Although it’s only a brief joke at the end of the movie, Paranorman has been praised in many circles for bringing us what’s believed to be the first gay character in mainstream animation. Now screenwriter/co-director Chris Butler (who’s gay himself) has been talking to AfterElton about the movie and its gay character.
When asked about why he decided to reveal at the end that buff jock Mitch is gay, Butler says, “There are very good reasons why it was left to the end. The main thing being that the most important theme in the movie is about not judging a book by its cover. In fact, it’s a literal plot element in the movie. There is a book that’s judged! I wanted to make every character in the movie guilty of judging someone else, usually misjudging. That’s all of the characters, the good ones, the bad ones. It’s every character. They all look at someone else, think they know who they are without getting into a conversation with them, and judges them. I wanted to make the audience complicit in that. It’s not just Mitch; there are plenty of stereotypes that are presented in this movie. As soon as you see anything, you think, “I know that character. I’ve seen this before.” That was the fun thing for me. It was saying, “Yes, you’re watching this movie where all these people are learning not to judge each other, but hopefully you are too.” This stereotypically macho jock who you’ve seen in every teen slasher movie, you think he’s straight and he’s going to get the girl. But you don’t know him! You don’t know who he is. That was important to leave for the end. Plus, I thought it was a funny joke.”
But was there any resistance from the studio about including a gay character in a family film? “Honestly? I never had any resistance from the studio,” Butler says, “That’s what’s really special about Laika [ParaNorman‘s animation studio]. I don’t think there’s any kind of agenda going on, but I think that Laika is brave and wants to create movies, tell stories that maybe no one else is doing right now. I think it’s them a really exciting place. That’s not to say — we did Coraline, and while that broke many of the formulaic boundaries of kids’ movies and in some ways it’s more terrifying than ParaNorman — but that’s not to say what we’re all about. What it says is that Laika is bold and willing to go there. There are plenty of things being developed at the studio that are really exciting because the other studios aren’t making them. They’re not the creepy-movie-for-kids studio. We are maybe the studio that is taking more chances creatively and that is exciting.”
Normally by Monday morning, we know which movie has topped the chart over the weekend, but not so today, as there are three movies which could end up on top when final figures are released later on. Based on estimates, both End Of Watch and House At The End Of The Street took $13 million, while Trouble With The Curve was close behind with $12.7. There’s a chance any of those movie could end up at number one when final figures are tallied.
It was yet another slow weekend at the US box office, allowing Resident Evil Retribution to top the chart with a decent but not particularly amazing $21 million. That’s lower than the previous three films, although slightly higher than the original (but if inflation and 3D premiums are taken into account, it sold fewer tickets). However as it grossed around $60 million in international territories, it’s still going to be judged a success and makes Resident Evil 6 more likely.
There’ll be some glum faced in Hollywood this week, with news that on the international market, box office is down about 20% compared to where it was this time last year (that’s more than a billion dollars less), and the US has seen its worse weekend for years. It’s the first time since 2008 that a movie has managed to hit the top spot with less than $10 million, with some sources suggesting that overall it’s the worst three-day total since 2001.
There’s been little cheer at the US box office, due to what was easily the lowest grossing weekend of 2012 so far. The problem was that the holdovers weren’t that strong, while the new entries barely made a dent. The Expendables 2 stayed top of the list with $13.5 million, a 53% drop on its first weekend takings, so that it’s now noticeably trailing the take of the first film in the franchise.