The handful of things we’ve seen from ParaNorman so far – one of the year’s main stop-motion animated comedies (the other being Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie) – have all been simply excellent.

We got a great new trailer at the start of the month, and now we have a few brilliant new images to share with you, courtesy of IMDb, focusing on our eponymous hero, Norman, and a glimpse of a creepy green zombie and potentially its dismembered ear.

“The new 3D stop-motion comedy thriller from animation company LAIKA, reteaming the company with Focus Features after the groundbreaking Academy Award-nominated “Coraline.” “ParaNorman” is, following “Coraline,” the company’s second stop-motion animated feature to be made in 3D. In “ParaNorman,” a small town comes under siege by zombies. Who can it call? Only misunderstood local boy Norman (voiced by Kodi Smit-McPhee), 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.”

Kodi Smit-McPhee will be voicing Norman, and the cast supporting him is just fantastic, including Casey Affleck, Anna Kendrick, John Goodman, Jeff Garlin, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse.

Co-directors Chris Butler and Sam Fell are working from Butler’s script, with Butler making both his writing and directorial debut, and it looks like they’ve done an impressive job of bringing it all alive.

ParaNorman will be released in 3D in the US on 17th August, and then coming to the UK a month later on 14th September. We’re still a few months away yet, but it looks like this is definitely one to watch out for. As usual with these great new images, you can click to enlarge. (If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ll already be familiar with the awesome image of Norman doing his teeth (and pretending to be a zombie).)