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nTitle: Frankenweenie (2012)
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nDirector: Tim Burton
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nCast: Martin Landau, Wynona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara,nMartin Short
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nReview:
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nFunny how Frankenweenie, the short film that got TimnBurton fired from Disney in 1984 is the very film that has now gotten remadenand released theatrically by Disney themselves, oh how the tables have turned! You see, once upon a time, Tim Burton was anfledgling filmmaker, trying to make it in the big bad film world. Burton workednas a conceptual artist for Disney in films like The Black Cauldron (1985) and asnan animator in films like Tron (1982) and The Fox and the Hound (1981). When henwas given the chance and the budget to produce and direct a short film fornDisney, the company found the resulting film too dark/scary for kids, and sonthey shelved the original Frankenweenie which was supposed to play before the theatricalnre-release of Pinocchio (1940). So as fate would have it, the originalnFrankenweenie never saw the light of day in theaters. But things began to looknup for Mr. Burton when he hit it big with films like Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (1985)nand Beetlejuice (1988). Suddenly Disney was interested again in Burton’s worknso in order to cash in on Burton’s success, Disney released Frankenweenie on VHSnfor all to see. Right now if you want tonsee the original live action Frankenweenie short film, you can find it on thenNightmare Before Christmas (1993) dvd, as an extra alongside Burtons other stopnmotion animated short film Vincent (1982). So low and behold, Burton’s got sonmuch power now as a filmmaker that he can pretty much do whatever the hell henwants, so of course Disney said yes to this new Frankenweenie remake, which isnsort of a sweet revenge for Burton, to get Disney to produce a film for whichnthey originally fired him for. But whatever, all that stuff aside, how was thisnnew Burton film?
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nPoster for the original live action short film Frankenweenie (1984)
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nFrankenweenie tells the tale of a very creative littlenboy named Victor. He likes making short films with his dog ‘Sparky’ as the star,nhe is a scientist of sorts always experimenting, always asking questions,nalways curious. Unfortunately for Victor,none day as he is playing baseball, his dog Sparky is hit by a car and killed.nVictor doesn’t accept that his dog has died, so inspired by a scientificnexperiment he sees in school, he decides to try and re-animate Sparky, to bringnhim back from the dead, Frankenstein style. And what do you know, he succeeds!nCan he hide the fact from his family and friends that he’s successfully broughtnhis dog back from the dead?
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nTim Burton’s films have aesthetic all their own, it’sngotten to the point where you see a film and you can immediately tell it’s anTim Burton film or not. It’s that gothicness they have to them; that love fornall things spooky. Frankenweenie feels like a film that exists within that TimnBurton universe we’ve all come to know and love, to me it felt like a mix betweennThe Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Sleepy Hollow (1999) and EdwardnScissorhands (1990) and by that I mean the film is filled with cemeteries,ntombstones, full moons, windmills at the top of a hill, stormy skies, monsters,npicture perfect suburban neighborhoods, nosy neighbors, socially inept kids andnparents who are oblivious to the things that their kids are going through. Plus,nthere’s the fact that it’s stop motion animated, a technique that has becomenclosely associated with Burton because of his involvement with films likenNightmare Before Christmas, The Corpse Bride (2005) and James and the Giant Peachn(1996). Tim Burton and Henry Selick have both become the champions of stopnmotion animation in a time when computer generated imagery is king and you knownwhat I think about that: hip, hip hooray for these guys. Stop motion animationnis such a beautiful filmmaking technique that I’m glad it hasn’t disappearednthanks to the efforts of these two guys and a couple of other filmmakers (likenthe creators of Wallace and Gromit) who just won’t let stop motion animationndie.
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nNew Sparky (top) Old Sparky (bottom)
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nHow does this new Frankeneweenie compare to the old one?nWell, in terms of premise and themes, they are pretty much the same film. Thenbiggest difference between the two is obviously that the first one is livenaction and this new remake is stop motion animated. The stop motion animationngives the remake a higher re-watchability ratio because, as is usually the casenwith these stop motion animated films, there’s so many little details you cannfixate your eyes on, these films are eye candy for me. The other majorndifference between the two is that while the first one focuses only on Victornand Sparky alone, on this new one we meet a bunch of Victor’s schoolmates whonare also interested in finding out how Victor brought his dog back from thendead so they can do it as well with their respective dead pets. So we get morenzombie pets then in than in the original short film.
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nBoth Frankenweenie films are a homage to James Whale’snFrankenstein (1931), so with this new one you’ll get a lot of references tonboth Mary Shelly and the old Universal film that starred Boris Karloff.nUnfortunately, though I love that old film and the fact that Frankenweenie is anhomage to it, this is where Frankenweenie felt a little redundant to me becausenBurton had already paid homage to James Whale’s Frankenstein in Sleepy Hollow.nIf you remember correctly, the whole ending in Sleepy Hollow with Christina Riccinhanging from the windmill came right out of those climactic moments innFrankenstein which also take place in a windmill that’s been set on fire. Sonwhen when you watch Frankenweenie you might feel that its climactic moments whichnalso take place on a fiery windmill are very “been there done that”,nespecially if you are a fan of Burton’s films. I guess it’s fitting that thenfilm ends this way when we take in consideration that it’s a homage tonFrankenstein, but as I said before, it’s something that Burton has already donenbefore in previous films, in almost the same exact way. The ending to SleepynHollow is extremely similar to the ending in Frankenweenie. This was really thenonly negative thing I could think of.
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nThe film is very simple in nature because when we getnright down to it, it simply turns into a film about stopping thenmonsters from destroying the town, not unlike Godzilla (1954) (another huge influencenon Burton) or Gremlins (1984), yet it does have some social commentary hidden within,nlike for example, Burtons critique on the suburban lifestyle and the dwindlingnstate of education in our school systems. I loved how Burton depicted thenscience teacher in the film. For Burton, the importance of science in educationnhas always been of big issue in his films, for example, in Sleepy Hollow henhighlights the importance of science and logic over superstition. In his films Burtonnis always addressing the folly of ignorance and the importance of knowledge, sonI of course enjoyed that as well. At the end of the day this was a fun Halloweennmovie, great to take your kid and teach them about the acceptance of death as annatural part of life. It’s simple film in nature, but fun to watch (especially inn3-D) and extremely well animated, I marvel at the work and dedication that wentninto making a film like this.
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nRating: 4 out of 5
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nBurton and Elvira at the Frankenweenie premiere
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