I was reading an article about hw Hocus Pocus wasn't a great Halloween movie. I mean, I like Hocus Pocus but I never thought it was exceptionally great, it's just that it checks a lot of the boxes when it comes to good halloween entertainment. Witches, black cats, trick or treating, evil spellbooks made of human flesh supposedly written by Satan with an eye glaring out of the front cover... uh... yeah. And the article also said Paranorman was just better. I saw Paranorman a while back, but couldn't really recall it very well, so. Let's try watching it again!
ParaNorman (2012) is a story about a little boy who just doesn't fit in. Bullies pick on him at school, he has very few friends, not even his family understands him. I can relate, except for one big difference. Norman speaks to the dead. Like in an everyday, "Hello, how are you today?" sort of way. Norman's biggest supporter is his grandmother, but he can't talk about her to his family, because Grandma is dead. Norman makes a new friend at school, but things are a little rocky between them, mostly because it's Halloween and Norman's creepy uncle Prenderghast is dying and has a task for Norman. Norman has to read a book to prevent a witch's curse from raising the dead on Halloween night, and let's be frank, that's a big responsibility for a little kid.
ParaNorman is on Netflix if you want to watch it. I think the biggest difference between Hocus Pocus and Paranorman is the fact that ParaNorman is animated, and Hocus Pocus is not. Paranorman also has what i guess is a more heartfelt message about acceptance and tolerance of the differences in people, where Hocus Pocus is mostly about entertainment. I don't know, I think once you've seen Paranorman, you've pretty much got the thing down, whereas with Hocus Pocus, you can watch it every year without really ruining the fun. There's not a ton of comedy in Paranorman. The voice acting was ok in Paranorman, but I think the only voice I recognized was John Goodman as uncle Prenderghast. Obviously the special effects in a cartoon are a lot easier to manage than live-action, so those are fine, if a bit cartoonish in paranorman. Which do I think is better? Still gonna give the nod to Hocus Pocus for a yearly Halloween treat. Paranorman just doesn't re-watch very well.
In other news, only two more days left in the month! It's been a pretty rough month for me, so I haven't been enjoying the horror as much as I could be. My vehicle died, been trying to get a new one, and my neck injury has been aching like an infected tooth for about three weeks now. I hope you people are having more fun than I am, but I am still doing my best to finish off the month in a sugar-coma from eating too much Halloween candy. :-)
Back tomorrow night with another review, but if you aren't back for the last two days, have a safe and Happy Halloween!
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