Line #21 YMMV/Paranorman


1	! '''This page contains unmarked spoilers. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned'''
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3	* AccidentalAesop:
4	** An overarching theme in the movie is "Those who don't know their history may be doomed to repeat it." One gets the feeling the townsfolk wouldn't have been so quick to attempt burning Norman if they had only known the "witch" was just a sweet innocent girl. Once Norman and his friends tell the townsfolk how the zombies used to be people like them, driven to drastic actions by fear, the mob is pretty quick to apologetically drop their weapons, thanks to a little history.
5	** Rituals need historical context to understand why they are important. When Norman tries reading the book at Agatha's grave, he goes YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe when seeing it's a fairy tale. Reading it again does no good when he's trying to reason with the witch, and it takes him having a vision [[spoiler:revealing that Agatha was just a little girl who was executed wrongly for witchcraft]] to understand that it wasn't a spellbook, it was [[spoiler:a DueToTheDead that Agatha's family performed to deal with their grief]]. As Norman talks with the zombies, he realizes that it was a nice gesture, but it accidentally kept the witch tethered to the mortal realm rather than letting her move on. [[spoiler:Actually talking to Agatha directly and showing sympathy for her traumatic death allows her to realize she wants to go see her mother in the afterlife]].
6	** Keep accurate and organized records about your most famous tourist attraction. You never know when the source of it is going to come roaring in, fact-checking with force. Safe to say if Norman and his friends had found the actual trial records right away rather than having to search for a NeedleInAStackOfNeedles, then Norman wouldn't have risked his life climbing the roof to pacify the witch, nearly breaking his neck.
7	* AccidentalInnuendo: Norman's father gets a couple of moments, talking about how Norman should be "pitching a tent in the yard" and wondering if Norman's up in his room "playing... with his orbs" or something.
8	* {{Adorkable}}: Norman is closed-off, introverted, a huge horror nerd, and low on the social ladder, he's also a [[NiceGuy]] who's sympathetic background makes him all the CreepyCute to fans.
9	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
10	** Is Perry Babcock a bad father who needed to be taught a lesson by the end of the movie, or a JerkassWoobie who sees his son being ostracized because he claims that he can see ghosts (which makes the townspeople think Norman's either lying for attention or genuinely crazy) and doesn't know how to reach out to him AND has to deal with the grief caused by the death of his mother that happened a few weeks ago, and who only reacts with anger towards those things he can't control?
11	*** The fact that someone in their town (to whom they may well be related) was ''executed'' for making the same claims lends support to the later interpretation. It's been a few hundred years, but that'll still set off quite a few alarms. And his brother-in-law is a pariah for the same. Hardly encouraging examples.
12	** Is the witch we see actually Agatha's soul or an echo of her living self? It's not unheard of in folklore that ghosts represent who the living person once was, going through the motions of UnfinishedBusiness, while not actually being them. If it's the latter, [[spoiler:was her echo able to reunite with her mother]]?
13	* AwardSnub: Many felt this film got ripped off at the 2013 UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s due to the Academy's general favoritism toward Creator/{{Pixar}} and Disney, claiming that it has a much stronger story than ''WesternAnimation/{{Brave}}''.
14	* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: As car goes crashing down the hill, there is a moment with a random couple dreamily staring at each other, sipping wine, and not seeing the car go past them.
15	* CatharsisFactor:
16	** Agatha's curse seems disproportionate because [[spoiler:she made sure the zombies could never die and were entirely conscious for the three hundred years they were decomposing underground before rising from their graves]]. Knowing she did it because [[spoiler:Judge Hopkins and the other Puritans sentenced her to death by hanging]] is a little satisfying because they suffer the same fate she did, and with less durable bodies.
17	** Norman calling out the zombies for what they did, claiming this is NotWhatISignedUpFor, because he was just going to help his uncle, not [[spoiler:save the town from its historical FantasticRacism]]. He points out that [[spoiler:it's their fault they're all in this mess because they acted on their fear and executed a child for seeing the dead. They all completely agree, with Hopkins saying in his zombie-speak that he knows Agatha is punishing them. Norman then determines they have to find another way, because the fairytale book isn't working]].
18	** Norman's friends calling out the angry mob that wants to burn him alive. They all pull a GoThroughMe and SuddenPrincipledStand, saying they are acting on fear, the way the zombies once did. It works; the mob goes MyGodWhatHaveIDone on realizing they nearly became child murderers.
