Throughout the month I have been reviewing horror films mainly, for why would you not during spooky October? I was so happy to have seen this film for it brings together all of the different elements of many of the monster movies I have watched and synthesized them into one glorious celebration of the bizarre and the campy.
Adapted from his live-action short, Tim Burton has gone back to the basics to do what he does best. His latest project crackles with wit and love as he adapts the classic Frankenstein story into a beautifully rendered stop-motion children's film. Burton flexes all of his strengths by keeping his imaginative visual flair to animation and delving more into the humorous than the macabre.
There is certainly nothing to make this film a modern classic like Henry Selick's "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and many will argue that its charm will come from the homages paid to other, more inventive films, but I say there is nothing wrong with that if the end result is good--which it is. Victor Frankenstein, an elementary school science wiz creates a laboratory to bring his dead dog Sparky back from the grave. Harnessing the powers of lightning and love his best friend is reanimated, much to the horror of his family and neighbors.
The story follows the plot of Frankenstein quite closely, including the burning windmill in the original Boris Karloff film and the romance with a frizzy-haired poodle like the film's sequel. Where "Frankenweenie" diverges from Burton's source material is a science fair and a group of over-zealous kids all out to learn Victor's secrets, leading to monstrous consequences.
These kids are by far the highlight of the film and absolutely hilarious, for Victor's class is made up of a bunch of ghoulish weirdos inspired by all of the classic horror performances which Burton obviously loves so much. The voice acting is superb all around with a terrific cast including Catherine O'Hara, Martin Short, Winona Ryder, and a perfect Martin Landau voicing Victor's eccentric east European science teacher in very likeness of Vincent Price.
I sat in the theatre trying to keep track of all of the films Burton referenced which was where most of the fun I had came from. From his own work I saw "Beetlejuice", "Edward Scissorhands", "Ed Wood", "Vincent" and "Corpse Bride". The list of other works is considerably longer: "Frankenstein", "Dracula" (two versions), "The Mummy", "The Wolf Man", "The Invisible Man", "The Creature from the Black Lagoon", "Godzilla", "The Bride of Frankenstein", "Gremlins", "Poltergeist" and I'm sure considerably more that I have forgotten or didn't recognize. It made the film all the more enjoyable for me, though I think it is a really fun movie in general.
This is a weird little film but one with lots of emotion and characters we want to identify with. It's also a rather creepy little movie, but that's enjoyable in itself. It's black and white with characters all slightly off except Vincent and his parents who are supposed to be the odd characters making the town of New Holland Ed Wood's wet dream, which I have no doubt was Burton's goal. The animation is beautiful, slightly more jittery than other recent stop-motion films which is probably a tribute to Ray Harryhausen.
Themes of the ethics of death may be too mature for younger audiences, but friendship is universally identifiable. "Frankenweenie" won't be remembered for anything more than being a good film, but I had a blast nevertheless, and it's good to see Burton in top form again.
3.5/4
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