4 out of 5

Director: Chris Butler, Sam Fell

Dang. It’s too spooky to be a kid flick, but probably not whatever enough for the big boys and girls. Paranorman is an update of the spooky adventure classics like Goonies, and Monster Squad, something for when more mature kids were still okay with imagination. There’re still booger jokes in there, but this sits on top of a layer of pretty legitimately funny stuff, the macabre subject matter requiring our script to step up its game and give the characters more than one dimensional personalities. Lil’ Norman can talk to ghosts. All the time. He’s accepted that no one else gets it, he’s accepted that he’ll always be the weird one. When Norman gets wrapped up in an ancient witch’s curse upon his town that requires his skills to unravel, he learns a lesson about being yourself and… waitaminute, or does he? One of the greatest things about this flick is its truth in characters and responses. Norman’s family responds pretty much like a regular family, not overblown, not over-denying, and Norman, as mentioned, pretty much gets that he’ll have to do this stuff on his own. The movie still works in some predictable fare regarding acceptance, but it comes about it slowly and honestly through its offbeat story. While the exact direction of things may not break new ground, the presentation is wholly bold and original. Paranorman is the kind of smart, daring kid’s film of which it’d be nice to see a resurgence.