19	** Norman reaching out to Agatha and talking to her, persevering even as she turns the woods into an EldritchLocation. When she starts having her VillainousBreakdown, Norman tells her [[spoiler:what happened to her was horrible and unforgivable, but staying on this plane and continuously torturing the zombies isn't helping anyone and turning her into a bully just like the Puritans that killed her. He goes further, saying that the people who loved her are in the afterlife, and they want to see her, so she must want to see them. If she keeps bullying the zombies, she'll never find her loved ones, the people that would read bedtime stories to her grave. It works; Agatha calms down, says she wants to see her mother again, and vanishes into the place beyond death]].
20	* CreepyCute: Even as an angry, [[DerangedAnimation unstable ghost]] [[ShockAndAwe made of lightning]], Aggie still manages to look a little cute, especially whenever her eyes go wide.
21	* CrossesTheLineTwice:
22	** The entire sequence of Norman trying to pry a book out of a corpse's hands, eventually resorting to tactics like slamming its head repeatedly against the underside of a desk to get some leverage, and finally ending up pinned under the dead man's body... at which point its tongue rolls out of its open mouth and slops wetly across his face.
23	** One of the spirits at the beginning is a bird which seems to have died by being choked by the plastic rings used to hold cans together.
24	** Given the national discussion of police brutality in TheNewTens and TheNewTwenties, the line, "What are you doing, firing at civilians? That's for the police to do!" is either [[HarsherInHindsight extremely uncomfortable]], [[BlackComedy even funnier]], or both, depending on how dark your sense of humor is. Having a black woman be the one to speak the line just makes it even more darkly comedic.
25	* CrossoverShip: Norman gets shipped with WesternAnimation/{{Coraline}}, [[WesternAnimation/GravityFalls Mabel, and Dipper]].
26	* CryForTheDevil: The WickedWitch was once just a little girl named Agatha Prenderghast, who, like Norman, had the ability to talk to the dead. After the townspeople executed her for it, she was driven to vengeance. After she comes to her senses, thanks to Norman, she tells him before she DisappearsIntoLight that she just wants her mother.
27	* DemographicallyInappropriateHumor: This movie has a reputation for pushing it's PG-rating as far as it could go.
28	** Courtney taunts Norman by asking him what grandma is saying now. Her taunt backfires when Norman says she said it's not ladylike to keep a shirtless picture of the high school quarterback in her underwear drawer. Courtney is equally mortified and embarrassed proving it was true, but Perry is uncomfortable [[IncestSubtext thinking that Norman rifled through his sister's underwear drawer]].
29	** Mitch accuses Neil of watching their mom's aerobics videos. Neil [[BlatantLies denies it]], right as he pauses it on a close-up shot of woman's butt.
30	** A sign that says "Witchy Weiners" has the first "W" short out, three guesses for what it says now.
31	** This humorous exchange between Predergast and Norman.
32	-->'''Prendergast:''' Swear!\
33	'''Norman:''' You mean the F-word?
34	* DiagnosedByTheAudience: Norman shows symptoms of depression, such as apathy, self-isolation, and lack of interest in social activities.
35	* EnsembleDarkhorse:
36	** Courtney. The HartmanHips certainly don't hurt, plus she has some of the funniest lines in the movie, and is voiced by Creator/AnnaKendrick.
37	** Neil's brother, Mitch, is also very popular due to his NiceGuy personality and his [[DumbMuscle ditzy personality]] leading to lots of funny moments. [[spoiler:The fact that him being gay is treated as something completely normal definitely helps.]]
38	** Many of the ghosts Norman says hi to in the opening scene (which is also their one and only scene, except for his grandmother), like the soldier, paraglider, and greaser delinquent, have their fans.
39	** The vending machine customer, who is more interested in getting his chips than running away from the zombies, his shotgun-totting friend Crystal, the little girl with the flaming teddy bear, and Deputy Dwayne are among the more interesting and amusing members of the crowd of JerkAss townspeople.
40	* {{Fanon}}: A fairly popular idea in fanart that swaps Norman and Agatha's roles is to give Norman [[PlayingWithFire fire-based powers]] [[LightningFireJuxtaposition in contrast to]] [[ShockAndAwe Aggie's lightning-based powers,]] often reasoned as being a result of Norman having been [[BurnTheWitch burned at the stake]] rather than hanged.
