Boy, the next movie I saw after Vampyr also had vampires but otherwise couldn't be more different if it tried. I considered reviewing HT on its own, but I had recently seen the other two participants in its Hollywood "duel" and felt like talking about them too. You may ask, "Why bother with comparisons instead of just reviewing a film on its own merits?" Well, not everyone has the resources to make watching all three feasible, so why not help weigh the options?
To qualify for a duel, movies need to come out around the same time with similar themes -- in this case, comical PG family animations focusing on the undead circa Halloween 2012. At present, PN and FW are exactly tied on both the Internet Movie Database and Rotten Tomatoes. HT does marginally better on IMDb but much worse on RT, as you might expect from the one that didn't get nominated for Best Animated Feature. I'd rather not discuss box office figures. I'll start with synopses.
ParaNorman
Like Cole from The Sixth Sense, Norman sees and hears ghosts on a regular basis for no explained reason and lacks friends. Unlike Cole, he never fears the rather neighborly ghosts, nor does he have the common sense to keep his interactions a secret from the living, despite being about 12. Nobody recommends therapy for him; they just dismiss him as weird. His dad is especially low on compassion.
One day an estranged, eccentric uncle urges Norman to use his rare understanding to stop a witch's curse of the Salem era from raising some of the local dead corporeally. Obviously, it wouldn't be much of a movie if he succeeded right away. Turns out he's also rare in his ability to interpret the moans of the reanimated (are they really "zombies" if they retain their minds?). The situation is not as straightforward as the panicked townsfolk believe. Norman makes some unlikely alliances to set things right -- until he must face the witch's ghost alone....
Frankenweenie
Tim Burton's adaptation from his own '80s short features another friendless boy around age 12, the familiarly named Victor Frankenstein, but his friendlessness stems less from standing out (lots of strange kids in his town) and more from too little time spent with anyone but his parents and talented mutt. After Sparky's fatal accident, Victor digs up and revives him, yielding the stitchy figure you've seen on posters. Yeah, it's all the same body parts, and Sparky still behaves the same, only with different needs, such as the occasional, y'know, spark.
I don't know how long Victor hoped to keep Sparky a secret up in the attic; just try that with a regular dog. Once his cover's blown, he has more to worry about than an angry mob in a town with little appreciation for scientific progress. Five of his classmates steal his research and raise other animals, not out of love but to stand a chance at the science fair (like the judge won't care that they basically all have the same project). In the world of FW, doing an experiment for the wrong reason can have horribly wrong outcomes....
Hotel Transylvania
Count Dracula, in this incarnation, drinks synthetic blood, partly for better health and partly to avoid mobs like the one that killed his wife. Raising their daughter Mavis from infancy, he opens a hotel for mostly decently behaved monsters of all classical types, in a forest too thick and spooky to attract humans. As the increasingly curious and claustrophobic Mavis approaches her 118th birthday (akin to an American's 18th), Jonathan, an adventurous but insufficiently prepared young man of the human persuasion, shows up at the hotel. Only Dracula sees him at first, and he too is insufficiently prepared, with no quick way to evict Jonathan without making a scene. Application of Frankensteinian makeup precludes most suspicion, and a series of lies establishes him as a consultant for Mavis's party. Little did Dracula know of the potential chemistry between Jonathan and Mavis -- and he's not ready for her to date anyone, much less a human. And you thought your crush's dad was intimidating....
Breakdown
Scares: HT almost didn't count (NPI) in this duel, because it never aims for an honest scare. Even Dracula's occasional red-eyed roar of rage is played for laughs; you can hardly imagine him making good on his threat to drain Jonathan's blood. PN does get a little intense over time, but not on par with the same studio's Coraline. The one fresh, on-screen death is of natural causes and comically exaggerated. FW mainly boasts a kooky appearance, but if you find pets easier to care about than not-so-innocent humans, then it's the most disturbing if not the scariest by the climax.
Laughs: Adam Sandler lowered my expectations for HT, but Jack Black and Will Ferrell had taught me that annoying comedians needn't have the same impact in voice roles. Yes, it has more potty and other naughty humor than the competitors (sorry, they all have some), but it moves along quickly enough to mitigate that, and the variety of monsters lends itself to a lot of superpower slapstick and Munster vibes. Columbia Pictures apparently shed some of its Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs kiddieness. FW has a little Burtonian flair in the form of oddball kids and Sparky getting used to his sorta new body. PN relies too much on flat characters for good gags. Let me put it this way: A man gets terrified by zombies but won't run until the vending machine delivers his purchase. Ha ha?
Heartwarming: Disney produced FW, so I could hardly be surprised when it tugged my heartstrings repeatedly. It still loses points for a couple moments of callousness, especially from a cat person's perspective. HT has a positive love story, but I don't think Jonathan and Mavis give quite enough thought to their differences. The nicest thing about PN is that it has no outright villains; everyone manages a redemption.
Cuteness: FW may have the most "aww" factor, but HT often made me think, "Cute, cute," not least with the werewolf whelps and the vampires' bat forms. PN offers little more than a short scene with the ghost of a canine who could've used Sparky stitches.
Morals: PN has the most blatant, most sensible message: We need mutual understanding. Unusual kids need not be nuts, the supernatural need not be menacing, and people who do bad things need not be punished indefinitely. (It also has possibly the first openly gay animated movie character, as befits Focus Features, who brought us Brokeback Mountain, Milk, and The Kids Are All Right.) FW fails via a premise that doesn't hold in real life; much as we prefer love to ambition as a motivation, it shouldn't make that much difference when you do everything else the same. The pro-science side also gets muddied, between the over-the-top adults and the mixed results. HT seems to have a lesson only for overprotective parents of teens, which limits how useful it must be to the target audience.
Visuals: If you're looking for relatively realistic graphics, PN is your best bet. If you want sight gags to keep you rewatching in case you missed something, try HT. If you want distinctive and don't mind black and white, you already know which.
Music: Characters in HT sing enough original songs to suggest qualification for a musical, and despite the mummy's autotune, they sound pretty good. FW turns to Burton's perennial composer, Danny Elfman, for his usual good output, including one deliberately dorky song. I don't recall PN's score at all, and I doubt it had a soundtrack.
Nostalgia: FW, paws down. Apart from the B&W and adaptation, it has stop-action animation, an ambiguous decade setting, characters who resemble those of old horror movies (politically incorrect in one case), and climactic tributes thereto. Norman in PN has his own interest in classics, as evidenced by his Halloween ringtone. HT doesn't expect viewers to know much from outside works beyond "Fire bad."
Verdict: Unexpectedly, my personal favorite is HT, with second place going to FW. It seems fortunate that HT has the most room for a sequel, and indeed one has been announced for next year. But I call it a close race. Hopefully my details will let you judge for yourself which, if any, deserves your time and perhaps money.
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