As a huge fan of animation I was delighted to hear that Laika, one of the most interesting animation studios of recent times, were rereleasing several of their films as special steelbook editions and I jumped at the chance to revisit two of their excellent features.
PARANORMAN
Director: Sam Fell, Chris Butler
Screenplay: Chris Butler
Producers: Arianne Sutner, Travis Knight
Starring: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Tucker Albrizzi, Anna Kendrick, Casey Affleck
Year: 2012
Country: USA
BBFC Certification: PG
Duration: 92 mins
Laika’s second feature film after the excellent Coraline took elements of that film’s dark and sinister makeup and applied them to a more straightforward Comedy template. Written by Chris Butler, who also co-directed with Aardman alumnus Sam Fell, ParaNorman leans heavily on recognisable stereotypes from 80s cinema: the misunderstood outsider protagonist, the overweight best friend, the superficial mean girl sister, the good-natured but dunderheaded jock, the bad-natured and also dunderheaded bully. These well-worn tropes have both a positive and negative effect on ParaNorman’s impact. On the one hand their immediate recognisability makes for an easy viewing experience but by the same token they feel immediately played out and predictable. Fortunately, ParaNorman is a visually ravishing and inventive film. The sets are fantastically beautiful, stylised with a ragged charm that reflects the film’s oddball aspirations. The characters, some of whom look like they’ve stepped out of 90s adult animation Crapston Villas, are wonderfully peculiar. Their faces were created using a 3D printer in a first for the animated medium.
Although I initially found ParaNorman disappointing after the fiercely unusual Coraline, without that unnecessary comparison it holds up well as a stand-alone achievement. Amidst the wilful clichés, there are moments that push the envelope for a family film. With its zombie plot and allusions to classic B-Horror, the target audience obviously incorporates a wide age group, while some of the black humour is clearly aimed at those with a budding or well-established morbidity. In particular, a scene in which Norman tries to pry a book out of the rigor-mortised fingers of his dead uncle is deliciously anarchic and irreverent. ParaNorman is also often hailed as progressive for being the first mainstream animated film to feature an openly gay character. Although that is a bit of a stretch considering the character’s sexuality is kept a secret throughout the film and only revealed as a punchline, it is still worth celebrating any kind of LGBTQ+ visibility in a 2012 production and a subsequent example in How to Train Your Dragon 2 (also positioned as a fleeting punchline) helped open the door for subsequent and more extensive representation.
Fast-paced and fun while also refreshingly downbeat and disturbing, ParaNorman takes a big swing with the truly horrific revelations of its final act which lead to some of the most striking and unforgettable scenes in the film. There is a slight problem with the tonal shift, however, with the emotional beats feeling harder to land after the more broadly cynical and gag-based tone that precedes them. The ragbag crew of teens that assemble don’t really go on any kind of journey together other than a literal one, making their eleventh-hour bonding in the face of adversity a little hard to buy. Norman’s encounter with the witch who has cursed his town is easier to swallow as it spotlights the title character and removes the oddball supporting players at just the right time to make the genuine pathos ring true. It just proves to be difficult to navigate back from that point to a totally satisfying payoff.
While my experience of classic Horror cinema is sufficient to understand ParaNorman’s touchstones, the film probably plays better for those who have a great affection for those reference points rather than just a passing knowledge of them. Not being much of a Horror fan, I am perhaps not the exact target audience for ParaNorman, although as an animation obsessive its impeccable visual design absolutely chimes with me. It’s great to know that there is a whole generation who have embraced this as a classic. May it illuminate the darkest corners of their future Halloweens for decades to come!
KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS
Director: Travis Knight
Screenplay: Marc Haimes, Chris Butler
Producers: Arianne Sutner, Travis Knight
Starring: Art Parkinson, Charlize Theron, Matthew McConaughey, Ralph Fiennes
Year: 2016
Country: USA
BBFC Certification: PG
Duration: 102 mins
Kubo and the Two Strings, Laika’s fourth film, was criticised upon release for telling a story set in ancient Japan that was primarily populated by a white voice cast. This criticism was able to largely go under the radar back in 2016 but looking back from a standpoint of less than a decade down the line this detail does feel greatly disappointing. The problem was highlighted again two years later in Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs, which was taken to task over issues of cultural appropriation and white saviorism. I’m not here to wag fingers. I admit I loved Isle of Dogs and, as we shall see, I also loved Kubo and the Two Strings. But the fact that we’ve reached a time where such unfortunate production decisions are immediately recognised and widely called out is an interesting and instructive point worth elevating to an introductory paragraph. We improve as people by listening, understanding and responding accordingly, but sometimes the problematic art that acts as our stepping stones towards betterment remains worthy of our continued consumption and appreciation. So is the case with Kubo and the Two Strings, which I believe is a well-intentioned film by a director who was attempting to celebrate a culture in a manner that we are right to question but which many of us may not have spotted without the benefit of the discussions that arose in the aftermath of its release. Representation issues aside, the voice cast are also very good, with Art Parkinson making an appealing hero, Charlize Theron a resilient guide, Ralph Fiennes a layered villain and Matthew McConaughey a very amusing comedic foil.
Following two more broadly comedic Laika productions, ParaNorman and The Boxtrolls, Kubo and the Two Strings returned to a more abstruse and fascinating storytelling style similar to that featured in Laika’s classic debut feature Coraline, influenced by Epic Fantasy but not bogged down in the overwhelming lore that makes that genre often impenetrable to many. Hayao Miyazaki was named by director Travis Knight as an influence and, much as I adore Miyazaki’s work, I struggle with his denser Fantasy Epics like Princess Mononoke and Naussicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Fortunately (for me, at any rate) Kubo and the Two Strings retains an overall lighter tone than these sombre, hefty creations. It tells its story by slowly drip-feeding information, showing-not-telling and gradually painting a fuller picture through narrative revelations and unveiled symbols. At no point does this process become frustrating because Knight ensures that the screen is always populated with interesting and magical images. Kubo’s musical storytelling using origami figures is particularly captivating, while the parade of sea monsters, dragons and skeletons evoke the glorious spirit of Ray Harryhausen’s work on the Sinbad films. Not for nothing did Kubo and the Two Strings become the first Laika film to be nominated for both the Best Animated Feature and Best Visual Effects Oscars.
Unlike ParaNorman, which is likely to appeal most strongly to fans of the Horror genre, Kubo and the Two Strings transcended its Fantasy roots to engage this viewer with intricate but grounded storytelling that resonated on a basic human level. It remains a ravishing film and confirmed Laika’s place amongst the most interesting animation studios working today.
ParaNorman and Kubo and the Two Strings were released as 4K UHD & Blu-ray Limited Edition Steelbooks on 16 December 2024 by Anime Limited, in association with LAIKA. Special features are as follows:
PARANORMAN
-Inside LAIKA – Discovering The Characters And Effects Of ParaNorman
-Inside LAIKA – Revisiting The Puppets With LAIKA’s Animation Team
-Feature-Length Storyboards
-Character, Concept Art And Behind-The-Scenes Photo Galleries
-Audio Commentary With Writer/Director Chris Butler And Co-Director Sam Fell
-“Peering Through The Veil”
-Original Featurettes
KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS
-Inside LAIKA – Confronting The Epic Challenges Of Kubo And The Two Strings
-Inside LAIKA – Revisiting The Puppets With LAIKA’s Animation Team
-Feature-Length Storyboards
-Character, Concept Art And Behind-The-Scenes Photo Galleries
-Audio Descriptive Track
-Audio Commentary With Director/Producer Travis Knight
-“Kubo’s Journey”
-Original Featurettes
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