Laika Films’ two features have approached the horror genre in remarkably different ways. While their breakout hit Coraline (2009) was the stuff of nightmares, a story rooted in subconscious, repressed fears and surreal imagery, ParaNorman is horror filtered through comic books and cable television. Like the best pop culture for kids and their parents, it’s intense, funny, and more than a little inappropriate.

Our hero is Norman, an 11-year-old who can see and talk to ghosts. When one warns him of impending doom, Norman gathers a crew of local outcasts to save their town from a curse – and roving mobs of idiotic adults.


Before the film’s release we spoke with writer/directors Sam Fell and Chris Butler about how to really make a movie for kids.

ParaNorman balances comedy and horror, kid-friendly jokes and darker themes. What would you say to parents wondering about its appropriateness? 



FELL: It’s not a “horror film for kids” in the sense that we set out to scare them [specifically]. The wrapping of the story is horror and there are references to horror films, but I think it’s very heartfelt and funny. We put in scares we thought younger viewers could handle – really, parents are more worried about that sort of thing than their kids. Of course you should know your children and what works for them.

BUTLER: The big theme is not judging a book by its cover and with that, we ask the same of the audience; we have what appears to be a horror film for kids but it’s really about something [deeper].

Even harder to avoid than going too far would be not going far enough, tempering the intense material with an overly saccharine story – something ParaNorman definitely avoids.

BUTLER: We definitely didn’t want to do that. A lot of our inspiration came from the 1980s, when movies for families could be more irreverent, braver and smarter. Laika is a brave studio, Coraline certainly “went there.” We wanted to go there as well, not in the same way but to places other studios just won’t.

FELL: As long as the emotional element is honest and true it won’t be saccharine.

BUTLER: I hate kid’s movies that condescend. I really don’t like hearing an adult’s voice coming out of a child [character] literally or through the tone of dialogue. Our main character is 11 and we had to strip away our years of maturity.    

How you decide what your own kids should watch?

FELL: I’m pretty tolerant. It’s psychological stuff that I’m worried about, difficult ideas. Coraline was a much more difficult film [than ParaNorman]. It came out when my son was five and I didn’t think he could handle it. More cartoonish violence and horror doesn’t worry me – he makes his own stop-motion shorts and they’re so violent, like little Tarantino movies. That’s a part of being young!

BUTLER: I remember I read a story in front of the whole school, with parents in attendance, about how my dog had slaughtered a nest of rats. I had an illustration of it. My mom just sat there, like [head in hands].

FELL: Kids are much darker than grown-ups.

The film is rated PG for “scary action and images, thematic elements, some rude humor and language” and I’d bet the MPAA had bigger issues with the last two points.

BUTLER: Probably. “Thematic elements,” that could mean anything. We definitely think of kids as being complex creatures and that includes, at age 11, having sexual or violent thoughts.


It may have the first overt gay reference in a kid’s animated movie.


BUTLER: Unless you count any of the Disney villains.

Stop-motion animation is a very long and involving process. How did you reconcile that with the need to stay fresh with jokes and dialogue?

BUTLER: That was tricky, being a 38-year-old man writing lines for a 15-year-old cheerleader. Everything I wrote just made me feel like a dinosaur.

FELL: We wanted it to be contemporary, as much as it references ‘80s entertainment.

BUTLER: In the three years of making the movie we’ve seen the same jokes hundreds and hundreds of times so we just had no idea what was really working or not. You had to retain that initial gut feeling.

Outside the more fantastical elements and special effects, you put a lot of attention into the appearance of Norman’s town. Like a lot of small towns it kind of looks like crap.

FELL: It was fun to try and recreate the real world, I’d like to think a first for animation: the crappy old ordinary world. Broken bicycles, dog shit on the ground.

BUTLER: So many animated movies try to create that perfect, pastel-painted world. We wanted the audience to feel like they were on a real street with genuine characters. That helped us introduce the supernatural element; by starting with a real world than the supernatural is a great contrast.

The Salem witch trials inspired the history of Norman’s town. I was surprised how respectfully you treated those events, compared to most depictions in pop culture.

BUTLER: I actually thought we were creating a tackier version of Salem, but when I actually went there I found out, “Oh, this actually exists.” Years go by after a horrific event and you can commemorate it any way you’d like, you can sell bumper stickers.

FELL: It reflects the current day in terms of a mob mentality.

BUTLER: It’s a perfect reflection of the nastiness that still exists with that mentality. One thing that rarely gets pointed out is who got the finger pointed at them first: a black woman, followed by an old woman, and a widow. Outsiders. It fit our own story perfectly.

FELL: I don’t know if we treated it respectfully but it fit our central theme of tolerance and understanding.

BUTLER: We still have fun with the “mob.” The mob is always full of stupid individuals, and stupid individuals are always funny.



ParaNorman hits theatres everywhere August 17.