ParaNorman (2012)

2009 was the last year that experienced a huge mainstream resurgence in the stop-motion animation field. Now it feels like it has ignited this spawn to occur where three films of the aforementioned craft release every third year after it happened. "The Pirates! Band of Misfits" was the first of the three stop-motion animated films to release this year, which was a pleasant adventure but still a tad disappointing when comparing it to Aardman Animations' past credits. Second in the lineup is "ParaNorman," the LAIKA sophomore follow-up to their 2009 sleeper hit "Coraline." Proclaimed by its co-director Sam Fell as "John Carpenter-meets-John Hughes," does "ParaNorman" live up to that bold summary, or does it tarnish the potential good streak that stop-motion animated films have had this year so far? Hit the jump button to find out!

The Pirates! Band of Misfits (2012)

 

In the earliest days of cinema, one of the first innovations in animation came from stop-motion claymation. However in today’s age of cinema, its relevance has rapidly gone downhill, but there is one filmmaker every few years that takes the bold challenge to show that the subgenre isn’t dead.

Furthermore, what better way for the person to bring it back again than the present day stop-motion master himself, Peter Lord. The latest release that he and the hugely underrated Aardman Animations Studio bring us is “The Pirates: Band of Misfits.”