Though stop-motion is losing favour faster than Aaron Sorkin, production studio Laika shows us some art forms are worth fighting for. The story of a little boy who can see dead people, ParaNorman – like its last feature Coraline – is utterly endearing. It does have creepy moments, though, and very young children may be frightened.
Voiced by Let Me In’s Kodi Smit-McPhee (no stranger to creep himself), young Norman, like all the best heroes, is an outsider. Bullied at school and on the receiving end of cutting comments from his acerbic sister (a brilliantly biting Anna Kendrick), he spends his time watching horror movies and hanging out with his grandmother. His dead grandmother. When the living have all failed him, what cares Norman for a pulse if he’s finally found a friend?
As Norman is recruited to stop a zombie invasion, ParaNorman reveals itself to be a rare beast: a film about genuine heroism.