Frankenweenie

Plot synopsis:
Young filmmaker and scientist Victor Frankenstein (Charlie Tahan) lives with his parents, Edward (Martin Short) and Susan Frankenstein (Catherine O'Hara), and his beloved Bull Terrier dog, Sparky, in the quiet town of New Holland. Victor's intelligence is recognized by his classmates at school, his somber next-door neighbor, Elsa Van Helsing (Winona Ryder), mischievous, Igor-like Edgar "E" Gore (Atticus Shaffer), obese and gullible Bob (Robert Capron), overconfident Toshiaki (James Hiroyuki Liao), creepy Nassor, and an eccentric girl nicknamed Weird Girl, but communicates little with them due to his relationship with his dog. Concerned with his son's isolation, Victor's father encourages him to take up baseball and make achievements outside of science. Victor hits a home run at his first game, but Sparky, pursuing the ball, is struck by a car and killed.
Inspired by his science teacher Mr. Rzykruski's (Martin Landau) demonstration of the effect of electricity on dead frogs, a depressed Victor digs up Sparky's corpse, brings him to his makeshift laboratory in the attic and successfully reanimates him with lightning. Seeing Weird Girl's living cat, Mr. Whiskers, the undead Sparky escapes from the attic and explores the neighborhood. He is recognized by Edgar, who blackmails Victor into teaching him how to raise the dead. The two reanimate a dead goldfish, which turns invisible due to an error with the experiment. Edgar brags about the undead fish to Toshiaki and Bob, which, in panic of losing the upcoming science fair, inspires them to make a rocket out of soda bottles, which causes Bob to break his arm and Mr. Rzykruski to be blamed and fired due to his accused influencing and reviling the townsfolk for questioning his methods when he steps up for self-defense. So, the gym teacher replaces Mr. Rzykruski.
Eventually, Edgar's fish disappears when he tries to show it to a skeptical Nassor (who was told by Toshiaki), and when Edgar is confronted by Toshiaki, Nassor and Bob on the baseball field at school, he accidentally reveals Victor's actions, inspiring them to try reanimation themselves. Victor's parents discover Sparky in the attic and are frightened, causing the dog to flee. Victor and his parents search for Sparky while the classmates invade the lab, discovering Victor's reanimation formula. The classmates separately perform their experiments, which go awry and turn the dead animals into monsters — Mr. Whiskers holds a dead bat while it is electrocuted, resulting in him fusing with it and becoming a monstrous bat-cat with wings and fangs. Edgar turns a dead rat he found in the garbage into a wererat, Nassor revives his mummified hamster Colossus and Toshiaki's turtle Shelley is covered in Miracle Gro and turns into a giant Gamera-like monster. Bob's Sea-Monkeys grow into amphibious humanoids. The monsters break loose into the town fair where they wreak havoc.
After finding Sparky at the town's pet cemetery, Victor sees the monsters heading to the fair and goes with his classmates to help deal with them — the Sea-Monkeys explode after eating salt-covered popcorn, and Colossus is stepped on by Shelley, while the rat and Shelley are returned to their original, deceased forms after both being electrocuted. During the chaos, Persephone, Elsa's pet poodle, is grabbed by Mr. Whiskers and carried to the town windmill with Elsa and Victor chasing after. The townsfolk blame Sparky for Elsa's disappearance and chase him to the windmill, which Mayor Burgermeister accidentally ignites with his torch. Victor and Sparky enter the burning windmill and rescue Elsa and Persephone, but Victor is trapped inside. Sparky rescues Victor, only to be dragged back inside by Mr. Whiskers. A final confrontation ensues, and just as Mr. Whiskers has Sparky cornered, a flaming piece of wood breaks off and impales Mr. Whiskers, killing him. The windmill then collapses on Sparky, killing him again. To reward him for his bravery and saving Victor, the townsfolk gather to revive Sparky with their car batteries, reanimating him once more. Persephone, who has a hairstyle similar to Elsa Lanchester's Bride of Frankenstein, comes to Sparky as the two dogs share their love and kiss.

Tags: cute, horror, boring, home movie

Review:
It's also - and this is to be expected from any Tim Burton movie - really good looking, with stylish black and white animation and a cast of creepy looking kids.As someone familiar with the original movies, I appreciate the way it pays tribute to its source material.
And naked enough (no Depp, no Hollywood excess) to see the wirings and so appreciate what he loves about his work.As you flip through this sketchbook, you will find the following:The film opens with footage of a young Ed Wood's homemovie shot in his backyard—a giant monster movie, the kind that a kid (who we can presume is Burton) growing up in the 1950's can be expected to admire.A teacher who looks like Vincent Price and inspires him to perfect his 'science', in the film it is supposed to be real science, but is actually viewed in the context of 1930's horror and Shelley before, a kind of cinematic magic.This kicks off the Frankenstein story proper with the dog, which includes additional references to both Bride and Son, Mummy and Invisible Man, and the fiery windmill conclusion of the Karloff original.
