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ParaNorman
In the town of Blithe Hollow, Norman Babcock can speak to the dead, but no one other than his eccentric new friend believes his ability is real. One day, Norman's eccentric uncle tells him of a ritual he must perform to protect the town from a curse cast by a witch centuries ago.
2012 · Directed by Sam Fell · 93 min · Family · Animation · Adventure · Comedy · Screenplay in the scene database · 14 frames
Tagline
It's all fun and games until someone raises the dead.
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 paternal 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.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Written by: Chris Butler
- Cinematography: Tristan Oliver
- Edited by: Christopher Murrie
- Music: Jon Brion
- Production design: Nelson Lowry
- Produced by: Arianne Sutner, Travis Knight
Cast
- Kodi Smit-McPhee as Norman Babcock (voice)
- Tucker Albrizzi as Neil Downe (voice)
- Anna Kendrick as Courtney Babcock (voice)
- Casey Affleck as Mitch Downe (voice)
- Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Alvin (voice)
- Leslie Mann as Sandra Babcock (voice)
- Jeff Garlin as Perry Babcock (voice)
- Elaine Stritch as Grandma Babcock (voice)
- Bernard Hill as Judge Hopkins (voice)
- Jodelle Ferland as Aggie Prenderghast (voice)
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: English
- Studios: LAIKA
- Budget: $60,000,000
- Box office: $107,307,220
- Themes: medium, halloween, jock, stop motion, curse, zombie, ghost, communicating with the dead, aftercreditsstinger, witch trial
More by Sam Fell
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