Title: Frankenweenie (2012)
Director: Tim Burton
Cast: Martin Landau, Wynona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara,
Martin Short
Review:
Funny how Frankenweenie, the short film that got Tim
Burton fired from Disney in 1984 is the very film that has now gotten remade
and released theatrically by Disney themselves, oh how the tables have turned! You see, once upon a time, Tim Burton was a
fledgling filmmaker, trying to make it in the big bad film world. Burton worked
as a conceptual artist for Disney in films like The Black Cauldron (1985) and as
an animator in films like Tron (1982) and The Fox and the Hound (1981). When he
was given the chance and the budget to produce and direct a short film for
Disney, the company found the resulting film too dark/scary for kids, and so
they shelved the original Frankenweenie which was supposed to play before the theatrical
re-release of Pinocchio (1940). So as fate would have it, the original
Frankenweenie never saw the light of day in theaters. But things began to look
up for Mr. Burton when he hit it big with films like Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (1985)
and Beetlejuice (1988). Suddenly Disney was interested again in Burton’s work
so in order to cash in on Burton’s success, Disney released Frankenweenie on VHS
for all to see. Right now if you want to
see the original live action Frankenweenie short film, you can find it on the
Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) dvd, as an extra alongside Burtons other stop
motion animated short film Vincent (1982). So low and behold, Burton’s got so
much power now as a filmmaker that he can pretty much do whatever the hell he
wants, so of course Disney said yes to this new Frankenweenie remake, which is
sort of a sweet revenge for Burton, to get Disney to produce a film for which
they originally fired him for. But whatever, all that stuff aside, how was this
new Burton film?
Poster for the original live action short film Frankenweenie (1984)
Frankenweenie tells the tale of a very creative little
boy named Victor. He likes making short films with his dog ‘Sparky’ as the star,
he is a scientist of sorts always experimenting, always asking questions,
always curious. Unfortunately for Victor,
one day as he is playing baseball, his dog Sparky is hit by a car and killed.
Victor doesn’t accept that his dog has died, so inspired by a scientific
experiment he sees in school, he decides to try and re-animate Sparky, to bring
him back from the dead, Frankenstein style. And what do you know, he succeeds!
Can he hide the fact from his family and friends that he’s successfully brought
his dog back from the dead?
Tim Burton’s films have aesthetic all their own, it’s
gotten to the point where you see a film and you can immediately tell it’s a
Tim Burton film or not. It’s that gothicness they have to them; that love for
all things spooky. Frankenweenie feels like a film that exists within that Tim
Burton universe we’ve all come to know and love, to me it felt like a mix between
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Sleepy Hollow (1999) and Edward
Scissorhands (1990) and by that I mean the film is filled with cemeteries,
tombstones, full moons, windmills at the top of a hill, stormy skies, monsters,
picture perfect suburban neighborhoods, nosy neighbors, socially inept kids and
parents who are oblivious to the things that their kids are going through. Plus,
there’s the fact that it’s stop motion animated, a technique that has become
closely associated with Burton because of his involvement with films like
Nightmare Before Christmas, The Corpse Bride (2005) and James and the Giant Peach
(1996). Tim Burton and Henry Selick have both become the champions of stop
motion animation in a time when computer generated imagery is king and you know
what I think about that: hip, hip hooray for these guys. Stop motion animation
is such a beautiful filmmaking technique that I’m glad it hasn’t disappeared
thanks to the efforts of these two guys and a couple of other filmmakers (like
the creators of Wallace and Gromit) who just won’t let stop motion animation
die.
New Sparky (top) Old Sparky (bottom)
How does this new Frankeneweenie compare to the old one?
Well, in terms of premise and themes, they are pretty much the same film. The
biggest difference between the two is obviously that the first one is live
action and this new remake is stop motion animated. The stop motion animation
gives the remake a higher re-watchability ratio because, as is usually the case
with these stop motion animated films, there’s so many little details you can
fixate your eyes on, these films are eye candy for me. The other major
difference between the two is that while the first one focuses only on Victor
and Sparky alone, on this new one we meet a bunch of Victor’s schoolmates who
are also interested in finding out how Victor brought his dog back from the
dead so they can do it as well with their respective dead pets. So we get more
zombie pets then in than in the original short film.
Both Frankenweenie films are a homage to James Whale’s
Frankenstein (1931), so with this new one you’ll get a lot of references to
both Mary Shelly and the old Universal film that starred Boris Karloff.
Unfortunately, though I love that old film and the fact that Frankenweenie is a
homage to it, this is where Frankenweenie felt a little redundant to me because
Burton had already paid homage to James Whale’s Frankenstein in Sleepy Hollow.
If you remember correctly, the whole ending in Sleepy Hollow with Christina Ricci
hanging from the windmill came right out of those climactic moments in
Frankenstein which also take place in a windmill that’s been set on fire. So
when when you watch Frankenweenie you might feel that its climactic moments which
also take place on a fiery windmill are very “been there done that”,
especially if you are a fan of Burton’s films. I guess it’s fitting that the
film ends this way when we take in consideration that it’s a homage to
Frankenstein, but as I said before, it’s something that Burton has already done
before in previous films, in almost the same exact way. The ending to Sleepy
Hollow is extremely similar to the ending in Frankenweenie. This was really the
only negative thing I could think of.
The film is very simple in nature because when we get
right down to it, it simply turns into a film about stopping the
monsters from destroying the town, not unlike Godzilla (1954) (another huge influence
on Burton) or Gremlins (1984), yet it does have some social commentary hidden within,
like for example, Burtons critique on the suburban lifestyle and the dwindling
state of education in our school systems. I loved how Burton depicted the
science teacher in the film. For Burton, the importance of science in education
has always been of big issue in his films, for example, in Sleepy Hollow he
highlights the importance of science and logic over superstition. In his films Burton
is always addressing the folly of ignorance and the importance of knowledge, so
I of course enjoyed that as well. At the end of the day this was a fun Halloween
movie, great to take your kid and teach them about the acceptance of death as a
natural part of life. It’s simple film in nature, but fun to watch (especially in
3-D) and extremely well animated, I marvel at the work and dedication that went
into making a film like this.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Burton and Elvira at the Frankenweenie premiere
4 comments:
Yeah, this is getting decent reviews all over the place. Probably the most excited I've been about a Burton movie in ages. The last decade was kind of rough for him (loved Big Fish though).
I find the story about the original Frankenweenie freaking out Disney execs so funny. It's so weird to think he used to work for them!
Yeah, I'm glad he at least didn't make a crappy movie. Of his recent stuff, this is the one that has that old Burton feel to it.
Yeah, Burton started his career in films with Disney, he animated and did conceptual artwork for them. But once he hit it big, well, now he is back with them, which is good in a way because he has unlimited resources to do whatever he wants.
I always give his new films a break, there's the chance that they might be awesome, I just wish he could completely recapture that old Burton magic, like his old films use to have.
Good review. I think it’s just great to see Burton going back to his old ways and still showing us he can deliver the material we need to see, regardless of how strong the story is or is not.
Yup, this one Ooozes burton's gothic style, which of course is a treat for any Burton fan. Too bad this one kind of fizzled at the box office though. it made it's money back, but it wasn't a huuuuge hit. Well, it's still making the rounds so I guess the jury is still out on how much it will eventually make money wise.
Thanks for commenting Dan O.
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