50 Fun Facts About ParaNorman

Which animation studio produced ParaNorman?

Laika. The studio grew out of Will Vinton Studios, the claymation house behind the California Raisins ads, which was rescued from financial trouble and renamed in 2005.

Which 2012 sporting event did ParaNorman's zombies spoof in TV ads before its August release?

The London Olympics. One spot showed an undead gymnast nailing his pommel-horse landing despite leaving a decaying arm behind.

Who voices Norman Babcock?

Kodi Smit-McPhee. The directors chose the Australian teenager after seeing him as Viggo Mortensen's son in The Road, a performance they felt showed he could carry a whole film.

In which US state is Norman's hometown set?

Massachusetts. The film's writer said the story 'had to be New England' and called the town 'Salem on a budget', a nod to the state's real witch trials.

What is the name of the town where ParaNorman takes place?

Blithe Hollow. The town lives off the witch trial it once held, selling its dark history to tourists through statues, souvenirs and even a casino called the Lucky Witch.

Where does his great-uncle's ghost corner eleven-year-old Norman to hand over the ritual?

In a toilet stall. At school the ghost squeezes up out of the bowl, makes Norman swear to carry out the ritual, then vanishes with a delighted cry that he is finally free.

Which company released ParaNorman in US cinemas?

Focus Features. A label better known for adult dramas such as Brokeback Mountain took on the zombie cartoon after its first film with the studio paid off; parent Universal handled it abroad.

Who composed ParaNorman's score?

Jon Brion. The directors had cut early story reels to his music from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, liked how well it fitted, and so asked him to write the real thing.

Who co-directed ParaNorman with Sam Fell and also wrote the screenplay?

Chris Butler. A storyboard artist by trade, he wrote the script in his spare time over ten years before the studio let him direct it as his first feature.

Who voices Norman's cheerleader sister Courtney?

Anna Kendrick. Her Courtney starts out mortified by her little brother and ends up facing down an armed mob for him, yelling at the adults to stop trying to kill him.

Who voices the jock Mitch Downe?

Casey Affleck. His musclebound Mitch is no leader: told to take charge of the zombie chase because he is the oldest, he protests, 'Not mentally!'

Who voices Alvin, the school bully, in ParaNorman?

Christopher Mintz-Plasse. Superbad's McLovin was cast against his nerdy image; he had been picked on at school himself and said he thought of the kids he knew when playing the bully.

Who voices Perry Babcock, Norman's exasperated father?

Jeff Garlin. His Perry grounds Norman for talking to ghosts, yet ends the film on the sofa beside him, asking whether his own dead mother is sitting next to him and saying hello.

Which Broadway legend voices the ghost of Grandma Babcock?

Elaine Stritch. Her Grandma explains why she never moved on: she had promised always to look out for Norman and, besides, she doubts there is any cable in paradise.

Who voices Judge Hopkins, leader of the cursed zombies?

Bernard Hill. Titanic's captain and Rohan's King Théoden plays a zombie who ends up squeezed into the family station wagon, giving Norman's father directions from the back seat.

Who voices Agatha "Aggie" Prenderghast?

Jodelle Ferland. Her furious Aggie only calms down when Norman, refusing to be scared off, gets her to remember that somebody once loved her: her mother.

Who voices Norman's eccentric great-uncle, Mr. Prenderghast?

John Goodman. His character dies still clutching the ritual book, so Norman has to sneak into the old man's house and wrestle it out of the corpse's stiff grip.

Who voices Sandra Babcock, Norman's mother?

Leslie Mann. Her Sandra is the family peacemaker, telling Norman that his angry father is not afraid of him but afraid for him.

Which Cosby Show alumna voices Sheriff Hooper?

Tempestt Bledsoe. Vanessa Huxtable grew up to play a small-town sheriff who boasts that 'Parking violation' is her middle name, then has to face an armed mob out hunting zombies.

ParaNorman was the first stop-motion film to make character faces how?

With a full-colour 3-D printer. Colour was now built into every face instead of painted on by hand, so details such as Neil's thousands of freckles stayed put from frame to frame.

ParaNorman was animated not in Portland itself but in which nearby Oregon city?

Hillsboro. The studio's website signs off 'Made in Portland', but its puppets are actually animated just outside the city, in a warehouse that doubles as its headquarters.

ParaNorman was shot frame by frame on about sixty stills cameras from which brand?

Canon. Each EOS 5D Mark II slid from side to side on a rail to take every frame twice, once for each eye, which is how a stills camera delivered a 3-D film.

How old is the witch's curse in ParaNorman?

300 years. The zombies' gravestone is dated 1712, twenty years after the Salem trials and exactly three centuries before the film reached cinemas.

With mix-and-match brows and mouths, roughly how many facial expressions could the Norman puppet pull?

1.5 million. His face came in separate upper and lower pieces, so any brow could go with any mouth, and animators borrowed them from a face library with its own librarian; the studio's previous lead puppet managed roughly 200,000.

ParaNorman's writer pitched it as a horror movie crossed with the films of which 1980s teen-comedy director?

John Hughes. The gang that forms around Norman is drawn from his Breakfast Club types, the jock, the cheerleader, the bully and the misfit, then dropped into a zombie siege.

Which film beat ParaNorman to the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature?

Brave. Three of the five nominees that year, ParaNorman included, were stop-motion films, yet the Oscar went to Pixar's computer-animated Scottish adventure.

