Judge Hopkins

Judge Nathaniel Hopkins is the overarching antagonist of Laika's 2nd full-length animated feature film ParaNorman. He is the leader of the zombies and a former judge who was actually responsible for the entire film's plot events but he lives in regret for what he did in his mortal life.

He was voiced by Bernard Hill.

Biography

Mortal Life

Judge Hopkins was one of the original townspeople in Blithe Hollow. In the original settlement, there lived a girl named Aggie Prenderghast who had the ability to talk to the dead. Having been brought up as Puritans, Hopkins and everyone else was afraid of her and condemned her. They took her from her mother and sentenced her to hang. Angry at everyone's intolerance, Aggie unleashes her apparently hidden powers, swearing to make them suffer.

After their deaths, Hopkins and the other Puritans that condemned Aggie realized their mistakes and spent the next 300 years in guilt and regret. Aggie's curse was that they would rise from the dead as zombies and suffer like she suffered. The curse was prolonged because members of Aggie's family would read her fairy tales to keep her spirit asleep.

As a Zombie

300 years later, when Norman Babcock, not understanding the whole story, fails to read the fairy tales to Aggie because he was distracted by a bully named Alvin. Aggie's angry spirit and the zombies began to rise, Alvin and Norman make a run for it, eventually catching up to Norman's sister, Courtney, his best friend, Neil, and Neil's older brother, Mitch. Mitch accidentally runs over one of the zombies and the kids make a hasty drive to get away from them. Judge Hopkins tries to personally climb aboard Mitch's van but Mitch floors it, leaving Hopkins hanging from the back, struggling to reach for Norman.

Hopkins and the other zombies move on into the town, where they are confused and terrified of the modern world around them. The people of Blithe Hollow think they are being attacked, create an angry mob, and try to fight the zombies, even through the storm Aggie personifies herself as causes more damage. Eventually, Norman and his friends look into the town hall, looking for Aggie's records, to no avail. Eventually, Norman is knocked unconscious when Aggie's storm strikes the building.

Norman has a magic-induced flashback of Aggie's trial, he eventually wakes up surrounded by the zombies. The Judge (who apparently is the only one who can talk to Norman) walks up to him, but Norman shouts at him, calling him out for what they did to Aggie. The guilt-ridden Judge admits his fears got the better of them and they do deserve their fate, but are trying to make up for what they did, no matter how unforgivable it may be. Hopkins tells Norman the curse is their punishment and he must help the zombies.

Hopkins and the other zombies offer to take Norman to Aggie's grave so he can personally reach out to her, but they are cornered by the angry mob, who threaten to lynch Norman for being "in league" with the zombies, but Norman's friends, who realize how important Norman's goal is, calls them out on it. Norman's family decides to drive him to Aggie's grave, with Hopkins joining in to guide them (leading to a very awkward car drive) and the other zombies stay behind.

Around the end of the film, after Norman reaches out to Aggie and she goes back to sleep, Hopkins and the other zombies begin to crumble to dust and their spirits fade away, this time everyone else could see them as they move on. The Judge disappears in front of Norman's family with a sad and regretful look on his face, though he is grateful towards Norman for ending the curse for good. It's not clear if they go to Heaven or Hell when they moved on. Judging from the fact he and the rest of the zombie regret and show remorse for this misdeeds, they most likely be allowed to rest in peace rather than suffering eternal damnation.

Gallery

Hopkins seen in Norman's vision for the first time

Hopkins in Norman's 2nd vision, which also implied when and where he captured Aggie

Sketch of Hopkins and other judges in Mr. Prenderghast's house

Concept art of Judge Hopkins

Trivia

• He is enemies with Aggie Prenderghast, which makes them both "Evil Vs. Evil" type villains.
• Judge Hopkins is sometimes considered as the main antagonist of ParaNorman, with Aggie as the secondary antagonist due to what he did to her. This statement is supported in trailer poster, where he is the only antagonist shown (if not counting Aggie's mock-up witch form).
• Judge Hopkins is mainly very similar to Claudia Wolf, The Brethren , and He also is similar with Chris Hargensen and Billy Nolan. Unlike them however, Judge Hopkins has regretted for what he did to her and wanted the curse to stop, as well as not a Complete Monster.
• Hopkins is similar to Morgan Moonscar from Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island.
  • Both of them provoked a female person into villainy. (Hopkins, Aggie; Morgan, Simone Lenoir).
  • Both of them were killed by the women.
  • Both of them became zombies and regretted their mistakes.
• Hopkins is similar to Richard Detmer and Margaret White, in that their treatment of their respective teenage figures caused them to turn evil and super-powered villains, and that they were the cause of the ensuing events. However, out of two, only Margaret White that close to similar with Hopkins as both were religious fanatics, whereas Richard's motives was out of unable to cope with his misery (having lost his job for good due to his injuries and having his wife dying) so much that he believed that Detmer indifferent with his wishes for better life but in reality Detmer tried otherwise.
• He is also similar to Judge Claude Frollo, as they are religious fanatics who hate witchcraft and mercilessly persecute those who practice it. However, unlike Frollo, who holds no guilt of his crimes, Hopkins is extremely regretful of his crime against Agatha.