Movie Review: Frankenweenie

Frankenweenie

Walt Disney Pictures, Tim Burton Productions, USA, 2012.

Victor Frankenstein (Charlie Tahan) likes to make home movies starring his dog Sparky. He is lonely and Sparky is his only friend. The kids get a new teacher Mr. Rzykruski (Martin Landau) because the previous teacher was hit by lightning. Science contest is approaching and Victor is good in science. Weird Girl's (Catherine O'Hara) cat Mr. Whiskers predicts that Victor will soon do great things. His dad (Martin Short) does not care about science and would like that Victor played baseball instead. Elsa van Helsing (Winona Ryder) lives next door with his uncle Mr. Burgemeister (Martin Short). She has dog Persephone whom Sparky likes.

Victor and Sparky

Mr. Rzykruski

Elsa and Weird Girl

Sparky gets hit by a car and dies. Victor decides to use electricity to revive the corpse. Although Sparky looks quite grotesque witch stitches and bolts, he is as happy dog as he was before the accident. Victor tries to keep Sparky hidden but Edgar (Atticus Shaffer) blackmails Victor into showing how to resurrect dead animals. 

Pet sematary

Resurrected Sparky

Edgar 'E' Gore blackmails Victor

The kids go overenthusiastic about the science contest. The parents get scared of science and drive Mr. Rzykruski away. Before he leaves he tells Victor that science can be used for good or bad. The other kids start resurrecting dead animals who turn into monsters. Poor Sparky gets chased by angry mob.

Neighbour Mr. Burgemeister suspects something

Shelley the Turtle

Chased by angry mob

The black&white stop-motion animated characters look creepy in a sympathetic way. Burton's love letter to Universal's old horror and scifi movies. Hunchbacked Edgar 'E' Gore (Atticus Shaffer) looks like Peter Lorre. Mr. Rzykruski looks like Vincent Price. Schoolmate Nassor looks like Boris Karloff. Also "Godzilla" and "Gremlins" are referenced. 

Victor's lab

This is a remake of Tim Burton's short movie "Frankenweenie" (1984) that can be found in collector's edition of "Tim Burton's Nightmare Before the Christmas." "Frankenweenie" (1984) got Burton fired from Disney, so this is kind of rematch. Being the new version of Burton's early story makes it feel lighter and not as effective as his other slightly similarly themed movies, "Edward Scissorhands and "Corpse Pride." Now it is a bit too much like a kids' version of "Frankenstein." It also feels that the potentially interesting supporting characters are left a bit shallow. Fun, but the other stop-motion animation "ParaNorman" released in the same year wins this round. 

Rating: Good

Voice actors: Catherine O'Hara, Martin Short, Martin Landau, Charlie Tahan, Atticus Shaffer, Winona Ryder, Robert Capron, James Hiroyuki Liao, Conchata Ferrell, Tom Kenny, Dee Bradley Baker, Jeff Bennett, Christopher Lee, Melissa Stribling, Frank Welker 

Director: Tim Burton