The stop-motion animated film ParaNorman already boasts cutting-edge visuals, but new viral newsletters serve to flesh out the story of the characters behind the puppets.  ParaNorman centers on the title character, voiced by Kodi Smit-McPhee, a gifted but misunderstood young boy who has the power to speak to the ghostly residents of his hometown of Blithe Hollow.  We've already seen the gorgeous character and scene work in these images, TV spots, posters and trailers; Steve got an even closer look at the animation process during his set visit to LAIKA Studios.  Now, thanks to these viral newsletters, we get to see a little more background story on on the inhabitants of the cursed little town.ParaNorman also features the voices of Casey Affleck, Anna Kendrick, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Leslie Mann, Jeff Garlin, John Goodman, and Alex Borstein.  The movie opens in 3D on August 17th.  Hit the jump to check out the newsletters.I personally love it when a studio goes the extra inch to provide audiences with a fully-realized world.  These newsletters go a long way towards establishing the setting of Blithe Hollow, as successive issues warn of an impending incident involving the undead.  I'm gonna go ahead and assume that the townsfolk didn't listen to the warnings of Mr. Prenderghast, voiced by Goodman.  Check out the newsletters after the official synopsis (courtesy of Movielicious):

In ParaNorman, a small town comes under siege by zombies. Who can it call? Only misunderstood local boy Norman, who is able to speak with the dead. In addition to the zombies, he’ll have to take on ghosts, witches and, worst, of all, grown-ups, to save his town from a centuries-old curse. But this young ghoul whisperer may find his paranormal activities pushed to their otherworldly limits.