Film #4: Paranorman (2012)
Paranorman (2012, Sam Fell and Chris Butler)
The purpose of this essay is to analyze the genres used in the film, "Paranorman" and to discuss the theories used in this film.
Hybrid genre is also known as cross genre which is when a fiction film contains several different genres. There are two elements in this genre which are regressive and progressive. According to Jo (2011), regressive is a text that attempts to take on "original" elements to a genre resisting change that has already happened within the genre and attempting to go back to the earlier state, while progressive is a text created by combining aspects of different genres It is usually an attempt to be original but blending in the elements. Films such as Sweeney Todd, Avatar, Bridget Jones and etc are categorized in the hybrid genre.
Postmodernism is a broad movement that makes its departure from modernism. Postmodernism exists because filmmakers feel skeptical or reject towards the ideologies of modernism. It also promotes reflective stands on social, political and cultural agendas and resonances, thus suggesting a "anything goes" attitude. Paranorman is under prefabrication in the characteristics of postmodernism. It is categorized as a bricolage. Bricolage is a mashup or creation from a diverse range of existing ideas which is also known as genre binding or hybrid genre.
Paranorman is a 3D stop-motion animated comedy horror film directed by Sam Fell and Chris Butler. A young boy named Norman can communicate with ghosts. He is the kid who always get bullied at school for being weird due to him communicating with ghosts. Ghosts exist because they have unfinished business in the real world and Norman is given a task by Mr. Prenderghast to break the witch's curse. Norman, together with his sister, Courtney, his friend, Neil and his friend's brother, Mitch work together to break the undying curse.
Paranorman is a film categorized under the hybrid genre. It contains comedy, action, fantasy and horror genre.
Comedy genre is designed to draw laughter out of the audience. It is humorous and amusing to the audience watching. Its main goal is to entertain the audience with exaggerated situations, characters ad their behaviors, language and action. There are a few types of comedy which are slapstick, screwball, black or dark comedy and parody. In this film, there are scenes that contains comedy. First, when Neil, Norman's schoolmate wanted to smooch his late dog, Bub buried in his backyard, since Neil can not see the presence of the dog, Norman guide him to where Bub is and he air-smooch Bub's butt hole. Another scene is not long after the previous scene where Neil told Norman to try to throw a stick. When Norman throws it, the stick hits the tree and flew and hit's Neil head. A scene where Mitch screams and kicks one of the zombie's head, which I found it amusing to me. One scene where the dead retrieves and hide due to the citizens attacking them which made me baffled because zombies should be terrifying to people but instead, the citizens are attacking them. At the end, when Mitch told Courtney that she would love to meet his boyfriend. Mitch turned out to be homosexual and it was a surprise to Courtney due to continuous flirting before he announces his sexual orientation.
Horror genre is designed to panic and frighten the audience. This film involves a sub genre which is zombies and ghosts. At the beginning of the film, Norman was shown to be talking to his late grandmother who is a ghost in the living room. Then later, Norman was greeting and talking to the "people" on the street which other people can not see as Norman can see and communicate with ghosts. The dead became alive when Norman went to the wrong graveyard to end the witch's curse, which did not work. The zombies came in a mob to the town to show the citizens the existence of zombies. Towards the end, a ghostly whisper of Aggie Phenderghast to Norman totally brought audience to have goosebumps.
Action genre involves violence such as fighting, killing, action stunts and chase. One of the action is when a police woman chases after Norman and the others driving away from her because they were speeding thus, breaking the law. Another scene is where the citizens brought along tools to fight with the zombies that came to the town. They were smashing them, smacking them and trying to pull off their limbs.
Fantasy genre is a fiction which takes place in the fictional universe often without referencing the real world's location. For example, Paranorman consists of an ancient myth where there is an angry witch in the town. Norman frequently has "imagination" where he falls into a different place and when he met the Aggie, he was brought into her world of isolation.
Is semantic and syntactic approach complementary to the hybrid genre?
In my opinion, it is a no. This is because this film, Paranorman contains a fantasy genre and fantasy genre is based on fictional characters in the fictional universe which does not contain any locations, events or people related to the real world. Semantic approach is the visuals of a film and syntactic approach is the theme found in the film. The visuals are usually have to made or go to the location to film it while, in animated films, you do not have to. The characters are not real and it is based on drawing and animation of the characters.
To summarize this essay, according to Sharkey (2012), Paranorman is "A spooking twist on outsider kid's sad tale, the stop-motion animated film is family-friendly and fun even will all the ghosts and zombies". This film is definitely a must watch especially for kids who are scared of zombies, this can change their perspectives of zombies and since this is animated, it is less scary than the human zombies.
References:
1) Jo, H. (2011, November 25). Genre theory (2). Retrieved from https://www.slideshare.net/joehret/genre-theory-2
2) Dictionary of Postmodern Terms. Retrieved from http://www.onpostmodernism.com/terms
3) Sharkey, B. (2012, August 16). Review: 'Paranorman' runs amok with paranormal activity. Retrieved from http://articles.latimes.com/2012/aug/16/entertainment/la-et-mn-paranorman-20120817
The purpose of this essay is to analyze the genres used in the film, "Paranorman" and to discuss the theories used in this film.
