What A Cartoon Movie! - ParaNorman

Druida

My favorite Laika movie, Coraline being the second, and one of my favorite animated flicks. I go back sometimes to watch that final scene of Aggie and the zombies finally passing on, with that wonderful music. The judge's expression gets me everytime.

Dylan (batmanboy11) Freitag

I really wish I had watched this movie at some point EARLIER than 10 years after it came out, cause it rocks. Obviously it would've been nice to see an explicitly out gay character throughout the film, but I still liked his portrayal a lot, and the only sour note it had was the fact that it was Casey Affleck voicing him (which I did not realize until the credits).

Christian Kiddle

One of the few bits of trivia I remember about this movie is that Jonathan Coulton of nerd music fame was gifted a couple of zombie puppets used in filming, because some folks at Laika really liked Re: Your Brains

Was the bri'ish joke really necessary? Let alone several times in a row?

SilkiePJ

I'm really happy that the WAC Poll helped Bob and Henry discover a modern classic that they truly loved and opened up about. I was never the biggest Paranorman fan because the first half felt a lot like the typical Tim Burton-esque movie about ostracizing weird people, but in Talking Simpsons fashion, the research really opened my eyes to all the detail put into the movie from the characters to the jokes. And I appreciated that on rewatch, there was so much foreshadowing and extra details to catch. If we have to continue having a billionaire class, the least they can do is dump their money into passionate art projects like Laika.

Peter Hanneman

Excellent episode and movie choice. It may be a bit of a read between the lines moment, but I think Aggie’s mom was a ghost when she took her to the tree and told her stories. The family gift is the ability to talk with ghosts, and this seems to be the only mention of her communicating with someone who we never see a model of. It would also explain why she didn’t have someone to help hide her gift from the other puritans. I guess it’s also implied she had siblings since the family continued for 300 years.

Talking Simpsons

Thanks for sharing your personal story; we're glad we could help you with our little podcast. - Bob

Blake R.

I’m thrilled this won out of some stiff competition as there’s so much to talk about with Laika. I remember seeing this in a near empty theater when it came out and was its biggest champion to get people to go see it. I remember like the only Paranorman merch I could find was a pencil set that I got for my first year of college. I sorely wish I hadn’t lost it.

Stupid Sexy Spencer Flanders

I'm so happy I actually listened to a movie podcast that I haven't seen the movie of. It's going to sound dumb and cheesy, but I've needed mental health help probably for years, but especially over the last year. I've had a lot of difficult discussions with people I love but have pushed away lately. Something about this movie, acted through with child puppets but written by people who genuinely gave a shit about their message, got me this morning. My first therapy session is tomorrow. Mental health issues run in the family, the family just refuses to talk about or acknowledge it. I turn 30 in two weeks and I don't care how cheesy it is, this episode made me cry and acknowledge where I'm at and that I need to break the cycle. Thank you to the patrons who voted against me and helped this win. I needed this.

Saya Clarke

Also Bob, I had three, yes three older sisters. Half sisters. And I was adopted. AND I was the only brown person in the family. The amount of abuse and harassment I suffered made me into an iron skin type of person today.

Joe Binson

Loved this movie and loved the Paranorman Walk theme.

Saya Clarke

I tweeted at Henry yesterday asking what he thought of The Mitchel’s vs The Machines and then he happens to bring it up in this episode that was recorded a while ago. Awesome coincidence very satisfying.