(also reused in Sleepy Hollows)Eventually, this leads to an actual giant monster movie, where different classmates, essentially using the same 'science' of cinematic magic, bring to life different monsters: one is a Godzilla-type creature (kaiju fans will know it is really Gamera), there are Gremlin- type critters, and a cat-bat creature that I couldn't pinpoint.So, there you have it: 1930's Universal horror, 1950's sci-fi, 1980's pop Hollywood, all of it sketched here that influenced the man's career.Typical for Burton: the story goes nowhere, the ending is Disneyfied like the first time, it is fun in short spurts, and he has nicely sketched the world of his childhood, which is my favorite bit here—a clean and modernistic 1950's suburbia as was advertised to housewives of the time, it is amazing some of the textures and light they managed to capture.
Stop-motion trumps cg animation in my mind, physical presence carries energy into the eye—this looks so real, it feels like it is taking place down the street from Ed Wood.Overall, I don't know if releasing this confirms the nagging suspicion that Burton is over and done with as a creative voice and is really scrapping for material, but it is nice to watch, and reminds why he was at one time an interesting guy.
With its cute, yet, decidedly creepy-looking characters, and all, I thought that Frankenweenie was a pretty darn good "Mad Scientist" story that's sure to be a hit with audiences of all ages.Containing some very nice touches of warped humor, grotesque horror and several arousing moments of pathos (cleverly injected into its weird, but oddly wonderful, little tale), Frankenweenie has proved, once again, that director Tim Burton still has the master's touch when it comes to making stop-motion, animated films that seem to emerge from the very depths of the dark-side.If nothing else, Frankenweenie certainly turned out to be a lovingly-charged homage to a variety of classic horror, monster, and Sci-Fi pictures from those glorious days of yesteryear.All-in-all, Frankenweenie certainly had its share of flaws, but, just the same, I certainly hadn't expected to enjoy this film as much as I did.Appropriately filmed in b&w, thank goodness that it didn't contain any musical numbers..
When the town is invaded by the monsters, Victor and Sparky are the last chance to rescue the girl Elsa van Helsing from the claws of Mr. Whiskers."Frankenweenie" is another stop-motion animation by Tim Burton in black and white with a great tribute to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein with a happy ending.
True, he was still using all of the unique little devices that made us love him, but his heart was not in the movies, and they all turned out commercialized and soulless, the cool "Tim Burton-ambiance" mocking us by hinting at how good he used to be.I'm glad to say now that has all changed."Frankenweenie" starts by showing the audience the ordinary life of an extraordinary kid called Victor, a young boy with no friends, but a burning passion for his specialist subjects (horror movies, film making and science), a childhood that will surely resonate with both Tim Burton and the majority of his fans.
From that moment, everything gets deliciously out of hand and grows into a classic "there is an imminent problem at hand that we need someone to deal with before this all goes down the toilet"-movie that we all love.While the movie does not really develop its characters deeply and sometimes drops certain plot lines we would have liked to see more of, it makes up for it tenfold with the thing that Tim Burton has more of than anybody else: imagination.
And yes, I don't think this film is suitable for children, more like teenagers and adults, containing some scenes that may disturb children.It's the story of Victor Frankenstein (voiced by Charlie Tahan), who, after losing his beloved dog Sparky, tries to revive him using lightning.
It has all the classic Tim Burton qualities - the extraordinarily weird characters (which are just plainly weird, with no extra explanation), some black humor, dark atmosphere, great music (courtesy of Danny Elfman) and artistic touch; yet it lacks of that certain something that makes movies out-stand.I must additionally comment on the fact that the movie is filmed in black and white technique - although I understand the reasons behind this, and generally approve of such ideas, I don't think this was as essential to this movie; in fact perhaps it would have been better if it were in color.
The movie is charming and a good children's creature film but it lacks the energy and cinematic style that made Burton's previous film efforts so memorable.The story revolves around a boy named Victor Frankenstein (Tahan) and his dog Sparky.
Victor then has to prove to his family and the town that Sparky is not a monster in order to save his resurrected dog once again.The film is an effective kids movie and if I had seen it as a kid I'd probably have enjoyed it a lot more.
I think what makes this one so special are the various homages to earlier horror movies like BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, FRANKENSTEIN and there's no question that the scientist here is a homage to Vincent Price and we even got a great way to show off Christopher Lee. The entire look of the film is excellent as well because you really do feel as if you're watching a horror movie from their Golden Age because the sets are incredible, the humans are wonderful and once the animals start to come back at the end you can't help but smile.
