ParaNorman is a very good movie. It is animated in the style that made The Nightmare Before Christmas so charming. It is dark, and imparts what I consider to be good values without being wishy washy and heavy handed in imparting them.
Story: a boy can see and talk to ghosts. This leads to a lot of hurtful actions from his fellow students, grown-ups, and his parents. He lives in a town once cursed by a witch, who was an 18th century female version of himself. Because of the time period she grew up in, the consequence of her being weird was her execution by hanging, rather than the incessant grind of bullying and "why can't you just be normal?"s. Norman is tasked with sating the spirit of this witch and subduing the curse year after year, but he ultimately ends the curse and frees the witch's soul to paradise (or at least oblivion) with some pretty skillful psychology.
The movie is about abnormal people who are generally castigated or ignored by their peers, the people who should care about them most, and society in general. It shows that we are useful people. I think my favorite line from the movie is the ghost of the boy's grandmother saying "it's okay to be afraid...as long as you don't let it change who you are." Learning to be yourself and everything you want to be in the face of fear--whether justified or not--that you will be rejected or disliked is a very difficult lesson to learn in any sort of meaningful sense (i.e. I'm still learning it).
Generally, the animation is not what you would describe as "attractive" so much as cool. However, the visual beauty of the animation builds up to the climax, which is just about the most amazing animation I've ever seen. The final scenes are beautiful to watch.
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