So I first saw this lovely movie on the flight to Korea, and I have to say it's got to be one of the greatest movies I've seen, and yet I feel like, as is the case with many gems, it's not getting the recognition I feel it deserves. Where are the banners? Where are the praises? Holy choirs with biblical light? I mean, come on, the messages that this movie promotes are just incredible.
So instead, i'm going to break it on down for you all here. Because this is my blog, and its what I can do.
So the movie starts off introducing the type of life that Norman experiences on the daily. Zombies, ghosts, and people not believing him in any sort of way. Spoiler alert : He can speak to the dead. The very beginning actually drops some plot bombs if you have the ear to hear them.
(though to be real,
there will be spoilers in this little ramble, so if you haven't seen the movie,
you should read this next line and then stop:
Go see the movie.)
Norman is a simple kid who is honestly the type of child you'd like to have: He's honest, does what his parents ask of him, apparently likes to read, and has the courage to at least be himself (even if he wishes that he wasn't the way he is.) Immediately you're presented with the fact that his Father and elder sister deem his talent of speaking to the dead to be a complete and utter crock of it, while his Mother seems supportive in the way of a mom who finds it odd but doesn't see the harm in it (nor does she appear to believe him, truth be told.) As a result, Norman catches grief not just at home but apparently from the rest of the town as well, as we see in his little walk both to and through school.
I could go into a whole summary of the movie, but i'm not going to. I'm just going to talk about the things that interested me so much about it. You see Norman living the effects of verbal and emotional abuse at the hands of his peers (because if you think bullying is neither of these, then you're either completely kidding yourself, or you were/are a bully yourself and can't see past your own damage.) Despite this, Norman doesn't seem to grow bitter towards the people who are treating him this way. If anything, he just seems tired, and who can blame him? I think on some level he understands why it's so hard for them to think he's telling the truth, however this in no way excuses their actions (such as spray painting his locker with the word Freak.)
Norman makes an unlikely friend in the little boy Neil, who accepts Norman for who he is, and in fact tells Norman to not let the others bother him. Neil himself is a victim of bullying, saying its just a part of life, a sad but true fact (until we start teaching our kids that kindness is more valuable than being the head-honcho.) Neil, to me, is one of the greatest characters in this movie, in many movies, because he's just such a great friend. He is positive, he is kind, and he stands up for Norman against some 'creepy' individuals. He is the type of friend that I hope every little kid can find.
The movie addresses the reality of adults dismissing children, assuming they know better simply because they're older. Adults are in all honesty quite ready to treat children like lesser beings in regards to what they have to say, and as a result, children so often grow up thinking that their opinion really doesn't matter as much as it should. I read once on a forum that "Adults want to tell us that we should speak up for ourselves, stand up for ourselves, until our opinion differs from theirs." To a degree, I can agree with this. Just because a person is younger or has a different view point, I do not believe that they should be dismissed as 'foolish.' I feel like in a way, this movie addresses this.
Paranorman also addresses the issue of fearing what you do not understand. As a whole, humanity is so quick to shun what we do not understand as evil, freakish, and wrong. We see this in the case of the Puritans vs The Witch, Norman and the town, as well as Norman and his family. There's a memorable moment in the movie when, after Norman had a vision during the school play in front of the whole town, his father is going off about him in the car ride home.
Norman: This is so unfair. I wish everyone could see what I see. I didn't asked to be born this way.
Dad: Huh, funny. Neither did we.
(Dad gets out of the car and walks inside. Norman's mom turns to look at him in the backseat.)
Mom: Y'know...sometimes people say things that seem mean, but they do it because they're afraid.
Norman: He's my dad. He shouldn't be afraid of me.
Later, when Norman confronts the Zombies after seeing what they did, he is both shocked, hurt, and disgusted by what they did : These adults condemned a young girl to death because she was different from them, and they were afraid of her. He asks them how they could do that, she was just a little girl, and they respond saying they were afraid. I think this is something that spurs a lot of the horrible actions we see people take. Its purely part of human nature, but not something to be encouraged. If we continue to destroy anything that is different/scares us, this world is going to end in fire, without a doubt.
One of the most valuable quotes in the movie comes from Norman's Grandmother, who tells him:
"There's nothing wrong with being scared, Norman, as long as it doesn't change who you are."
Its such a simple line, but to me, its one of the most beautiful lines uttered in this whole movie.
Later, when Norman confronts (comforts even) The Witch, the little girl, she asks him about his own tormentors. Turns out, the little girl could see the dead, just like Norman, so when the town discovered this, they convicted her of witch craft and sentenced her to death. She looked to be all of 10 years old? So suddenly this little girl was ripped from her mother and hanged, and then buried in an unmarked grave, where for generations since a certain someone who could 'speak to the dead' would have to read from a book to keep her spirit at rest, as before she died the little girl cursed "them all." Ironic that the very talent that condemned her to death would be the one that would then be used for ages to keep her in the grave. The movie delivers a red herring in the sense of the Zombies, as you think that the curse she spoke of was to have zombies come back and eat everyone in town, but the curse is actually ON the Zombies. She turned the people who convicted her into the living dead, and when they rose up, they would be tormented by the town themselves. When Norman is talking to the girl, she asks him:
Aggie : What about the people who hurt you? Don't you want them to suffer?
Norman: I thought about that once, but what good would it do?
I really liked this moment, because it shows who Norman is inside. He's not above thinking of retribution, but the fact is, the thought was passing. He understood that wishing harm on the people who do him harm wouldn't fix the problem, not the real problem. He knew that the kids were acting out of shallowness, fear, and basic stupidity, yes, but he had a sort of inner strength to go past that. Its honestly incredible to me that he would. I don't think people really understand the effect that constant name calling and constantly cutting down an individual can have. We're all born with high self esteem. We don't know any different. As we get older, however, we start to become subjected to what other people expect of us : beauty standards, whatever the "normal" is where they're at, etc etc. People condemn differences instead of celebrating them, and suddenly the little light inside of each of us starts to dim and waver, and maybe we're not as special or worthy of love as we had thought. I mean, it must be so, right? Otherwise why would these people who do not know you for who you truly are decide at a glance that you are beneath them?
The fact is, verbal abuse, BULLYING, is just as painful as physical abuse, it just doesn't leave as obvious of marks.
The last bit that I super loved in this movie was the smooth, effortless way they revealed that Mitch was gay. It wasn't treated as a punch line, it wasn't central to his character or personality or his presence in the movie in any way. It was beautiful. Just " My boyfriend loves chick flicks." The end. It was one of the greatest fist pump moments I've ever experienced watching a movie.
So yeah. That's my rant on the movie. It's a thing of glory, and it should be seen.
