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ParaNorman

From Wikipedia of Horror


Template:Infobox film ParaNorman is a 2012 American stop motion animated comedy horror film directed by Sam Fell and Chris Butler, and written by Butler.[1] Produced by Laika, the film stars the voices of Kodi Smit-McPhee, Jodelle Ferland, Bernard Hill, Tucker Albrizzi, Anna Kendrick, Casey Affleck, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Leslie Mann, Jeff Garlin, Elaine Stritch, Tempestt Bledsoe, Alex Borstein, and John Goodman. It is the first stop-motion film to use a 3-D color printer to create character faces. In the film, Norman Babcock, a young boy who can communicate with ghosts, is given the task of ending a 300-year-old witch's curse on his Massachusetts town.

The idea of ParaNorman came from Butler, who thought making such a movie for kids could help express the challenges kids face growing up, after realizing that zombie films often contained a degree of social commentary. Production of the stop-motion animation took place at Laika's studio in Hillsboro, Oregon for three years, with the animating stage of production lasting about two years and beginning in late 2009. Instead of using traditional 3-D format cameras, the studio had sixty Canon EOS 5D Mark II DSLR cameras film the movie. Jon Brion composed the film's musical score.

ParaNorman was released on August 17, 2012, by Focus Features. It received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its animation and script,[2] and was a modest box office success, earning $107 million against a budget of $60 million. The film was nominated for an Academy Award and a BAFTA for Best Animated Film.

Plot

In the small town of Blithe Hollow, Massachusetts, Norman Babcock is an 11-year-old outcast who speaks with the dead, including his late grandmother and various ghosts in town. Almost no one believes him and he is isolated emotionally from his family while being looked down upon by his own peers around the school. Neil Downe, an overweight boy who is also bullied, finds in Norman a kindred spirit. After rehearsing a school play commemorating the town's execution of a witch three centuries ago, the boys are confronted by Norman's estranged and seemingly deranged great-uncle, Mr. Prenderghast, who tells Norman that he soon must take up his regular ritual to protect the town. Soon after this encounter, Mr. Prenderghast dies of a heart attack.

During the official performance of the school play, Norman has a nightmarish vision of the town's past in which he is pursued through the woods by townsfolk on a witch hunt, embarrassing himself and leading to a heated argument with his paranoid father Perry, who later grounds him. His mother Sandra tells him that his father's manner is stern because he is afraid for him. The next day, Norman sees Prenderghast's spirit who tells him that the ritual must be performed with a certain book before sundown that day; then making him "swear" to complete the task, Prenderghast's spirit is set free and crosses over. Norman is at first reluctant to go because he is scared but his grandmother tells him it is all right to be scared as long as he does not let it change who he is. Norman sets off to retrieve the book from Prenderghast's house (having to take it from his corpse).

He then goes to the graves of the five men and two women who were cursed by the witch, but finds that the book is merely a series of fairy tales. Alvin, a school bully who always picks on Norman, arrives and prevents Norman from reading the story before sundown. Norman attempts to continue reading from the book, to no effect. A ghostly storm resembling the witch appears in the air, summoning the cursed dead to arise as zombies, who chase the boys along with Neil, Norman's 17-year-old sister Courtney, and Neil's older brother Mitch, down the hill and into town. Having realized that the witch was not buried in the graveyard, Norman contacts classmate Salma (who tells them to access the Town Hall's archives for the location of the witch's unmarked grave) for help. As the kids make their way to the Town Hall, the zombies are attacked by the citizenry. During the riot, Norman and his companions break into the archives but cannot find the information they need. As the mob moves to attack Town Hall, the witch storm appears over the crowd. Norman climbs the Hall's tower to read the book, in a last-ditch effort to finish the ritual, but the witch strikes the book with lightning, hurling Norman from the tower and deep into the archives.

