He is an 11-year-old ghost whisperer whose special skills have earned him the unwanted attention of a bully who scrawls “Freak” on his school locker. In “ParaNorman,” he doesn’t see all ghosts, just the ones of people who died suddenly or in a bad way or who have something to figure out or finish.

Even in a town called Blithe Hollow, which uses a 300-year-old witch hunt to market itself and to lure tourists, Norman is a misfit. In that regard, he’s like his newfound pal Neil, whose weight is just one of the reasons he is a target.

Norman is confronted one day by his estranged eccentric Uncle Prenderghast — or “the weird stinky old bum who lives up on the hill” as Neil describes him. He reveals that an ancient witch’s curse is real, and it’s up to Norman to save the town.