Although a little generic in places Frankenweenie is a really unique cinematic experience a film that doesn't really cater to a specific audience but is a thing all it's own much like in the vein of Burtons best work Bettlejuice and Edward Scissorhands.
A classic love story between a boy and his dog that also pays homage to the creature horror classics of old, this animation is one of Tim Burton's most moving films.
That short has been expanded to feature-length proportions here – thanks to frequent Burton collaborator/ screenwriter John August – and this classic love story between a boy and his dog loses none of its Burton- esque charm in the process.August retains the concept of Burton's earlier short in the first half of the movie, where we are introduced to Victor Frankenstein (voiced by Charlie Tahan), a shy, socially awkward but brilliant geek whose best friend is his faithful bull terrier named Sparky.
The only child of Mr and Mrs Frankenstein (Martin Short and Catherine O'Hara respectively), Victor lives with his parents in the perfect American suburb of New Holland, where in his free time he makes Super 8 films with his toys, improvised props and of course Sparky.His life is turned upside down one day when Sparky dies in an auto accident while chasing his baseball down a street - and just as in the short, Sparky is buried under a large tombstone at the top of the hill in a creepy cemetery.
Moulded in the signature Burton style of 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' and 'Corpse Bride', they have stick-thin limbs atop elongated egg-shaped faces with golf-ball like eyes, and in their uniquely weird and wonderful looks are not only differentiated from each other but given a unique personality.But Burton's visual achievement here goes way beyond the character design – for the first time, he has chosen to adopt a monochrome palette for the movie, a stylistic choice that might seem alienating at first for the modern-day audience so accustomed to stories told in rich dynamic colours but really an artistically inspired one that accentuates the very telling of the tale.
Director Tim Burton returns to his visceral dark roots with Frankenweenie, a animated film that features all the dark, brooding themes he is famous for, in what would seem like an opportunity for the story teller to deal with all his favourite, classical horror elements all in one fall swoop.
With Disney's backing, Burton crafts a somewhat charming little film inspired primarily by Frankenstein, dealing with the artificial creation of life and how this whacks nature out of balance, although one can almost feel that his direction probably got superseded in the final moments to toe the line, given that mass market merchandising, or the lack thereof, is probably the compromise reached.Face it, the characters here aren't really plush toy material, even though they are grotesquely beautiful to look at, with physical flaws that seem perfect.
Being in black, white and grey, it provides that old school look and hopefully elevated this film to that nostalgic status of old, ringing with the air of familiarity for elements that you've probably experienced especially if you're a classic horror movie fan.As the story would have already been suggested by its trailer, it centers around a boy, Vincent Frankenstein (Charlie Tahan) whose dog Sparky had passed away, only for Vincent, a smart boy with scientist potential, emulating his namesake to resurrect his pet dog, and succeeding.
We have a Disney presentation by Tim Burton, where a much loved childhood pet is killed by a car, buried, later disinterred and then subsequently re-animated in a child's pastiche of Frankenstein.Leaving irony trembling at the cemetery gates, we have a children's tale that is beautifully animated in black and white stop motion.
He does have his pet dog "Sparky" and his film making which reassures his parents, Mr & Mrs Frankenstein (Martin Short and Catherine O'Hara - voices) that maybe he is okay and happy in his own way.Viktor does interact a little with his neighbour Elsa Van Hesling (Ryder) and her pet poodle which adds some emotional depth, especially between the pets before the trouble begins.All is well in a slightly, "I am in the attic conducting weird experiments and making movies by myself" sort of way.
Made with love and attention to detail, striving for but arguably missing out on capturing the true essence of the story.Not as good as "Coraline" but in the somewhat limited market of stop motion re-animated children's horror movies, far better than average in every way.http://julesmoviereviews.blogspot.co.nz/.
Or, see one of Tim Burton's good stop-motion films, like "A Nightmare Before Christmas" or "The Corpse Bride".By the way, you might wonder why I even watched this film.
I also chuckled at the science teacher calling the parents "stupid," but, otherwise, "Frankenweenie" isn't as funny or as clever as it's movie-reference-laden, stop-motion animation family fare may imply.In the beginning, it's mostly a pastiche of the 1930s Universal Frankenstein films.
I'm sure there are more.Moreover, the monstrous climax and the stop-motion animation of "Frankenweenie" itself is alluded to in a film-within-the-digital movie made by Victor and starring Sparky as the hero.
It tells the gruesome, little story of young Victor Frankenstein who conducts a daring and amazing scientific experiment in hopes of bringing his beloved dog, Sparky, back to life.With the successful re-animation of Sparky, Victor soon finds that he (as well as many others) must now face some unforeseen and monstrous consequences.All-in-all, Frankenweenie certainly had its fair share of flaws, but, just the same, I really hadn't expected to enjoy this film as much as I did.Appropriately filmed in b&w - Thank goodness that this picture didn't contain any musical numbers..
