PARANORMAN: DIRECTED BY SAM FELL AND CHRIS BUTLER.
LAIKA STUDIOS.
ParaNorman tells the story of a young boy with the unique gift of being able to communicate with spirits that remain in our world after their mortal deaths. The film begins displaying a typical family scenario, with Norman being the younger brother of his family, introducing his mother and father, and teen sister. His dead grandmother also sits in the room, chatting with Norman, and it's obvious that his family cannot see what he does, telling him to stop talking to himself, or reassuring themselves that it's all part of the grieving process of losing a grandparent he was particularly close with.
It's made clear that because of his gift, Norman is the kind of kid that prefers his own company, possibly due to the amount of bullying he's subject to at school. One bully in particular is the overweight gothy character of Alvin, who delights in scrawling words such as 'Freak' across Norman's locker.
The misunderstandings from his family and constant bullying at school make Norman a very independent character, not liking to ask others for help, and doesn't let his guard down easily with new people. The whole film displays a really deep sense of character development, both as solo figures as well as the relationships forged throughout. For example, the only friend Norman gains towards the beginning of the film is the only other kid at his school that gets picked on as much as he does, with the nickname 'Fatty' graffitied onto his locker door by the before-mentioned school bully. He describes that he understands why it is he gets picked on, and that it's a simple theory of 'survival of the thickest', explaining that if he wasn't short, ginger, chubby and at the mercy of almost every allergy imaginable, there would be every possibility that he'd be a bully too. The relationship between the two boys progresses when Neil asks Norman to talk to his dead dog; they end up laughing and letting each other know more and more about one another gradually. This kind of progression is really admirable, as it means that as viewers we can see their friendship grow, rather than trying to appreciate a preconceived relationship. Overall, the character development is really impressive, and Laika have lived up the reputation they hold of making these characters feel very complex and human.
The animation style and aesthetic that ParaNorman has been designed in is an aspect of the film I find really interesting. One character even states "It's like a total slasher movie vibe." The credits (image below) of the film especially mimic this ongoing aesthetic theme.
Norman is often seen to be watching scary thrillers or slasher films himself, his room decorated in old-school style zombie posters, creating almost an ironic meta of self referencing. This a really smart design choice, as it keeps the aesthetic similar yet nostalgic from start to finish, and of course is related to the ghostly goings-on of the film.
The sometimes dark themes of ParaNorman, such as death, the afterlife; topics usually associated with more adult concepts were told in such a medium that a younger audience can understand and even laugh at, which is a trait of the storytelling I found really interesting. The intervals of humor between scenes of intensity or tension helped to keep it funny and child friendly. Perhaps this could be an interesting way of transposing my own project?
As I'm focusing on character design for my own project, I concentrated a lot on this aspect of ParaNorman. The first thing I noticed when watching the film was the iconic smoothness of frames, with the choppy feel that stopmotion presents, giving a very hand made and organic feel, even though a mixture of puppets, CG and real life footage where used to create this film.
Something that particularly caught my eye was the detailing of the puppets: the broad range of shapes, colours and characters that were created, as well as the materials used to bring them to life, e.g. the fact that if there was a light behind Normans ears, the 'skin' would glow a slight red translucence, as if real skin. This could have been achieved with some kind of silicone, but it was a detail I found really pretty and very clever to have included. The exaggerated body proportions were an aspect of character design that assisted in making the film more cartoony in style, again appealing to both younger and older audiences, as these over exaggerations were often quite amusing.
Something that particularly caught my eye was the detailing of the puppets: the broad range of shapes, colours and characters that were created, as well as the materials used to bring them to life, e.g. the fact that if there was a light behind Normans ears, the 'skin' would glow a slight red translucence, as if real skin. This could have been achieved with some kind of silicone, but it was a detail I found really pretty and very clever to have included. The exaggerated body proportions were an aspect of character design that assisted in making the film more cartoony in style, again appealing to both younger and older audiences, as these over exaggerations were often quite amusing.
As a potential area of study, I feel that looking into an example of stop motion film making has really opened my eyes to the potential it has to help further my own project. I was already a big fan of Laika studios and had seen their films before, but in studying ParaNorman with the intention of looking into this as an area of practise has defintiely brought about a new perspective.
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