Unconscious, Norman has a dream where he learns that the witch was Agatha "Aggie" Prenderghast, a little girl of his age and a distant relative, who was also a medium. Norman realizes that Aggie was wrongfully convicted by the town council when they mistook her powers for witchcraft. After awakening, Norman encounters the zombies and recognizes them as the town council who convicted Aggie. The zombies and their leader Judge Hopkins admit that they only wanted to speak with him to ensure that he would take up the ritual, to minimize the damage of the mistake they made so long ago. Norman attempts to help the zombies slip away so they can guide him to Aggie's grave, but is cornered by the mob. Courtney, Mitch, Neil, and Alvin rally to Norman's side and confront the crowd, arguing that their rage, fear, and misunderstanding make them no different from the cursed townsfolk from long ago. Although the mob realizes the error of their ways, the witch unleashes her powers to create greater havoc throughout the town.

Judge Hopkins guides Norman's family to the grave in a forest. Before the grave is reached, Aggie's magical powers separate Norman from the others. Norman finds the grave and interacts with Aggie's vengeful ghost, determined to stop the cataclysmic tantrum she has been having over the years. Though she attempts to push him away, Norman holds his ground, telling her that he understands how she feels as an outcast, that her vengeance has only made her like the ones who wronged her, causing her to remember happier days. Having finally encountered someone who understands her plight and by remembering her caring mother, Aggie is able to find a measure of peace and cross over to the afterlife. The storm dissipates, and she, the zombies and even the Judge all fade away. The town cleans up and regards Norman as a hero.

In the end, Norman watches a horror film with his family and the ghost of his grandmother, who have grown to accept Norman for who he is.

Voice cast

Template:Castlist Blithe Hollow townspeople are voiced by Kirk Baily, Cam Clarke, Lara Cody, Eddie Frierson, Rif Hutton, Edie Mirman and David Zyler.

Production

ParaNorman was the first film that used full-color 3-D printers for animation.

The idea of the film came from Chris Butler, who, realizing that zombie films often contained a degree of social commentary, thought making such a movie for kids could help express the challenges kids face growing up.[3]

Production of the stop-motion animation feature took place at Laika's studio in Hillsboro, Oregon.[4][5] The film was in production for three years, with the animating stage of production lasting about two years and beginning in late 2009. Rather than using traditional 3-D format cameras, the studio had sixty Canon EOS 5D Mark II DSLR cameras film the movie.[6] Advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy created the campaign for the film.[4] ParaNorman is the first ever stop motion film to use full-color 3-D printers for replacement animation. Laika's previous film Coraline had pioneered and popularized the use of black and white 3-D printers, which sped up puppet production considerably and allowed the team to make the large number of puppet faces required for the film.[7] "Quite often it's the stop-motion movies that are more out there," co-director Fell told The New York Times. "They're a little quirkier, they're a little harder to pin down."[8]

Soundtrack

Jon Brion composed the film's score, and an accompanying soundtrack album was released on August 14, 2012.[9] Bits of other music appear in the film, including the theme music from Halloween, the Donovan song "Season of the Witch" (sung by the school play cast) and "Fix Up, Look Sharp" by British rapper Dizzee Rascal. "Little Ghost", a White Stripes song from their 2005 album Get Behind Me Satan, plays at the end, over character cards identifying the main cast. However, one track in the film, an updated version of "Aggie Fights", was not included in the soundtrack.

Release

Home media

ParaNorman was released on DVD and Blu-ray on November 27, 2012, by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.[10] A new edition from Shout! Factory under license from Laika was released on Blu-ray on September 14, 2021, and later on Ultra HD Blu-ray on December 13, 2022.

Other media

Video game

A video game called ParaNorman: 2-Bit Bub was made for iOS.[11]

Short film - ParaNorman: The Thrifting

Template:Infobox film ParaNorman: The Thrifting is an computer animated horror comedy short film directed by Laika's principal character designer Thibault LeClercq (who designed Mitch's boyfriend Luca in June 2025 after the film's release)[12], produced by Peter McCown and written by film director Chris Butler who executive produced the short with producer and CEO Travis Knight, based on the characters from the film by Butler and Sam Fell.

