Actors Kodi Smit-McPhee, Anna Kendrick and Christopher Mintz-Plasse were joined by Laika CEO and lead animator Travis Knight and directors Chris Butler and Sam Fell for the panel presentation, which was moderated by Entertainment Weekly's Dave Karger.

Detailing the exhaustive and meticulous process of rendering the sets and characters, then animating them by hand, Knight called the film John Carpenter meets John Hughes, Ray Harryhausen on bath salts, and The Breakfast Club meets The Fog. Inspired by the horror movies of the 80s such as Poltergeist, Gremlins, George Romero zombie films, and even Scooby Doo, ParaNorman features a misunderstood boy who can speak with the dead, and takes on ghosts, zombies and grown-ups to save his town from a centuries-old curse.

ParaNorman, the second full-length stop-motion feature from Laika, opens in the U.S. on August 17, 2012.

Source: Laika Animation