Frankenweenie (2012)

Tim Burton’s 1984 live-action short Frankenweenie has an odd place in his career. Not only did it have a more niche audience for the longest time, only seeing a home video release within certain releases of The Nightmare Before Christmas, but the short’s creation also led to Disney firing him for what they considered a waste of company resources. Fast forward to 2007, when Disney hired Burton to direct two 3D films, one of which was a feature length remake of Frankenweenie, this time in stop-motion. The finished product would release in 2012 to generally positive critical reception and also had the honor of being both the first black-and-white feature and first stop-motion film shown in IMAX 3D. In the context of its creation and release, Frankenweenie is certainly a technical achievement, as well as a personal one considering that not many people can say they got to remake a project that got them fired by the same company that hired them. In the context of the rest of his output, however, Frankenweenie’s second chance at life doesn’t change the fact that it’s not one of Burton’s best creations.

The core premise of the film is very similar to the original short. In the town of New Holland, Victor Frankenstein (Charlie Tahan) is a child scientist and aspiring filmmaker who spends most of his time with his dog Sparky. Concerned with Victor’s isolation from his peers, his father Edward (Martin Short) encourages him to take up baseball. Unfortunately, after Victor gets a home run, Sparky runs after the ball and into the street, where he gets hit by a car and killed. Shortly after, Victor’s science teacher Mr. Rzykruski (Martin Landau) conducts a lesson on electrical impulses within dead frogs, inspiring him to reanimate Sparky with electricity. Successful, Victor tries keeping the reanimated Sparky a secret, but Sparky escapes the attic and terrifies the neighborhood. Although most don’t see Sparky, he’s recognized by another student, Edgar "E" Gore (Atticus Shaffer), who blackmails Victor into teaching him how to raise the dead.

Victor Frankenstein (Charlie Tahan, right) reunites with his dog Sparky.

On a technical level, Frankenweenie is 100% Tim Burton. His particular dark aesthetic permeates throughout, with an art style reminiscent of Corpse Bride, Burton’s only other animated feature (and one I haven’t yet seen at the time of this writing), likely owing to sharing some of the same personnel. Either way, the stop-motion animation is impressive, with a specific level of fluidity that feels consistent with his other efforts (even The Nightmare Before Christmas despite being directed by Henry Selick) and has a certain charm that makes the chosen medium more evident. The choice of filming in black-and-white not only matches the original short, but also lends a different atmosphere to the impressive cinematography and surprisingly numerous quiet moments carried almost entirely by the visuals and physical “acting” of the characters. Even the less quiet moments have great voice acting that’s quite improved over the more amateurish acting of the original short, plus Danny Elfman’s score is rather fitting for a Tim Burton film and at times sounds reminiscent of The Nightmare Before Christmas (though that’s not to say it ever reaches the same level of memorability).

Outside of that, the story is fine, but feels stretched out to feature length compared to the tight focus of the original short (that’s also about 1/3 of the length). It does greatly expand on the original, with a comparatively larger cast and a deeper look into Victor’s school life and his relationship between it and science. More classmates, teachers and townspeople are thrown into the mix, each with a unique and at times off-beat personality that touches upon the theme of not fitting in. We see this more with the humorously named Mr. Rzykruski (pronounced like “Rice Krispie”), who the town condemns based on fear derived from his more advanced understanding of science.

As with the original short, the plot of Frankenweenie is both an homage and parody of Frankenstein, or at least the version of the story known by the general public as passed down from the classic 1931 Universal adaptation, and, as such, it hits many of the same story beats. This includes the famous windmill scene, though the execution this time feels less inspired, as the windmill itself acts as one of the only reminders (outside a festival at the end) that New Holland has Dutch roots, which makes the setting feel chosen solely to justify having a windmill (as opposed to a cleverer minigolf course from the short). The concept of playing God is taken a couple steps further this time by having an increasing number of animals either brought back to life or affected by electricity, though this aspect escalates to the point that it comes off rather silly (and not in the fun way).

At least we get an impressive shot out of this.

Naturally, there are plenty of other references to classic horror, including, but not limited to, Nassor’s (Martin Short) resemblance to Boris Karloff’s famous take on Frankenstein’s monster, Edgar "E" Gore’s resemblance to the “Igor” character and even a diagetic clip from the 1958 film adaptation of Dracula as a nod to both Christopher Lee’s prior collaborations with Tim Burton and, of course, Dracula. Not all of these references land, however, as for every clever one, there’s another that feels more forced, including a Bride of Frankenstein reference through the dog Persephone. The same could be said for the humor, as while there are some funny moments, others fell flat and I personally didn’t find humor in Mr. Whiskers, Weird Girl’s (Catherine O'Hara) cat, having psychic predictions through poop. I’ll also mention that although the story is implied to take place in the then-present of the early 2010s, the level of technology and some story elements could easily have placed it in an earlier time period and it would have still fit.

Despite its improvements on the original short, Frankenweenie doesn’t quite stick the landing, especially as a Tim Burton film. It’s a harmless remake, but doesn’t do anything to stand out as much more than that apart from its black-and-white visuals and uniquely Burton aesthetic. If you’re a big Burton fan, you may want to give this a watch at least once, though I would advise anyone else to instead seek out one of his better works, like his take on Batman (1989) or even the Henry Selick-directed The Nightmare Before Christmas.