The short brings back Anna Kendrick, who voiced Courtney in the film, along with new actors such as Finn Wolfhard while Brayden Gleave and Beckett Maillard voices Norman and Neil than the original actors. Produced from Laika in association with Passion Pictures, the short was released in promotion to the re-release of the main film on October 2025.[13]

Plot

The short opens up with Norman and Courtney walking to Ye Olde Grimporium to find a Halloween costume this year. While Courtney flirts with a moody shop clerk, Chad, Norman starts searching for a costume before bumping into his friend Neil. Finding a strange mask, the lights went out as a supernatural entity chases them around the shop. However, it turns out the entity is only a spiritual ghost kid named Edward who wants his mask back from Norman. Fighting over the mask, Edward's mother, who's also a spiritual ghost, interrupts this and takes Edward away while grounding him. The store is restored but Norman decides he doesn't want a costume. Chad kicks the boys and Courtney out and locks the store for tonight. As they leave, Norman takes one last look at Edward above before leaving while Courtney calls Mitch about Chad.

Cast

  • Brayden Gleave as Norman Babcock
  • Beckett Maillard as Neil Downe
  • Anna Kendrick as Courtney Babcock
  • Finn Wolfhard as Chad
  • Kaden Stoneking as Edward
  • Amanda Sykes as Edward's mother

Production

In June 2025, Laika announced at the Annecy of a re-release of their film ParaNorman with company Fathom Entertainment along with a CGI-animated short follow-up by as part of their 20th anniversary of the studio. Anna Kendrick reprise her role while Finn Wolfhard was casted as Chad while newcomers, Brayden Gleave and Beckett Maillard, replaces Kodi Smit-McPhee and Tucker Albrizzi as Norman and Neil. On October 9, the trailer was posted from Laika's Youtube channel with a first look at the short being more stylized like the credits of the original film.[14]

Unlike the original film which was produced in stop-motion, the animation was made by Passion Pictures in Paris, France while assets and production design comes from Laika Studios.[13][15] Composers Kevin Lax and Robert Lydecker, who previously worked with producer Peter McCown on DreamWorks Animation's Netflix film Orion and the Dark, were attach to score the short film than Jon Brion.

Release

The short was released on October 25, 2025 as part of the re-release anniversary of the original film in 2012.[13]

Accolades

Award Category Recipients Result
Annie Awards[16][17] Best Production Design – TV/Media Thibault Leclercq, Santiago Montiel, Jung Woonyoung, Stephanie Bray-Lee Template:Nom
Best Storyboarding – TV/Media Coleton Palmer, Katherine Jay Myong, Heewon Jeong Template:Nom

Reception

Critical response

Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gives ParaNorman an approval rating of 89% based on 189 reviews, and an average score of 7.3/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Beautifully animated and solidly scripted, ParaNorman will entertain (and frighten) older children while providing surprisingly thoughtful fare for their parents."[2] Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 72 out of 100 based on 33 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable" reviews.[18] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[19]

Justin Chang of Variety wrote in his review, "Few movies so taken with death have felt so rudely alive as ParaNorman, the latest handcrafted marvel from the stop-motion artists at Laika."[20] Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter said, "It has its entertaining moments, but this paranormal stop-motion animated comedy-chiller cries out for more activity."[21]

Box office

ParaNorman earned $56 million in North America, and $51.1 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $107.1 million.[22] The film premiered in Mexico on August 3, 2012, opening in second place with box office receipts of $2.2 million, behind The Dark Knight Rises.[23] For its opening weekend in North America, the film placed third, with receipts of $14 million, behind The Expendables 2 and The Bourne Legacy.[24] Travis Knight, head of the studio that produced the film, believed the box office total was fine, but did not live up to his expectations.[25]

Gay character

The film has drawn attention for the revelation in its final scenes that supporting character Mitch is gay, making him the first openly gay character in a mainstream animated film.[26] Nancy French of National Review Online suggested that the film could lead parents "to answer unwanted questions about sex and homosexuality on the way home from the movie theater."[27] Conversely, Mike Ryan of The Huffington Post cited Mitch's inclusion as one of the reasons why ParaNorman is "remarkable".[28] Co-director Chris Butler said that the character was explicitly connected with the film's message: "If we're saying to anyone that watches this movie don't judge other people, then we've got to have the strength of our convictions."[29] In 2013, ParaNorman was the first-ever PG-rated movie nominated by GLAAD in its annual GLAAD Media Awards, but lost to The Perks of Being a Wallflower.[30]

