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: cult, psychedelic

Review:
You'll especially enjoy it if you've seen (a) James Whale's "Frankenstein" and "Bride of Frankenstein," and (b) Tim Burton's "Nightmare Before Christmas."The plot is basically the Frankenstein legend.
Charming complications ensue.This was Tim Burton's first film, and it's a great harbinger of things to come.
The film does a wonderful job of including nuances from the Whale flicks, from the electrodes on the dog's neck to the resuscitation lab to the brief parody of "Bride."There's enough scary-ish stuff (slightly more gentle than meeting the Almighty Oz) to keep kids going, and enough recognizable movie riffs and humor to keep adults going.
Apparently Disney thought it was too dark but with the exception of one shot of the dead dog it was actually pretty cute.Some of the performances were over the top (neighbors) but I am pretty sure that was supposed to happen - I mean come on we're talking about resurrecting a dog people.
For the most part the pacing is good since I almost never checked my watch.Good camera work for a young Tim Burton and overall decent movie which shows the latent talent of Mr. Burton before he got really famous.8/10.
Basically a spoof of Mary Shelley's classic novel, the movie features suburban American boy Victor Frankenstein (Barret Oliver) resurrecting his dog Sparky, who got run over by a car.
Original, cute, and obviously Tim Burton, this film is good for everyone, regardless of what Disney thinks (I guess they were afraid that kids would start digging up the graves of their old dead pets and end of shocking themselves.).
It's a delightful little film version of Frankenstein, seen from a child's perspective, and with charm and a sweet sense of humor.
I enjoyed this simply shot, fun little movie, a sign of great things to come for Tim Burton.
Tim Burton's talent clearly shows in his early short film!.
His jolly little film introduces us to the 10-year-old Victor Frankenstein who can't bear the loss of his beloved dog.
Victor, the young son, is crestfallen when his dog Sparky dies.The movie is very funny and original, and I'm glad that Tim Burton decided to do this movie in black and white, as he did 10 years later with his masterpiece Ed Wood.
This is only a slightly dark and very funny family film that is a homage to the horror pictures of the 1930s and 40s--complete with glorious black and white cinematography!
It was the first movie I ever remember watching, causing me to later in life become a huge Tim Burton fan.
I viewed the stop-motion animated 2012 expanded remake of this first, and this live-action original is much better because its plot is direct, and it's focused on referencing mostly only one monster movie, the 1931 "Frankenstein," although it ends with a poodle with a white-lightning-striped Nefertiti hairdo à la the 1935 sequel.
The movie would've been better without all of that, and this 1984 short film is the proof.It also doesn't reduce Victor's parents to negligible nincompoops, so it doesn't have the ridiculous message of the 2012 feature that children are smarter than adults.
I don't recall my favorite line from this film being in the 2012 remake, either: "I guess we can't punish Victor for bringing Sparky back from the dead." The windmill scene bothers me in both movies, though; the adults should've and could've ran in there.
Dog dies, Victor reanimates dog with household appliances in a scene that otherwise resembles the 1931 film with flashing and spinning gizmos and the spark of life from a lightning bolt, townsfolk react in horror towards the creature and form a mob per usual for Universal's classic horror films, chasing dog and Victor to a fiery windmill climax--in a miniature golf course this time, which is a humorous touch absent from the 2012 version.The one thing the 2012 one did better was the opening film-within-a-film, as it was a pastiche of the B-picture giant monster movies of the Atomic Age, which the outer movie, then, went on to parody.
Tim Burton's loving tribute to Universal's Frankenstein movies.
The story's about a boy who brings his beloved dog Sparky back to life using the same method as in Frankenstein.
It's a beautiful-looking film, shot in black & white, with lots of the clever touches we've come to associate with Burton over the years.
it's a little movie that oozes charm and nostalgia.Barret Oliver, the cute kid from 'The Neverending Story' (1984) and 'D.A.R.Y.L.' (1985), is once again terrific, here as Victor Frankenstein.
