We had a chance to check out some footage of ParaNorman during Comic-Con and wanted to share our impressions, along with some new photos and behind-the-scenes videos. ParaNorman is created by the team that worked on Coraline and is a stop-motion animation movie that involves a boy named Norman who can speak with the dead and tries to save his town from recently risen zombies.
It was apparent from the clips and panel that the filmmakers are big horror fans who are interested in making a film that appeals to a wide range of movie goers, including horror fans. While it looks like there are plenty of things to keep children entertained, there were also references to Jason, George Romero, and we heard that there is a scene from Suspiria in the movie. This definitely sets it apart from your average animated movie and I think a lot of horror fans are going to enjoy it.
The footage we saw from the movie was in 3D and one clip showed the first appearance of zombies in the film. Compared to most 3D movies, even animated films, the use of 3D in ParaNorman was really impressive. The film was shot in 3D and it seems like the fact that every setting was created with 3D in mind helped the filmmakers make better use of the technology. Normally, filming in 3D doesn't necessarily mean that you have a more immersive movie, but knowing the work that went into creating the stop motion animation and having seen the sets they created, the extra depth makes it feel like you were looking at the events taking place from the set rather than just a flat picture
There wasn't enough footage shown to get a really good idea of the humor and character development in the film, but the clips I watched were enough to make me interested in seeing the full movie. ParaNorman will be released to theaters on August 17th and has a voice cast that includes Casey Affleck, Tempestt Bledsoe, Alex Borstein, Jodelle Ferland, John Goodman, Bernard Hill, Anna Kendrick, Leslie Mann, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and Elaine Stritch.
Catch up on our coverage of ParaNorman with the following articles: