Fear faced by understanding, not by a spear. Good for a child who can take a ghost.
The review
Norman is bullied for a gift that is mostly the willingness to hear. The town prefers a mob and a story about a witch. The film's turn, that the cursed child was a frightened child and the curse was the town's, is the right turn. It does not ask you to pretend the dead are cute from the first minute. It asks you to stop the torch.
Some of the jokes are ruder than the fable needs. The fable holds. A house can watch it near Halloween and come out less eager to chant at the odd boy. That is a rare result for a cartoon with zombies.
The Peanuts Movie is still a animation film, and it scores 74 instead of 66. What you gain is industry: He studies, he practices the dance, he does the assignment.
The eight
5
Industry
He treats the seeing as a task.
6
Household
A family that does not understand him, and a sister who comes anyway.
5
Piety
The dead are taken seriously. The mob's ritual is exposed.
8
Courage
He walks toward the person everyone else stones.
7
Republic
A town's panic is the villain.
6
Temperance
Fear is answered, not fed.
8
Truth
The witch story was incomplete, and he completes it.
Worth an evening. He will not be bought, and he cannot hold the jail alone.
The review
A sheriff arrests a killer whose brother has the money to hire the town. He is offered the easy version, which is to let the man go and call it peace. He refuses, and then he does the other hard thing: he accepts help from a drunk, a kid, and an old man the powerful people do not count. A woman who works in the saloon is a person in the strategy, not a reward at the end. The film takes its time. The time is the point. A siege is mostly waiting and judging who you can trust.
I would put this on before the westerns that think a fast draw is a personality. Ask why he turns down the first offers of help and takes the later ones. The answer is about whether the help is a way of buying him. A house can use that distinction the next time a favor comes with a string. One of the best of these years, and quieter than its reputation. The quiet is the confidence.
