Entertainment

So good, it’s scary

If you were as underwhelmed by the last couple of Pixar features as I was, try the spectacular-looking “ParaNorman,’’ which marries Pixar’s formerly sophisticated storytelling style to the mordant wit of Tim Burton’s animated projects.

Like Burton and the geniuses at Aardman Animations, this latest production from the studio behind the wonderful “Coraline’’ employs stop-motion animation to provide hand-crafted appeal to the clever and surprisingly scary story of a Massachusetts town whose witch-hunting past catches up with it on its 300th anniversary.

At first, the problem in Blithe Hollow is apparent only to Norman (voiced by Kodi Smit-McPhee), an 11-year-old misfit and horror-film fanatic who sees dead people, including his grandmother (Elaine Stritch), with whom he converses daily.

Norman’s parents (Jeff Garlin, Leslie Mann) are understandably worried, even before the ghost of dad’s newly deceased black-sheep brother (John Goodman) emerges from a toilet and advises Norman to take action before the spirits of seven town founders — who condemned a girl accused of witchcraft to hanging — rise from their graves.

Indicative of this film’s deliciously twisted humor is a darkly hilarious scene in which Norman must pry a book from the cold, dead hands of his uncle in an attempt to avert a night of the living Pilgrim dead.

There’s lots more where that came from, plus a motley assortment of allies who Norman recruits to help with his quest: his pissed-off teenage sister (Anna Kendrick); a chubby classmate (Tucker Albrizzi); the classmates’s jock older brother (Casey Affleck); and the school bully (Christopher Mintz-Plasse).

Even when the situations seem familiar, writer Chris Butler (who co-directed with Sam Fell) spins them with countless small details. There’s also a subtle political message about fear impeding empathy — and a casual curtain line from the jock brother that’s positively subversive in the context of a movie aimed at families.

Don’t even think of taking a child under 5 to this one, and you might raise that to 7 or 8 if your kid is especially sensitive. The film makes the animated “Monster House’’ look positively benign.

“ParaNorman’’ is probably the year’s most visually dazzling movie so far, and the stunning climax centering on an 11-year-old witch (Jodelle Ferland) is too good to spoil.

Let’s just say this is the first movie this year that warrants a 3-D surcharge.