Accolades

Template:More citations needed

List of awards and nominations
Award Category Recipients Result
Academy Awards Best Animated Feature Sam Fell, Chris Butler Template:Nom
Alliance of Women Film Journalists Best Animated Film Template:Won
Annie Awards[31][32] Best Animated Feature Template:Nom
Directing in an Animated Feature Production Sam Fell, Chris Butler Template:Nom
Animated Effects in an Animated Production Andrew Nawrot, Joe Gorski, Grant Lake Template:Nom
Character Animation in a Feature Production Travis Knight Template:Won
Character Design in an Animated Feature Production Heidi Smith Template:Won
Production Design in an Animated Feature Production Nelson Lowry, Ross Stewart, Pete Oswald, Ean McNamara, Trevor Dalmer Template:Nom
Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production Emmanuela Cozzi Template:Nom
Writing in an Animated Feature Production Chris Butler Template:Nom
Foley Mixing in an Animated Feature Production Richard Duarte Template:Won
BAFTA Awards[33] Best Animated Film Template:Nom
Chicago Film Critics Association Best Animated Feature Template:Won
Critics Choice Awards[34] Best Animated Feature Template:Won
Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Best Animated Film Template:Won
Denver Film Critics Society Best Animated Feature Template:Won
GLAAD Media Awards[35] Outstanding Film - Wide Release Template:Nom
Houston Film Critics Society Best Animated Film Template:Nom
Indiana Film Critics Association Best Animated Feature Template:Nom
Las Vegas Film Critics Society Best Animated Film Template:Won
New York Film Critics Circle Awards Best Animated Feature Template:Nom
Online Film Critics Society[36] Best Animated Feature Template:Won
Phoenix Film Critics Society Best Animated Film Template:Nom
Producers Guild of America Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures Travis Knight, Arianne Sutner Template:Nom
San Diego Film Critics Society Best Animated Film Template:Won
San Francisco Film Critics Circle Best Animated Feature Template:Won
Satellite Awards[37] Motion Picture, Animated or Mixed Media Template:Nom
Saturn Awards[38] Best Animated Film Sam Fell and Chris Butler Template:Nom
Southeastern Film Critics Association Best Animated Film Template:Won
St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Best Animated Film Template:Nom
Toronto Film Critics Association Awards Best Animated Feature Template:Won
Utah Film Critics Association Best Animated Feature Template:Won
Visual Effects Society[39][40] Outstanding Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture Chris Butler, Sam Fell, Travis Knight, Brad Schiff Template:Nom
Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature Motion Picture Graveyard: Phil Brotherton, Robert Desue, Oliver Jones, Nick Mariana Template:Nom
Main Street: Alice Bird, Matt Delue, Caitlin Pashalek Template:Nom
Outstanding FX and Simulation Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture Practical Volumetrics: Aidan Fraser, Joe Gorski, Eric Kuehne, Andrew Nawrot Template:Nom
Angry Aggie Ink-Blot Electricity: Michael Cordova, Grant Laker, Susanna Luck, Peter Vickery Template:Nom
Washington D. C. Area Film Critics Association Best Animated Feature Template:Won

Future

Proposed television series

In 2017, animator Ila Solomon posted test footage for a ParaNorman television spin-off. The series would have used practical sets, but all the characters would have been rendered in CGI made to look like stop-motion. Not much information was given, but it was apparent that the show did not get picked up.[41]

See also

References

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External links

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Template:Navboxes Template:Sam Fell Template:Laika (company) Template:Universal theatrical animated features

This article incorporates text from the Wikipedia article "ParaNorman", available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License.Retrieved 2026-03-05.

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  12. ↑ https://comicbook.com/movies/news/paranorman-mitch-boyfriend-luca/
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Template:Cite web
  14. ↑ https://ew.com/paranorman-the-thrifting-trailer-finn-wolfhard-anna-kendrick-exclusive-11826954?utm_source=instagram.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=entertainmentweekly&utm_content=igstory
  15. ↑ https://www.passion-animation.com/project/paranorman-the-thrifting/
  16. ↑ https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/2026-annie-awards-nominations-nominees-list-1236464119/
  17. ↑ https://www.animationmagazine.net/2026/01/annie-award-nominations-elio-kpop-demon-hunters-lead-the-race-win-or-lose-tops-tv-nods/
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