‘ParaNorman’ not just for kids

By ROGER MOORE
McCLATCHY NEWS SERVICE

Norman, the young hero of the animated delight “Para-Norman,” hears dead people. He sees them, too. So there’s no sense trying to comfort him because you think he’s missing his dead grandma too much.

“Grandma’s in a better place.”

“In the LIVING room?”

Since Norman has grown up in Blithe Hollow, a town with a rich history of witches and witch trials, it’s only natural that Norman is a little “ParaNorman.” But it gets him teased, and his creepy-crank of an uncle (voiced by John Goodman) won’t leave him alone. Norman has a destiny, his uncle says, a duty to lift the 300-year-old curse that’s hung over the town since one infamous witch trial centuries before. The witches are coming back to haunt the town. Only “ParaNorman” can save it.

“ParaNorman” is a stop-motion animated marvel from some of the same folks who gave us “Coraline” and “Corpse Bride,” and it wears its bloodlines with pride. It’s that rare kids’ movie with edge, a witchy, witty romp that could frighten the very youngest moviegoers and makes parents blanch at some of the jokes. This isn’t “Ice Age,” children.