking in the employment department, I will require something slightly stronger than tea to celebrate with.
Good day, my friends.
My greatest apologies, I checked the post count the lazy way, what with the big number 99 above the posts.
ReplyDelete