But when Victor's schoolmates learn of his success, they also try to reanimate some deceased animals, unleashing several monstrous beasts on the community (including a giant tortoise that looks like Gamera and a group of mischievous mutated sea monkeys).Tim Burton expands his 1984 short movie of the same name into a full length feature, delivering impeccable black and white stop-motion animation but failing to connect on an emotional level.
So to the main story Victor Frankenstein here is a boy in a small town, he is opposed with science and he only real friend is his dog Sparky ,but after a car accident which killed the K9 ,Victor tries to bring him back to life, but his actions create ,of course, problem that he has to face.OK the story and some of the character, like Victor's parents, are by the numbers for a children film and this is its only drawback, because when the person who for cry out loud make the slender man likable, a film like that seems to low for him.
It's Tim Burton's film version of one of the early shorts he did in his career; a tribute to Universal's FRANKENSTEIN, in which an imaginative young boy brings his dead dog back to life in the time-honoured tradition.I'm sure that FRANKENWEENIE worked very well as a short but as a feature-length movie it shows some evidence of padding.
In 1984, when Tim Burton worked for Disney made a short film called Frankenweenie, which tells the story of Victor, a boy who after losing his dog Sparky in an accident decides to bring him back to life in the purest Frankenstein style, without considering the consequences this may cause.
This work helps us to understand the basics of Burton's thematic and visual style, which became his trademark over the years: dark worlds with isolated and/or solitary characters faced to the reality of the world that confronts or rejects them.It is almost 30 years later and a streak of quite irregular films that Burton returns to his roots and decided to resume the story of Frankenweenie to make an animated feature making use of the stop- motion technique, with which he created some of his best works such as the Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride, and Frankenweenie is no exception, as it represents a return to the best films of Burton.On this occasion the original story remains intact and makes a bigger emphasis on the impact of the resurrection of Sparky among Victor's friends and as they'll try to emulate the feat with catastrophic results for the small town they live in.
And the film itself is a homage to this cinema being filmed in black and white and with music in perfect tone by Danny Elfman (Burton's closest collaborator).An innate quality of Burton is the skill to create endearing characters out of the dark and grotesque and the best example of it is Sparky, a little dog now part of the most adorable creations on the burtonian universe, and that somehow reflects many of elements or themes that have remained constant in most of Burton's filmography: childhood, loneliness, friendship and a strange fixation with death and what happens after this.Excepting the end that seems to betray the original concept, it is safe to say that Burton needs to do more films like Frankenweenie and much less like Alice in Wonderland..
The Elementary School is populated by strange characters, Victor (Charlie Tahan), an intelligent boy more interested in science and filmmaking, Elsa (Winona Ryder), a depressed goth girl, Edgar "E" Gore, a creepy hunchback kid and "Weird Girl" (Catherine O'Hara), a girl who is obsessed with her cat's psychic visions.Frankenweenie is a fantastically animated film: Burton brings out a creepy look: the characters are deliberately exaggerated as it tells a story most people can relate to when we have suffered some sort of lost.
As is typical of boys his age, Victor loves his dog and even uses Sparky as the protagonist in his home-made stop motion animated films.
Shot in black n white, brought to life through stop-motion animation and homaging various horror classics of the past, Frankenweenie is an expertly crafted, wonderfully animated & heartwarmingly told comedy from Tim Burton that may not rank amongst his finest works but that doesn't mean it isn't an enjoyable ride.A remake of Burton's own 1984 short film of the same name, Frankenweenie tells the story of a young boy named Victor and covers his relationship with his deceased pet dog whom he reanimates through the means of science.
The latest animated feature from auteur Tim Burton, the black and white "Frankenweenie" is, on its surface, a classic "boy and his dog" story.
But eye-popping state of the art stop motion animation, combined with a loving homage to the great movie monsters of the past century, makes this film a unique joy to watch.
This full-length version was co-written by John August and Burton, who directs and produces."Frankenweenie" opens with a "film within a film" as the Frankensteins watch appropriately cheesy home movies of son Victor (the voice of Charlie Tahan) and their devoted dog Sparky.
Tim Burton shows his class again with this black and white animated film inspired by famous horror classic Frankenstein.
Unfortunately, some of the better gags were ruined by the preview.Frankenweenie definitely felt and looked like a Tim Burton movie, a nostalgic throwback to his previous works in several ways, an homage to classic horror films in others.
That, plus my love for dogs, Disney, and Tim Burton's stop motion animation, had me all set for this movie.