Friday, March 2, 2012

New Trailer for Stop-Motion Horror 'ParaNorman'

It seems like 'Frankenweenie' isn't the only fun kids movie this year that's going to delve into darker territory. The new flick 'ParaNorman' from Laika is the story of a young boy named Norman (hence the punny title) who sees dead people. But when an evil witch threatens to cause the dead to return to life, it's up to Norman and his rag-tag band of friends to save the day.

Sounds pretty fun to me.

'ParaNorman' stars Kodi Smit-McPhee ('Let Me In') as the title character. The rest of the cast is rounded out with a few notable actors like John Goodman, Casey Affleck, and Tempest Bledsoe. It's written and directed by Chris Butler who handled the stop-motion film 'The Corpse Bride'. Check out the first full trailer below:

'Paranorman' hits theaters on August 17th, 2012.

The First Trailer for Tim Burton's 'Frankenweenie'

I haven't been a fan of most of Tim Burton's work since the horrible 'Planet of the Apes' remake back in 2001. It seems as if the once genius filmmaker has slipped into a coma of remakes and adaptations that have his visual flair but not his heart. Hopefully that will change with Disney's upcoming 'Frankenweenie'.

'Frankenweenie' is a full length version of Burton's own 1984 short film of the same name (and one of my personal favorites). It tells the heartwarming story of a young boy who tries to resurrect his dog Sparky after the canine dies in a car accident. The original short was filmed using live-action actors with a black and white retro horror vibe. The new version uses Burton's trademark stop-motion animation (the same that was used on 'Corpse Bride').

Today, Yahoo! Movies released the first official trailer for the movie and, so far, it looks very good! Check it out...



What do you think? Are you in the mood for a black and white stop-motion animated movie? Will Disney let Burton keep the update as creepy as the original? I sure hope so! If the movie is as good as the trailer, then I may become a Burton fan once again.