Rating: ***
Review Date: 11/3/24
Cast: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Anna Kendrick, Christopher Mintz-Plasse,
Casey Affleck, John Goodman, Jodelle Ferland
"You can't stop bullying. It's part of human nature. If you were bigger and more stupid you'd probably be a bully, too."
Norman (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is different from other kids, in that he can see and converse with ghosts. This obviously causes him to be ostracized at school and creates problems when the dead interfere with reality. It turns out that his crazy uncle (John Goodman) can also see ghosts, and it's his sacred duty to keep the witch's curse of Blithe Hollow at bay. When he dies, it's up to Norman to save the town and pacify the ghost of Aggie (Jodelle Ferland) before the undead rise up to destroy everything.
While Laika's second full length feature doesn't fare as well as "Coraline" (2009), it's still a technical marvel of cutting edge stop-motion animation. The character designs are extreme to the point of absurdity and almost have a "Mad Magazine" quality to them. The film's obvious themes of tolerance, acceptance, compassion, and mob mentality are overly heavy-handed and drain a lot of the fun out of the film, which becomes more of a morality play than a fantasy adventure. This approach clearly targets the children's movie demographic, even though most of the humor is decidedly aimed at adults. The writing is very clever and subversive, and the film is overflowing with funny sight gags that only last for a few frames. While you could easily classify the entire film as an effects picture, the protracted climax goes a little overboard and I found myself getting impatient and wishing it would just end.