41	* FriendlyFandoms: This movie's fandom gets along quite well with ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Coraline}}'', and ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}''. In fact, all four of them together has generated a fandom of its own, dubbed the "''SugarWiki/MysteryKids''".
42	** Surprisingly, with ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'' fans as well. Not only because both Norman and Mei deal with something they consider a "curse" (Norman his ability to see and talk with ghosts and Mei her panda transformation), but both must face down disapproving parents (their father and mother respectively), and said "curses" are vital in their respective climaxes, which ultimately end with [[spoiler:going into the spirit realm to calm down the antagonist. Mei meets the younger form of her mother in the spirit realm and helps her come to terms with herself, similar to how Norman talked down Agatha.]]
43	* GhostShipping: Norman/Agatha, naturally, given that the former is still alive and the latter has been dead for centuries.
44	* HarsherInHindsight:
45	** Depending on your sense of humor, the recurring gag of all the townsfolk trying to cash in on the witch's legend either becomes much less or [[CrossesTheLineTwice much more]] funny with TheReveal that the actual "witch" was a little girl. Particularly considering the "sexy witch" casino billboard...
46	** The cop's "What are you doing firing at civilians? That's for police to do!" throwaway joke isn't quite as funny in [[UsefulNotes/TheNewTens the New 10s]], when police violence in America came under much greater national scrutiny, though it should be noted that director/writer Chris Butler was aware of these issues and certainly couldn’t have put in such a line without intending to make a point.
47	** TheReveal about Aggie's age when she was sentenced to death for witchcraft is even worse when one learns that, in modern-day UsefulNotes/{{Nigeria}}, [[http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/08/25/nigeria.child.witches/ this practice is still ongoing]].
48	* HilariousInHindsight: Neil's face when he's in the car with Mitch and Courtney while Courtney is talking to Mitch, trying to impress him. With TheReveal that Mitch is gay, it becomes clear that Neil most likely knew the entire time and was wondering "Should I tell her?" (Given that she's a MotorMouth [[TheDitz ditz]] who probably wouldn't have let him get a word in edgewise, he probably figured it wasn't worth the effort.)
49	* InformedWrongness: Agatha's treatment of the Puritans. While Norman tells her that she's [[HeWhoFightsMonsters becoming just as bad as them]], that message falls flat somewhat, as Agatha's curse isn't as severe as what the Puritans did to her. They ''murdered'' an innocent 11-year-old child and got away with such a heinous action. Agatha only cursed them to rise from their graves (it's ambiguous as to whether or not her curse is what killed them, since neither she nor her descendant Norman show such an ability in life, so it's possible she gained that power after her death) so they could be ridiculed and tormented by the townspeople. While the townspeople accuse Norman of being behind the zombies and try to lynch him, that was not part of Agatha's plan. She only wanted to make the people [[DoubleMeaning "see how rotten"]] the Puritan judges were. Compare that to the Puritans' act of, again, ''killing a completely innocent child'', and Agatha seems like the lesser of two evils.
50	* JerkassWoobie:
51	** Agatha, for the same reasons as Norman. She is very vengeful toward the townspeople for what they did to her, but the townspeople had all ostracized her for her ability to talk to the dead, culminating in them executing her.
52	** The zombies count too -- all they want to do is help Norman put Agatha to rest. For their troubles, they get ripped apart, run over, stomped, slammed, and then the entire town attacks them. Although what they did was terrible, it's pretty clear that they're genuinely sorry.
53	** Depending on your POV, Norman's father. Yeah, he's intolerant of Norman claiming to be able to communicate with ghosts and actually admits that he wishes his son was different. However, he knows that his son is ostracized by most of town due to his claimed ability to see and talk to ghosts (which makes them think Norman is either lying for attention or genuinely crazy), he honestly has no idea how to connect to his son, and Perry admits at one point that he's scared of Norman becoming just like Uncle Prenderghast. His mother also died from an unspecified illness a few weeks before the events of the film, and, from his POV, Norman is pretending that she's still around as a ghost, which isn't helping that much with his grief.
54	* LGBTFanbase: This movie has a solid one. Given how [[RainbowLens relatable Norman is to LGBT folks]] and the movie having [[spoiler:a canonically gay character in Mitch, whose queerness is treated as completely normal and unremarkable]], this shouldn't be a surprise.
