Pun Salad

Usually I am pretty OK with ostensibly-for-kids animated movies. But I didn't like this one much. Maybe I was in a bad mood? As always, your mileage may vary.

Norman is a nice kid, but he has a problem: like Haley Joel Osment, he sees dead people. Nobody believes him, of course. His dad yells at him, his sister scorns him, and he's bullied at school by the large, obnoxious Alvin.

Blithe Hollow, where Norman resides, is kinda like Salem, MA: famous for its supernatural past. Specifically, a condemned witch once cursed her accusers for eternity. Since then a townsperson has been given the annual task of protecting the town from the curse. Currently, that's Norman's uncle, but he passes this duty onto Norman just after he kicks the bucket. Mistake! Because Norman botches the job, putting the town into peril.

There's some clever stuff here, but it's overwhelmed by (a) action and (b) Message. The action is frenetic, endless, loud, and not particularly interesting. The Message is an unsubtle mixtape of every Earnest Do-Gooder's middle-school lecture: bullying, intolerance, and fear are bad. Everyone's just misunderstood. Zzz.