As for the "weenie", it probably is meant to make one realize it's a "kid's version" so that it's suitable for kids to watch and not scary like the original tale.This "piece of a watchmaker's shop" is the best thing Tim Burton ever did.
Only there are a few minor changes to the classic tale.In Frankenweenie, little Victor Frankenstein's much-loved pitbull, named Sparky, gets run over by a car.
The Frankenstein family then puts the family dog to rest in a very gothic looking pet cemetery, that looks something from Tim Burton's own Nightmare Before Christmas.
Including the last few seconds of the short, Sparky falls in love with a poodle with the same wacky hair-do as Frankenstein love interest in The Bride of Frankenstein.This is one of the two first directional debuts of the master storyteller Tim Burton (Beetlejuice, Batman, Sleepy Hollow), along side of his six-minute tribute to his idol Vincent Price, called Vincent in 1982.
Tim Burton's own masterpiece, Edward Scissorhands is in the same vein as this same short film, being that Sparky was his owner's creation and becomes very misunderstood due to the fact that he doesn't look like any other dog, while Edward was Vincent Price's own creation and soon becomes the outcast in suburbia because of his `scissorhands'.Tim Burton also decided it would be better if he filmed the short in black & white...
Exquisite!While Tim Burton was working for Disney as an animator, Disney decided to give Tim his own creative freedom, letting him direct and be the brains behind the story of two shorts for Disney: Vincent and Frankenweenie.
Pretty funny, eh?Any-hoo, this short is strongly recommended to all Tim Burton fans and fans of the Frankenstein franchise.****1/2 out of ***** 8/10.
I just recently viewed this film when buying the special edition of Tim Burton's 'The nightmare before christmas dvd'.
I think it is pretty clear that Frankenweenie is a pastiche of Frankenstein; partcularly the scene where Sparky is brought back to life by being exposed to lightening, just as Frankenstein did with his creation.Burton depicts the character of Frankenstein as an outsider as a result of his actions.
This is not as 'polished' as his current work (obviously), but you can tell it is a Burton film because of the use of dark humor.Overall, 'Frankenweenie' is not a very long film, and Burton did well to tell the story in the amount of time that he did.
Kids get enough rose-tinted syrup in the form of cough medicine, and as the Grimm brothers knew they like a good exhilarating scare as much as the rest of us.Frankenweenie sees a young Tim Burton reworking the Frankenstein story around a young boy and his beloved dog.
But this in no way diminishes what we see on screen, and it's nice that kids (a lot of whom won't know the Frankenstein story at all) will simply accept the movie in its own right, and be touched by it for its own message, which incidentally has a rather different slant to that of Mary Shelley's novel.This was one of Burton's earliest efforts at live-action, his work prior to this largely being in animation.
This film is based (obviously) on the original story on Frankenstein and yet it is about a dog who comes back to life.
The dog is the sweet part of this film, the rest of it is at times funny, at times a little mediocre and at times spooky.At the beginning of Frankenweenie, we meet a young boy called Victor and his dog Sparky.
Victor misses Sparky with every molecule of his heart and when his science teacher shows a way of using electricity to make animals come back to life, Victor is off and bringing his beloved dog back from the dead...Unfortunately, I spent the whole of this film wondering how scary it would get, which is why I did not enjoy it so much at the time.
I originally liked this film for the plot and for the dog, the human characters just came in the way a little bit for me, but now I see them as the enhancers of the story.
After all, Victor is the person responsible here for giving life to Sparky, just as Professor Frankenstein creates life in his monster in the original book (which I have not read, but know the basics about).This very good Tim Burton creation can be seen on the same DVD as "The Nightmare Before Christmas", which is very convenient.
After 'Vincent' Tim Burton made the short 'Frankenweenie', a spoof of, as well as a homage to the movie Frankenstein.