ParaNorman's ad agency, Wieden+Kennedy, made its name working for which Oregon sportswear giant?

Nike. Its co-founder owns the studio behind ParaNorman, so he rang the agency that coined 'Just Do It' and asked it to take on a rare film campaign.

Which White Stripes song plays over ParaNorman's closing character cards?

Little Ghost. On the bluegrass-tinged tune a lonely narrator falls in love with an apparition, which makes it a neat send-off for a film about a boy who sees ghosts.

ParaNorman's school play cast sings 'Season of the Witch', a 1966 song by which singer?

Donovan. The pageant it belongs to is not meant to be accurate, as the drama teacher admits when a pupil complains: it is 'supposed to sell postcards and key chains'.

Which British rapper's 'Fix Up, Look Sharp' is heard in ParaNorman?

Dizzee Rascal. His 2003 hit is built on a booming drum break lifted from The Big Beat, a rock track by Billy Squier, so the American shares the writing credit.

The theme music from which horror film appears in ParaNorman?

Halloween. John Carpenter's theme turns up as a mobile phone ringtone, a joke the film's writer says he never expected the studio to get the rights for.

Mitch Downe is widely described as a milestone for mainstream animation because he is what?

Openly gay. It arrives as a closing punchline, when Mitch tells his admirer she will love his boyfriend; the writer said a film about not judging people needed the strength of its convictions.

In 2013 ParaNorman was hailed as the first PG-rated film nominated by which organisation?

GLAAD. The children's zombie comedy was shortlisted for Outstanding Film beside Cloud Atlas and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, and lost to The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

ParaNorman's writer said he wanted to take which cartoon mystery series 'to its logical conclusion'?

Scooby-Doo. Instead of unmasking a fake at the end, he wanted the monsters to turn out to be real; the mismatched gang piling into a van came along for the ride.

ParaNorman opened third in the US behind The Bourne Legacy and which Sylvester Stallone sequel?

The Expendables 2. Its $28.6 million opening doubled ParaNorman's $14 million, though the stop-motion film did beat Disney's new family release that weekend, The Odd Life of Timothy Green.

In which Latin American country did ParaNorman open two weeks before the US?

Mexico. It opened there in second place behind The Dark Knight Rises, while Britain, the home of both its directors, had to wait six more weeks.

Who voices Mrs. Henscher, the drama teacher directing ParaNorman's school play?

Alex Borstein. Family Guy's Lois plays a teacher who orders Norman to read the witch's curse 'with gusto' because, she frets, her reputation is at stake.

Who was the town's "witch" really?

A girl who could speak to the dead. Aggie Prenderghast was eleven, a distant relative of Norman's with the very same gift, and the court that hanged her could only see it as witchcraft.

In ParaNorman, what part does Neil proudly say he is playing in the school pageant?

A tree. A tree also wrecks the big night: mid-performance Norman has a vision in which one warns him the dead are coming, and he blurts it out to the whole audience.

What does the ritual book Norman retrieves turn out to contain?

Fairy tales. The first is Sleeping Beauty, and the whole ritual is a bedtime story, read aloud at the grave once a year to keep the witch's ghost asleep.

Where does Salma send the kids to look for the witch's unmarked grave?

The Town Hall archives. Salma reasons that the witch was tried in the old Town Hall, so a record of her burial might survive there, and scolds the gang for forgetting fifth-grade history.

How does Mr. Prenderghast die?

Heart attack. He dies twice: his spirit pops out, he drags it back in gasping 'Not yet!', then keels over for good with his warning to Norman still unfinished.

Which stop-motion film did ParaNorman's studio release next, in 2014?

The Boxtrolls. When ParaNorman opened, the studio was still calling the project Here Be Monsters, after the Alan Snow novel it adapts.

Which animator, who is also the studio's chief executive, won an Annie Award for his work on ParaNorman?

Travis Knight. He animated the zombies clawing their way out of their graves himself, and later directed Kubo and the Two Strings and the Transformers film Bumblebee.

What do ParaNorman's zombies turn out to want from Norman?

His help ending the curse. Far from hunting brains, they are worn out and sorry; as Norman tells the mob, the curse is not about the zombies hurting them but about them hurting the zombies.

ParaNorman's stormy climax blended stop motion and CGI with which third technique?

Hand-drawn animation. The witch's crackling hair began with artists blowing ink to get a Tesla-coil look, and the effects team animated that 'ink-blot electricity' around the puppet.

In ParaNorman, what does Neil threaten to throw at Mr. Prenderghast to scare him off?

Hummus. 'It's spicy!' he warns, and it works: the wild-eyed old man backs away, hissing at Norman that this isn't done with.

In ParaNorman, whose ghost does Norman find in Neil's back garden?

Neil's dog. Bub was run over by an animal rescue van, 'tragic and ironic' as Neil puts it, and went on to star in the film's tie-in iPhone game, 2-Bit Bub.

Which Aardman film did ParaNorman co-director Sam Fell go on to direct in 2023?

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget. It took him back to the British studio where he had co-directed the sewer-rat comedy Flushed Away, on a sequel that reverses the original: this time the chickens break in rather than out.

Which Stranger Things actor voices the shop clerk Chad in the 2025 short ParaNorman: The Thrifting?

Finn Wolfhard. The seven-minute short swapped stop motion for computer animation and was made to accompany the film's return to cinemas in remastered 3-D.