3D Cartoon Film, ParaNorman(2012)

Hey, it is good to see you come here again. So, ParaNorman(2012) by Chris Butler and Sam Fell was chosen for movie on this week. It was provided by Laika company, an American stop-motion animation studio. I am the who loved to watch cartoon since I was small and I really enjoyed this film.

Synopsis
     The story begins with a 11 years-old small kid named Norman Babcock who can see something that normal people cannot see, the ghost. Because of having this natural power, people thought that he is an idiot who always talking to himself all the time. After that, Mr.Prederghast, an old uncle who had same natural power like Norman tried to persuade him to save the town from witch's curse. What will happen to the town? Does Norman able to stop the curse? Who knows...

Postmodernism
     What is postmodernism? This word made up with two different meaning words which are post and modernism. The meaning of post is after or something already happened whereas modernism is something happening between 1980s to 1990s (19th to 20th century). According to Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts (2013) by Susan Hayward in page 284 with line 20-22, she described postmodernism is perceived more as an historical condition within which are contained social, political and cultural agendas and resonances. After that, it also included prefabrication and genre mixing to explain the term of postmodernism.  

Pastiche & Parody
     However, postmodernism had divided in two groups which they are pastiche and parody. For pastiche, it was an attempt to pay tribute to someone or some incidents but it was considered to mock in parody. Next, the similarity of these groups is they referred and copied what people did during that generation. So, film makers will use these two terms to make the movie to reflect the current situation happened at that time.

      For example, ParaNorman was made to mock the people who looked down others just because of natural power like Norman. I was really angry when the scene showed people looked down and bullied Norman. Moreover, Ola Bola was made to pay tribute to the spirit of Malaysia's football team and it gave me the feeling of thankful to them what they did to our country. 

Prefabrication
     Not only that but also, postmodernism can be explained as prefabrication which means a process of a mixture synthesized by several elements which they are miss-en-scene, genres, SFX or soundtrack, narrative and film style. Just a short question for yourself, what will happen to the movie if it lack any one of the element? For instance, a scary movie will mean nothing if it was made without horror SFX. 

      Film makers followed previous film which they would use similar elements to make their movies. For example, what can I found the same element in ParaNorman was SFX of thunderstorm from ParaNorman was copied some of scary movie when a person scared by the sound of thunderstorm. Also, one of component of miss-en-scene which is actor's behaviour and movement was copied by ParaNorman like other zombie movie how a zombie's movement and the scream of people when they saw zombie on the road. This can be also seen by other zombie movie.     

Hybrids & Genres Mixing
     According Susan, she mentioned Neale's point (1990:46 and 48) said that genre does not refer just to film type but to spectator expectation and hypothesis (speculation as to how the film will end) in page 182 with line 9 -11. To make the film more interesting, film makers started to mix more than one genre in a film like ParaNorman. This is because if a movie consists of only one genre, the film will get boring to the audience to stay on his or her seat to continue to watch the film. However, he or she will enjoy the movie if it has hybrids in genres. 

     For a mixing genres, the movie has main and sub genre like ParaNorman was recognized as horror movie just as can see the cover of the movie but it also included some other sub genres like teen film, action and comedy. At the same time, like Neale said a movie cannot just see by its type but need to see until the ending of the movie. For example, if really want to finalize what type movie for ParaNorman; my answer will be the a happy and motivated movie.   

Scene that I liked








     This is the part Norman understood what situation Agatha at and wants to grab her hand to stop the curse.









Scene that I disliked





     This is the part that how people looked Norman. From what the picture showed, they thought Norman was crazy kid who always talking to dead body. 

     This is the scene that people looked down on Norman because of his natural power. They also bullied him most of the time.

Conclusion
     Finally, I liked ParaNorman because it showed me the true feeling of being bullied by others like Norman and Agatha, the witch and the unfairness in that generation. Thank you and have nice day !   


References
S.Hayward (2013), Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts, Fourth Edition, Routledge, London and New York