Hybrid genre is also known as cross genre which is when a fiction film contains several different genres. There are two elements in this genre which are regressive and progressive. According to Jo (2011), regressive is a text that attempts to take on "original" elements to a genre resisting change that has already happened within the genre and attempting to go back to the earlier state, while progressive is a text created by combining aspects of different genres It is usually an attempt to be original but blending in the elements. Films such as Sweeney Todd, Avatar, Bridget Jones and etc are categorized in the hybrid genre.
Postmodernism is a broad movement that makes its departure from modernism. Postmodernism exists because filmmakers feel skeptical or reject towards the ideologies of modernism. It also promotes reflective stands on social, political and cultural agendas and resonances, thus suggesting a "anything goes" attitude. Paranorman is under prefabrication in the characteristics of postmodernism. It is categorized as a bricolage. Bricolage is a mashup or creation from a diverse range of existing ideas which is also known as genre binding or hybrid genre.
Paranorman is a 3D stop-motion animated comedy horror film directed by Sam Fell and Chris Butler. A young boy named Norman can communicate with ghosts. He is the kid who always get bullied at school for being weird due to him communicating with ghosts. Ghosts exist because they have unfinished business in the real world and Norman is given a task by Mr. Prenderghast to break the witch's curse. Norman, together with his sister, Courtney, his friend, Neil and his friend's brother, Mitch work together to break the undying curse.
Paranorman is a film categorized under the hybrid genre. It contains comedy, action, fantasy and horror genre.
Comedy genre is designed to draw laughter out of the audience. It is humorous and amusing to the audience watching. Its main goal is to entertain the audience with exaggerated situations, characters ad their behaviors, language and action. There are a few types of comedy which are slapstick, screwball, black or dark comedy and parody. In this film, there are scenes that contains comedy. First, when Neil, Norman's schoolmate wanted to smooch his late dog, Bub buried in his backyard, since Neil can not see the presence of the dog, Norman guide him to where Bub is and he air-smooch Bub's butt hole. Another scene is not long after the previous scene where Neil told Norman to try to throw a stick. When Norman throws it, the stick hits the tree and flew and hit's Neil head. A scene where Mitch screams and kicks one of the zombie's head, which I found it amusing to me. One scene where the dead retrieves and hide due to the citizens attacking them which made me baffled because zombies should be terrifying to people but instead, the citizens are attacking them. At the end, when Mitch told Courtney that she would love to meet his boyfriend. Mitch turned out to be homosexual and it was a surprise to Courtney due to continuous flirting before he announces his sexual orientation.
Horror genre is designed to panic and frighten the audience. This film involves a sub genre which is zombies and ghosts. At the beginning of the film, Norman was shown to be talking to his late grandmother who is a ghost in the living room. Then later, Norman was greeting and talking to the "people" on the street which other people can not see as Norman can see and communicate with ghosts. The dead became alive when Norman went to the wrong graveyard to end the witch's curse, which did not work. The zombies came in a mob to the town to show the citizens the existence of zombies. Towards the end, a ghostly whisper of Aggie Phenderghast to Norman totally brought audience to have goosebumps.
Action genre involves violence such as fighting, killing, action stunts and chase. One of the action is when a police woman chases after Norman and the others driving away from her because they were speeding thus, breaking the law. Another scene is where the citizens brought along tools to fight with the zombies that came to the town. They were smashing them, smacking them and trying to pull off their limbs.
Fantasy genre is a fiction which takes place in the fictional universe often without referencing the real world's location. For example, Paranorman consists of an ancient myth where there is an angry witch in the town. Norman frequently has "imagination" where he falls into a different place and when he met the Aggie, he was brought into her world of isolation.
Is semantic and syntactic approach complementary to the hybrid genre?
In my opinion, it is a no. This is because this film, Paranorman contains a fantasy genre and fantasy genre is based on fictional characters in the fictional universe which does not contain any locations, events or people related to the real world. Semantic approach is the visuals of a film and syntactic approach is the theme found in the film. The visuals are usually have to made or go to the location to film it while, in animated films, you do not have to. The characters are not real and it is based on drawing and animation of the characters.
To summarize this essay, according to Sharkey (2012), Paranorman is "A spooking twist on outsider kid's sad tale, the stop-motion animated film is family-friendly and fun even will all the ghosts and zombies". This film is definitely a must watch especially for kids who are scared of zombies, this can change their perspectives of zombies and since this is animated, it is less scary than the human zombies.
References:
1) Jo, H. (2011, November 25). Genre theory (2). Retrieved from https://www.slideshare.net/joehret/genre-theory-2
2) Dictionary of Postmodern Terms. Retrieved from http://www.onpostmodernism.com/terms
3) Sharkey, B. (2012, August 16). Review: 'Paranorman' runs amok with paranormal activity. Retrieved from http://articles.latimes.com/2012/aug/16/entertainment/la-et-mn-paranorman-20120817
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