The boy then tries to bring his dog back to life.After this movie, Tim Burton was fired from Disney, for 'wasting studio efforts on a mg-6 movie'.
Yes. Otherwise we'd be watching 'The Fox and the Hound' drawn by him, instead of the masterpieces like Sweeney Todd and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory he makes today.This short is not as good as 'Vincent', but is still very much fun to watch, the story lines and environment incline towards Edward Scissorhands, and Shelley DuVall is very good as mother Frankenstein.8/10.
Frankenweenie is Tim Burton's first live-action short film, shot for Disney in the mid-80s, and has enough imaginations to overpass some overbearing cheesiness at times.
It's a sign of things to come for Burton, and the story and some of the side characters remind one of Edward Scissorhands (no one understands this 'creation', and becomes an outcast despite good intentions).
The beginning of the film, for example, showing a movie made by the son with the dog Sparky, seems like it's taken autobiographically from Burton's life as a kid.
In the end, Frankenweenie is kind of like an expensive student short film, where a style is emerging but not fully formed, and at the same time there's real entertainment to be had.
Seeing Barrett Oliver (Neverending Story) bring his dog to life after the dog died seriously tore me apart becuz at the time I had a dog myself and was close to him like Victor Frankenstein was close to his dog.
Tim Burton's Frankenstein: The Disney Version.
But a nice introduction of Frankenstein to kids.3(***)out of 4(****)starsA little side note:If you didn't already know, ten years later Tim Burton would do another black & white movie titled "Ed Wood" :).
If you keep track of upcoming movies (like I do), you may know that Tim Burton is releasing a film called "Frankenweenie" next month.
A simple, odd story about how far a kid can go to bring back his lovable dog Sparky!The concept is inventive and Burton has done a stupendous job with both the versions.
Frankenweenie (1984) **** (out of 4) Wonderful short about a boy's dog who dies after being hit by a car but the boy uses electricity to bring him back to life.
I read that Tim Burton was fired from Disney due to making such a dark picture that they felt they couldn't sell to children but this is probably the best movie I've seen from the director.
A sign of things to come for Tim Burton in this darkly comic tale of a young boy whose dog is hit by a truck and then resurrected a la Frankenstein's monster.
This is another cult Tim Burton short – although at 29 minutes, live-action, and featuring the likes of Shelley Duvall, Daniel Stern and child actor Barret Oliver (from the same year's THE NEVER ENDING STORY), it is a considerably more ambitious effort.Again, it draws inspiration from classic horror cinema and, in fact, its variation on the Frankenstein theme made for a belated addition to my James Whale retrospective of some months back!
The boy cannot get over its loss but, suddenly, during chemistry class at school (presided over by an uncredited Paul Bartel!), he learns how dead things can be literally reanimated via electricity.So he goes to work in the family basement – while his oblivious parents think he is acting strangely as a way of coping with the dog's death – and creates a makeshift Frankenstein (incidentally, that is the boy's very surname and he is, of course, called Victor) lab, complete with mounting slab!
Unearthing the dead pet from the nearby graveyard, the funeral set-piece is a veritable homage to the opening sequence from Whale's FRANKENSTEIN (1931), as is the fiery climax at the mill!Immediately after being revived, the dog (appropriately stitched-up, which however makes one wonder just how bad the afore-mentioned accident had been!) runs out into the streets again (the boy having fallen asleep from exhaustion) and, causing no end of havoc, terrifies the neighbors.
This movie is another masterpiece created by the wonderful genius we all know and love, Tim Burton.
So pretty much this is another masterpiece of a film created by Tim Burton.
Stars: Barrett Oliver, Daniel Stern, Shelley Duvall and Paul Bartel.This was Tim's first live action movie and it was great.
I don't even particularly enjoy Tim Burton's movies, but this one is really good.
The story's about Victor Frankenstein and his friendship with his beloved dog, Sparky (a Bull Terrier).
