The third in a triumvirate of late summer/early autumn
horror animations and the most hotly anticipated in my eyes, Frankenweenie is a feature length remake
of the short film that Director Tim Burton made while working for Disney that
got him fired twenty-eight years ago. Over a quarter of a century later and
with a back catalogue of hits under his belt, Disney invited Burton to remake his short for them. A homage
to early talkie Hollywood horror and filmed in black and white stop motion, Frankenweenie is the story of a young
boy called Victor Frankenstein (Charlie Tahan) who loses his only childhood
friend, his dog Sparky. Whilst in science class and having seen a dead frog
have his legs manipulated by electricity, Victor gets the idea to try the same
thing with his deceased dog and is successful in reanimating Sparky. Although
he tries to keep it a secret it isn’t long before other children from school
find out and blackmail Victor into helping them to do the same thing. The
results of their experiments though are much less successful and lead to a
horde of rampaging monsters that threaten the town.
First up I’ll say that in my opinion Frankenweenie is the best of the recent
children’s-horror-comedy-stop motion films. I was massively disappointed with ParaNorman and although Hotel Transylvania had its moments it
was average at best. Although I think this is better than those two, I still
left feeling a little cold. There was an awful lot that I liked about the film
but there was just something nagging me at the back of my mind that meant I
wasn’t able to go with it completely. Although I can’t put my finger on it
exactly, it might be the lack of humour which left me disappointed. Even so, as
I said there is a lot to admire here.
The animation and lighting are superb. I mention it a lot but I’m a big
fan of stop motion and have even given it a go myself but Burton’s animators have created a beautiful,
realistic and interesting world out of their clay. The modelling and animation is
clean and neat enough to look professional and expensive but still maintains a
handmade look to it. There are plenty of nods to horror design as well as Ray
Harryhausen stop motion but the design is of course very Burton-esque and
reminiscent of The Nightmare before
Christmas and especially Corpse Bride.
The design looks as though it may well be based on the sort of small town America that Burton would have known in his youth and
feels extremely familiar. The bungalows, white picket fences, town square and
Elementary School look accurate and are really well done. In that respect they
also reminded me of the likes of Beetlejuice's
model town and that of Edward
Scissorhands. Burton’s
canon is so distinctive though that you could show someone a frame from pretty
much any film and they’d know it was one of his.
The plot obviously follows Mary Shelley’s story fairly
closely at times but is vastly different in other areas. Victor’s classmates
are made up of other horror characters and include the likes of Elsa Van
Helsing (Winona Ryder) and the hunchbacked Edar E. Gore (Atticus Shaffer).
Other characters resemble horror royalty such as a bride of Frankenstein dog,
Frankenstein’s monster and teacher based on Vincent Price. Stock footage of
Christopher Lee’s incarnation of Dracula is also seen and there are numerous
horror film references dotted throughout the film for those old enough to
notice. The problem of course is that the target audience is probably 8-14 year
olds for whom the references such as a giant reanimated tortoise chasing a Japanese
boy won’t mean a thing. At times I found the story a little tiring too as
although I was enjoying the animation and horror tropes, there was nothing I
hadn’t seen before and I didn’t laugh once.
It is obvious that the film is very personal to Tim Burton.
The fact that he is revisiting it over twenty-five years after its first
incarnation must tell us something but the story itself has a ring of Burton’s own childhood.
Victor is different and misunderstood. He enjoys making short films in his
attic and isn’t into sports like ‘normal’ kids. He has few friends and is
looked upon as an outsider. You don’t need to have read a Burton biography to recognise the parallels. The
film also feels much more coherent and better managed and directed than Burton’s recent films.
The Direction and especially imaginative camera angles actually really
impressed me and helped to make the film even more interesting to look at.
My favourite part of the whole film was the message it sends
to America
about science. The message isn’t even subtle, it is front and centre and in a
film targeted at the next generation. Victor’s teacher faces an angry mob of
parents for teaching his class ‘all this science nonsense which we don’t
understand’. In a fairly long monologue the teacher turns to the parents and to
America
itself and calls them idiots for their old world, closed mind attitude to the
unknown. In a speech aimed firmly at the Neo-Con religious right, Burton tells America that their lack of
understanding is to their detriment and that they should open their eyes and
their hearts to the wonders of science. The teacher claims (rightly) that they
like the advances that science brings but don’t appreciate the questions it
raises. I absolutely loved this section and just hope that it actually
resonated with a least a small proportion of the audience.
Overall Frankenweenie
is a heartfelt homage to the horror genre which is shot and directed in a more
than capable manner by someone who knows the genre well. The story touches upon
some distressing areas while remaining family friendly and also sneaks in some
propaganda too. The problems lie in that it isn’t funny and is an area that Burton has visited before
more successfully. Nonetheless it is the best of the recent horror-motion genre
and a partial return to form for the Director.
6/10
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