Film Archive

Frankenweenie (2012)

Moody Moppet

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A sweet and dark animation from director, Tim Burton.

Victor Frankenstein is a young boy who loves science and film-making. He lives with his parents and beloved dog, Sparky, in a quiet town of New Holland. One sunny day tragedy occurs when in the middle of a baseball game, Sparky gets hit by a car and instantly dies. Depressed Victor tries to bring his sweet dog back to life by conducting a scientific experiment, unaware of the monstrous consequences of his actions.

If your’e a kid reading this, don’t do this at home!!!

I have been wanting to check this one out ever since it came out to the theaters. Frankenweenie is originally a 1984 shorty which I loved very much. Fashionably delayed, I watched it for the first time only this week and loved every minute of it!

Stop motion is my favorite animation style and this film contains many brilliant things in it. For starters, Victor’s classmates are an odd bunch and their characters take after 1931 horror film Frankenstein as a homage to Mary Shelley’s book of the same name. There’s Edgar (like Igor) – a mischievous hunchbacked little boy, Weird Girl – so called after her huge staring eyes and psychic cat, Whiskers, Nassor – a tall scary kid who has an eerie resemblance to Frankenstein and Elsa Van Helsing – a melancholy girl who lives next door to Victor.

Another thing is the reference to Burton’s adolescent life. It’s quite obvious Tim’s own childhood’s reflected in the story of Frankenweenie. Victor is the kid Burton always saw himself as, with slight differences, but an overall similarity. Burton grew up as a loner boy and was considered unusual. Set mainly in his macabre art, Burton’s dark style evolved into masterpieces which prized him a genius recognition among film critics and fans all over the world. No one, I mean, NO ONE, can create dark animations like Tim Burton does.

BUT… he does have creative blockage lately. What happened to good ol’ Tim Burton…?

Frankenweeine resurrected Burton from his repetitive
and slightly deteriorating film-making.
He’s back! He’s back!!!!!!

FrankenweenieGrave_poster

For voice overs, Burton reconnected with old colleagues, Catherine O’Hara, Winona Ryder, Martin Landau and Martin Short. Surprisingly enough, Johnny Depp was out of the picture with this one.

For music, the brilliantly talented Danny Elfman was selected to score the motion picture soundtrack (gee, I wonder…). There’s just no separating these two, Burton & Elfman!

Frnakenweenie took three years to make from story-board to end and received mostly positive reviews. It was created by the same people who worked on Corpse Bride and A Nightmare Before Christmas. If you liked those two, your’e bound to love this one as well.

My score:

5/5 lollipops

5 lolipop rating

25 thoughts on “Frankenweenie (2012)”

  1. Pingback: Happy 60th birthday to Tim Burton – Moody Moppet

    1. Did you see the 1984 short film? I was curious to see how Burton makes a longer version out of it… I see your point totally, Burton has his disappointing moments, but I really loved this film. Appreciate you visiting my blog :-)))))

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  6. Frankenweenie is as Burton as it gets!
    I liked the casting of the children, with each one feeling unique and fully formed by their voices alone. There are some funny moments, but the film’s true highlight is the emotion it stirs in any viewer who has ever lost a pet.

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    Reply

    1. That’s true… I never had a pet myself, but can totally relate. The children are brilliantly created and casted, I agree! My favorite is Weird Girl ☺ thanks for the lovely comment, Paul, and I remember I owe you a post.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Thanks a lot! It actually reminded me of Edward Scissorhands a little… I’m a sucker for animations… especially dark ones. It did have a great look, odd and great.

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