Barret Oliver, a familiar actor from "The Neverending Story" and "D.A.R.Y.L" (both awesome movies), as well as one of the best and cutest child actors of all time, is excellent in the role of Victor Frankenstein.
There is a bit of a "Back to the Future" atmosphere in this live-action short.I've read that Tim Burton will make a "remake" of this, but as a full-length movie.
A short film directed by Tim Burton, this is absolutely sublime.
It tells the story of a ten-year-old boy named Victor Frankenstein, based on Burton himself as he makes short films in his backyard, who is distraught by the death of his (very appropriately named) dog Sparky.
Barret Oliver, a prolific 1980s child actor best known for his roles in films such as "The NeverEnding Story", "D.A.R.Y.L." and "Cocoon", is pitch perfect as Victor, who manages to seem like a real boy in spite of the plot.
***SPOILERS*** Yet another black and white epic inspired by the great German films of the Silent Era (by way of the 1931 FRANKENSTEIN, no less), FRANKENWEENIE is a love story and it begins quietly enough, with no indication of the horrors to come.
What's that you have never seen the original 29 minute short created for Disney by Tim Burton?
Suddenly, Disney was a big fan of Tim Burton, in the hopes of cashing in a bit they added two shorts to the DVD releases of A Nightmare Before Christmas, Frankenweenie and Vincent.
Seems like their is a fine line between kooky filmmaker and bankable director.The story in Frankenweenie is a rather simple, heartfelt tale of a boy, young Victor Frankenstein and his dog Sparky.
I didn't wonder when I read that Burton was fired from Disney for "wasting" their resources on films like this.
P.S : unlike many, including Burton himself, I don't see this movie as a short remake of Frankenstein aimed at children.
Victor Frankenstein's beloved dog Sparky gets hit by a car.
For a fun and nostalgic look at the 1950s and its expressionistic horror themes, here's a slightly underground early short by Tim Burton called "Frankenweenie," a movie apparently that "wasted resources" from good ol' Walt Disney's estate.
In other words, a pretty creative, fun, nostalgic film that really didn't have an audience until Burton became the household name he is and got a super devoted fan base of goth kiddies from around the globe."Frankenweenie", as the name implies, is a take off of Frankenstein involving a child's favorite, Fido-like dog, Sparky.
Where the concept of a Frankenstein's monster as childhood best friend joke starts to drag, Tim Burton's love of making fun of suburbanite conformity takes over, and the two concepts run for a pretty decent 30 minute parody.Apparently, it was short films like this that got Burton fired from Disney.
Actually, there isn't any character that is sympathetic, which also has to do with the lame story and the fact that Burton doesn't seem to know what to do with this short story other than hauling in cliché after cliché - pretty much the only original thing here is the premise, but that is simply not enough.I can sense Burton's enthusiasm here and there though, like when the boy goes to work in the attic in order to spark Sparky back to life.
But all in all, this makes for a world of difference with Burton's wonderful (animated) short that preceded this, 'Vincent' (1982), and of course with other, later feature length masterpieces.5 out of 10." -End of first review-I've seen it again recently, and I really enjoyed the atmosphere, settings and animations.
And this is probably also my biggest criticism for Tim Burton's short film "Frankenweenie" from over 30 years ago.
Instead of learning to face the reality of death, Victor instead tampers with the natural order of things and brings back Sparky as a kind of mutilated zombie.Don't get me wrong, I really liked this short film.
Before making it big with Beetlejuice, Batman and Edward Scissorhands, director Tim Burton worked as a Disney animator, and made a few short films, this is another one of those shorts, a parody and homage to Frankenstein (1931), based on the classic Mary Shelley novel.
Basically ten-year-old Victor Frankenstein (The NeverEnding Story's Barret Oliver) liked to create movies starring his beloved Bull Terrier dog Sparky (his name is a play on the use of electricity in the film).