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ParaNorman has come back in a huge new way after 13 years as its celebrates Pride Month with the long awaited debut of Mitch’s highly requested missing boyfriend. ParaNorman was directed by Sam Fell and Chris Butler as the second major feature film project to ever release from LAIKA Studios. The stop-motion animated film was a huge hit with fans back in 2012 thanks to not only the strength of its animation, but through the strength of its creepy and kooky story. In fact, it was such a hit that it also was a landmark film in terms of LGBT representation as well.
At one point in the film, one big surprise reveal was that Mitch (voiced by Casey Affleck), the older jock brother of another character Neil (Tucker Albrizzi), actually already had a boyfriend despite Courtney’s (Anna Kendrick) attempts to woo him. Now 13 years after the original release of the film, ParaNorman writer and director Chris Butler, LAIKA Principal Character Designer Thibault Leclercq, and LAIKA Development Art Director Iuri Lioi have returned to the world of the film and finally revealed the design for Mitch’s boyfriend, Luca. Check out the process in the video above, and final design below.
Who Is Mitch’s Boyfriend In ParaNorman?
As part of the celebration for Pride Month this year, ParaNorman writer and director Chris Butler, LAIKA Principal Character Designer Thibault Leclercq, and LAIKA Development Art Director Iuri Lioi have joined together to finally reveal Mitch’s boyfriend. Although the character was never fully designed during the original production of the film, the trio had worked together to do this to respond to all the fans who have been requesting to see Mitch’s boyfriend in all the years since.
Mitch was a very important character within ParaNorman as not only was he one of the first fully open homosexual characters in animated feature films at the time, but it was also thematically resonant as it was another example of ParaNorman’s overall message of not judging a book by its cover. Mitch seemed like a dumb jock, but this added a whole new layer to his character. It’s something the design trio noted when designing his new boyfriend, Luca, as they explain in the video that they wanted him to date someone who would pair nicely with Mitch’s exaggerated visual features and personality.
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What’s Next for LAIKA?
The reveal of Mitch’s boyfriend has been a big hit with ParaNorman fans as the film never led to any spinoffs or sequel releases, but that’s never really been LAIKA’s style overall. The studio is constantly moving forward with new stories and projects that seem entirely different from one another, and their projects in the years since have not been anything like ParaNorman (just as how ParaNorman seemed entirely different from Coraline, which had released before). In fact, they are also now in production for the launch of their next big project coming next year.
Wildwooda new adaptation of the Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis novel of the same name, is now in the works for a release some time in 2026. The film was written by ParaNorman‘s Chris Butler and will be directed by Travis Knight (Kubo and the Two Strings, Bumblebee). Though it seemed to completely disappear from Laika’s release schedule, it was finally confirmed that the new film is finally hitting theaters next year instead (but a more concrete release date has not been announced). The new film stars a stacked cast including the likes of Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali, Angela Bassett, Jake Johnson, Charlie Day, Amandla Stenberg, Jemaine Clement, Maya Erskine, Tantoo Cardinal, and more.
