Frankenweenie is the latest in the quirky line of stop-motion animated features from the twisted mind of Tim Burton. Based on a live-action short he originally created back in 1984, the writer/director jumped at the chance to bring his tale to life using the artistry and animation techniques he has helped to pioneer over the past two decades. Some might question his decision to remake the original; arguably one of his best live-action stories in his career, and when asked Tim merely explained that he always wanted more focus on the dog – something you really couldn’t do with a live animal.
Whether you have already seen his original short or if you watch it before or after this new animated feature (it is included in the bonus features), the one thing I found remarkable was just how accurately they reproduced each and every significant scene from the original in stunning stop-motion puppetry. Some scenes are frame-by-frame accurate, almost as if his original film was used as a storyboard for the remake. His original work was so strong in story and style it holds up nearly 30 years later,so the biggest challenge was taking a 30-minute short and turning it into a feature three times the size.
The core story centers on Victor Frankenstein (Charlie Tahan), a solitary young boy with a passion for filmmaking as well as science. The movie opens with Victor and his parents, Edward (Martin Short) and Susan (Catherine O’Hara), and of course, Sparky, all gathered in the living room watching one of Victor’s latest home movie masterpieces. The film wastes little time in setting up a vivid picture of Victor’s home life, his relative social awkwardness, and most importantly, his love for his dog. And while Sparky does get much more screen time in this new animated version, it’s not enough to carry a feature film, so Tim added significantly to the cast and weaved in a fun subplot turning the third act into an all-out tribute to monster matinees.
Victor’s parents encourage him to break out of his shell by taking up a sport, which transitions us to the ballpark where Victor uses what he’s learned in science class to knock the ball out of the park. Sparky dutifully fetches the ball and subsequently gets struck and killed by a car shattering Victor’s life… that is until he is inspired by his science teacher (Martin Landau) to use electricity to reanimate Sparky’s corpse. In a sequence that not only mirrors Burton’s original live-action work but also pays serious homage to the infamous scene from Frankenstein, Victor turns his attic into an impressive “mad scientist” laboratory and brings Sparky back to life.
Of course now, the real challenge is to keep the rambunctious canine a secret, because nobody could possibly understand what he has done. Despite some early close calls, Sparky’s rebirth is kept a secret for a few days, but all too soon people learn what Victor has done including his parents and even worse, Edgar Gore (Atticus Schaffer), one of Victor’s creepiest classmates designed to mirror the infamous Igor complete with hunchback and busted up teeth. Edgar threatens to reveal Victor’s secret unless he helps him animate a dead pet of his own…a fish. They recreate the experiment and the fish does come back to life only it is invisible. As rumors spread about Edgar’s fish and Victor’s dog all the other kids want to reanimate their own dead animals for the upcoming school science project.
This all leads to the climactic third act where various monster hybrids are created and start to terrorize the town including a ferocious rat, a cat/bat hybrid, a batch of sea monkeys that look and act very much like gremlins, and my personal favorite, a giant turtle that stomps and roars its way through town much like Gamera. Victor and the kids must race around town and use their rudimentary knowledge of science to destroy these aberrations, which all leads to the ultimate clichéd finale with the villages cornering Sparky (the monster) in the windmill, setting it on fire, only to realize that Sparky was not the monster they thought him to be, but only after he’s dead. The numerous references to the classic Frankenstein film will certainly bring a smile to the face of any nostalgic monster movie fan.
Releasing Frankenweenie as a black and white feature was a bold move in a day and age where films live or die based on their technical prowess, but make no mistake; the 1080p presentation is a work of cinematic art in both the 2D AVC and 3D MVC versions of the film. The 3D is completely flawless with none of the ghosting you get in some other 3D films. Stop-motion animation is still a marvel to behold when it is done right; something that CG will never be able to capture because everything you are seeing on the screen is real. Burton and his team have perfected their craft to the point where they actually have a Frankenweenie Art Show that is travelling the world sharing the sets and models with fans. I can’t think of a single moment in the film where I wished the movie had been in color. Frankly, I totally forgot about it being black and white until it was brought up in the bonus features. The black levels and contrast are so sharp and the level of detail is off the charts revealing just how much work went into the fabrication of the characters and the world they live in.
Disney continues to impress with their outstanding DTS-HD MA 7.1 audio mix that keeps the dialogue front and center while mixing in fantastic sound effects (every sound had to be fabricated) and the delightful score from Danny Elfman. There is great use of all the surround channels as well as appropriate use of LFE, especially in the “Gamera” scenes and the frequent thunderclaps during the storms.
Frankenweenie only comes with about an hour’s worth of extras, but it’s all quality stuff. This 4-disc set comes with both 2D and 3D versions of the film, a standard DVD copy and a digital copy, which looks amazing on iPad and iPhone even in black and white. As far as supplemental material the main extra is obviously the original 30-minute “Live-Action Frankenweenie Short” that Tim Burton created back in 1984. It’s a marvel to see how much of the original made it into the animated feature as well as see Barret Oliver, Shelley Duvall, Daniel Stern, and a few other familiar faces from 30 years ago.
“Miniatures in Motion: Bringing Frankenweenie to Life” is a fantastic and surprisingly thorough documentary of how the various departments all came together to bring this movie to life. You’ll probably learn more in these 23 minutes than you would in a longer feature or even a commentary track. For those of you who didn’t get to go to the 2012 Comic-Con, the “Frankenweenie Touring Exhibit” feature gets you a brief 5-minute glimpse at this traveling art show that allows the public to interact with the various puppets and sets from the film. “Captain Sparky vs. The Flying Saucers” is a 2-minute short presented in the same homemade style as Victor’s other home movies, and is just as delightful. And last up are 11 minutes of trailers for upcoming Disney movies.
Frankenweenie is far from scary. The stylized character and creature designs make even the most threatening monster uniquely quirky and charming, although the cat-bat hybrid and mutant rat test the balance of charm vs horror. Hopefully kids have not become so jaded with mind-numbing colors and fancy CG that they won’t be able to appreciate the level of artistry and craftsmanship that went into creating this film and the bold decision to show it in nostalgic black and white. Nothing is more powerful than a boy’s love for his dog. Burton knew this in 1984 when he created his original short and that magic still permeates every frame of Frankenweenie in this stunning stop-motion masterpiece brought home in one of Disney’s most technically proficient transfers to date.
