Frankenweenie (2012)
When a car hits young Victor's pet dog Sparky, Victor decides to bring him back to life the only way he knows how. But when the bolt-necked "monster" wreaks havoc and terror in the hearts of Victor's neighbors, he has to convince them that Sparky's still the good, loyal friend he was.
- Tim Burton
- Kev Harwood
- Richard Lake
- John August
- Tim Burton
- Tim Burton
- Christian De Vita
- Jorgen Klubien
- Dean Roberts
- Sharon Smith
- Philip Vallentin
- Gabriele Zucchelli
- Padraig Collins
- Leonard Ripps
Rating: 7/10 by 3334 users
Alternative Title:
Frankenweenie 3D - US
Франкенвiнi - UA
Chó Ma Frankenweenie - VN
Frankenvini - RS
科學怪犬 - TW
프랑켄위니 - KR
怪誕復活狗 - HK
Country:
United States of America
Language:
English
Runtime: 01 hour 27 minutes
Budget: $39,000,000
Revenue: $81,493,846
Plot Keyword: shyness, stop motion, dog, animal death, animal lover
Good stuff, unmistakably Tim Burton. Frankenweenie is a solid stop-motion horror film from Disney. Interesting plot, coupled with a suitable cast and untypical animation. It's also in black-and-white, which doesn't hamper things at all - I, in a weird sort of way, kinda forgot it was b/w for vast portions. Charlie Tahan voices the lead character, Victor Frankenstein. You also have well-known names in Winona Ryder (Elsa), Martin Short (Edward) and Catherine O'Hara (Susan). I also liked Martin Landau as Rzykruski. There's decent humour amongst those characters, too. Worth a watch, for sure.
This time it's the Frankenstein story that gets the Tim Burton treatment delivering us an hybrid of "Edward Scissorhands" (1990) and Karloff's "Frankenstein" (1935) with a little pooch throw in for good measure. It's the eponymous mutt that gets hit by car whilst fetching a baseball hit, surprisingly, out of the park by his young master "Victor". Distraught, the scientifically minded youngster concocts a cunning plan to use the attic windows, some toy seahorses and loads and loads of lightning to bring "Sparky" back from the dead. What now ensues is quite a fun series of escapades as the young man resurrects his friend and tries to keep it a secret from his schoolmates ahead of a looming science fair that causes his friends to try to mimic his skills and create monstrous mayhem en route. The monochrome stop-motion animation (especially their eyes!) and typically fun Danny Elfman score make for an effective comedy-horror and it is hard not to engage with the reincarnated patchwork puppy. Their rather menacing science teacher "Rzykruski" reminded me of Christopher Lee, too. It's a quickly paced and engaging tale with a gentle morality to it - love, loyalty, friendship all feature strongly in a narrative that goes some way to illustrate how, illogically sometimes, people can become attached to their pets. Good fun, this film.