USA Today Talks ParaNorman at Comic-Con
Brian Truitt of USA Today stopped by to talk to both Focus Features and LAIKA about their upcoming feature ParaNorman. It's a hilarious piece with everyone throwing out ever better descriptions about the film....
Brian Truitt of USA Today stopped by to talk to both Focus Features and LAIKA about their upcoming feature ParaNorman. It's a hilarious piece with everyone throwing out ever better descriptions about the film. Writer and Co-Director Chris Butler describes the Massachusetts town in which the story takes place as, "Like Salem but a really, really rubbish version of Salem. Salem on a budget." Truitt sets up the story as "Norman (voiced by Kodi Smit-McPhee) is the outcast kid in a small Massachusetts town who speaks to the dead.
President/CEO of LAIKA as well as the movie's producer and lead animator Travis Knight drew inspiration from Scooby-Doo in the sense of bringing a bunch of different characters together. Truitt describes some of them:
A team of sorts forms around Norman when danger strikes the town, and many of them are John Hughes archetypes: Norman's chubby friend Neil (newcomer Tucker Albrizzi); Mitch the jock (Casey Affleck); Norman's big sister, cheerleader Courtney (Anna Kendrick); and school bully Alvin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse).