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ParaNorman

ParaNorman

Family · Animation · Adventure · 2012

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.

Movie details

ParaNorman

“It's all fun and games until someone raises the dead.”

2012 Family · Animation · Adventure 1h 33m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

7.0 / 10

116.4K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

89 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

72 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

7.0 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

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.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over ParaNorman?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Sam Fell · Chris Butler

Written by

Chris Butler

Kodi Smit-McPhee

Kodi Smit-McPhee

Norman Babcock (voice)

Tucker Albrizzi

Tucker Albrizzi

Neil Downe (voice)

Anna Kendrick

Anna Kendrick

Courtney Babcock (voice)

Casey Affleck

Casey Affleck

Mitch Downe (voice)

Christopher Mintz-Plasse

Christopher Mintz-Plasse

Alvin (voice)

Leslie Mann

Leslie Mann

Sandra Babcock (voice)

Jeff Garlin

Jeff Garlin

Perry Babcock (voice)

Court is in session

Put ParaNorman on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.