ParaNorman- Laika Animation's next film

Too bad the soundtrack's "Aggie Fights" appears to be an earlier version. The track in the final film is just fantastic.

Came back from seeing it yesterday.

Agatha as a spirit was one of the best moments of stop-motion animation I have ever seen on the big screen, rivaling and probably even surpassing the animation in Nightmare Before Christmas. All of her head transformations and squashes and stretches were fresh replacement parts that each had to be sculpted and timed to her movements! I hope to see LAIKA push the medium even further.

edited 25th Aug '12 6:34:35 PM by Shota

Sounds like we may have found 2013's Best Animated Feature winner. I hope it does. Heck, I just hope one of the stop-motion flicks does. Any of them would certainly deserve it.*

God, I need to see this movie.

edited 25th Aug '12 8:22:29 PM by Mort08

We well did have 3 stop-motion films this year!

Just saw it! I'm shocked, not only at how they pushed stop-motion to its limit, but just how much they pushed that PG rating! Man, that was... dark.. Not necessary in the story, just in the sort of gritty unpleasantness and pettiness the people embodied.

Did the climax give anyone else a serious Giygas vibe? The conflicting madness, the swirling, changing background and morphing face, and defeating Aggie with The Power of Love... even a bit of motherly themes.

Also, regarding Mitch: I can totally see him inviting Courtney over to watch a movie with him and his sweet, sensitive boyfriend, while they cuddle and she just sits on the side of the couch and repeatedly sighs.

Yeah, the whole climax was just amazing.

One thing I really liked was how they didn't try to squeeze an Esoteric Happy Ending out of Agatha and the zombies' plot, but played it for all its bittersweetness. It would've been far to easy to have something like Aggie joyfully thanking Norman or the zombies rejoicing at the curse's end, but no. They played it with far more subtlety than you'd expect.

As great as The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline were, I think Para Norman might be my favorite movie of all the "scary stop-motion films".

An Esoteric Happy Ending isn't something you try to make happen, it's when the authors intend for something to be a happy ending but it ends up having horrific implications or the majority of people don't agree with the author that it's happy.

Man, I knew I shouldn't have read any more of this thread. Now I want to see this movie RIGHT NOW, but I never have time to see movies in theaters.

So Aggie's VA has a history with Creepy Child roles

Aggie even kind of looks like a Little Sister.

Who's the big daddy then?

The cloud face thing?

More effects details. Aggie's a mix of stop motion, CG and 2D

http://www.awn.com/articles/stop-motion/going-naturalistic-paranorman

Yeah they would never been able to make her eletricity fx look like that in stop-motion.

What was 2D I wonder?

The electricity. Hand-drawn elements and ink blown on paper elements.

I like the fact that she's a blend of all three of the common animation styles. Gives her a unique quality.

Apparently the Blu-Ray hits stores on November 27th.

These are pretty sweet. Animatics for the development of Aggie.

http://vimeo.com/49454828 http://vimeo.com/49454827 http://vimeo.com/49454829

Just watching those clips made me start to cry. Its so heartbreaking... :'(

Apparently they used 2D in planning more then just Aggie's face

http://vimeo.com/48783829

Why wasn't this thing hand-drawn!!??

Oh right. Because doing it in stop-motion would be a great challenge and offer more opportunities for other kinds of animators and effects people to work in the future! :D

It looks amazing both ways, but I think the film works better in stop-motion. :)

Plus, as the directors put it, an animated movie about zombies is a natural fit for a medium that involves bringing inanimate objects to life.

edited 22nd Sep '12 9:23:28 AM by FigmentJedi

I freaking loved that movie! And the funny part about it is, it had rather suggestive moments (complete with Nightmare Fuel) and still had a PG rating. Public Medium Ignorance much?

It was an on the edge PG, no question, but did anything in it really warrant an under 12 restriction? These days PG-13 more means aimed at that age group then anything else, and this was definitely a family friendly most ages title. I don't say all ages because of... certain spoiler heavy topics that I don't feel like discussing unless I know everyone who could see and/or hear what I say has seen the movie.