55	* OnceOriginalNowCommon: When the film came out, having a gay character in a family film was considered noteworthy and shocking, particularly due to the matter-of-fact nature of it - something that many professional critics pointed out. Within a decade, this became a sight common enough to be completely ignored.
56	* RainbowLens: Norman can [[ISeeDeadPeople speak to the dead]]. His power has isolated him from his family and caused him to be ridiculed by his peers. When Norman's powers are exposed during a school play, his father, who wants him to be more "normal," grounds him. Norman is told by the ghost of his grandmother that it's okay to be scared as long as he doesn't let it change who he is. Norman is able to save his town only after he is able to bond with the wrathful spirit over their shared status as outcasts, and in the end, Norman's family accepts him along with his power. Chris Butler, the co-director and writer of the movie, is gay himself, so this isn’t an accident.
57	* SignatureScene:
58	** Norman conversing with the enraged Aggie and helping her make peace with her unjust death. Even those who dislike the film agree that it is the best scene in the movie.
59	** "''[[TearJerker ...I just want my mommy]]''."
60	** [[SkewedPriorities The vending]] [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments machine scene.]]
61	** Norman's walk to school and conversing with the ghosts showcases the parallel between how the living people see him versus how the dead treat him.
62	* SpiritualSuccessor:
63	** Fans have likened the art style and the feel of the film overall to VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}} -- appropriately so, as the art style of the game was inspired by stop-motion animation.
64	** It could also be seen as this to WesternAnimation/{{Coraline}}. It's made by the same studio, in stop-motion, and it's about an 11-year-old kid going up against a supernatural threat.
65	** Interestingly enough, it arguably qualifies as one to ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooOnZombieIsland''. Both are very dark, deconstructive, and cynical movies about a cast of young people fighting the accursed undead that (initially) no one believes are real. They also have a nearly identical plot twist at their cores: the supposedly evil zombies who are apparently "hunting" the protagonists were responsible in life for the female villain(s)' StartOfDarkness, and the zombies are actually trying to ''help'' the protagonists to be freed from their curse and [[TheAtoner atone for the evil they did]] when they were alive.
66	* {{Squick}}: Mr. Prenderghast's corpse falls on top of Norman... and his tongue rolls out of his mouth onto Norman's face... and "licks" him as Norman struggles to get him off.
67	* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: The music where Norman tries to talk sense to Aggie in the climax sounds very similar to "Death Is the Road to Awe" from ''Film/TheFountain''. It's possibly the reason why the former wasn't featured on the soundtrack.
68	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Salma. She initially seems like she's being set up as the SixthRanger for Norman's group, since she's the first person to complain about the play's portrayal of the witch being an unrealistic stereotype and is Neil's OnlyFriend before Neil befriends Norman. It also would have been nice to have [[TwoGirlsToATeam another girl on the team besides Courtney.]] But she's only contacted during the car chase so Norman can figure out where Agatha was buried, and she barely shows up again after that, with Neil apparently all but forgetting her now that Norman's his new best friend.
69	** This is somewhat made better in the novel, which she's the narrator of. Her character is given a bit more fleshing out, and she gets to describe the events of the entire movie in detail.
70	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Norman's parents' feelings about Mr. Prenderghast ([[TangledFamilyTree who is either Sandra's brother or the uncle of one of them]]) having visions and ostracization similar to Norman, dying, and having been right all along are never brought up.
71	* ToyShip: Norman/Agatha.
72	* UglyCute: Just about ''every character'', but special mention goes to Norman, Neil, and Agatha.
73	* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: This is not only a zombie movie, and thus rather gory, but it milks its PG rating for all it's worth. Characters use actual swear words a couple times ("jackass" most notably), and TheReveal about the identity of the "witch" (she was an 11-year-old girl who was hanged for speaking with the dead and, underneath 300 years of rage and bitterness, [[TearJerker is still just a scared child who wants to see her mother]]) is '''really''' dark.
74	* TheWoobie:
75	** Norman. He's not understood by anybody, including his own family, and largely treated like crap as a result. He's a frequent target for bullies and his father in particular often pulls no punches in criticizing his behavior.
76	** And, of course, his counterpart Agatha too, though she is a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds too.

Context YMMV / Paranorman