Psycho's Movie Reviews #226: Frankenweenie (2012)

Frankenweenie is a 2012 American 3D stop motion-animated science fiction comedy-horror film directed by Tim Burton and produced by Walt Disney Pictures. It is a feature-length remake of Burton's 1984 short film of the same name and is also both a parody of and homage to the 1931 film Frankenstein, based on Mary Shelley's 1818 book Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. The voice cast includes five actors who worked with Burton on previous films: Winona Ryder (Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands), Martin Short (Mars Attacks!), Catherine O'Hara (Beetlejuice and The Nightmare Before Christmas), Martin Landau (Ed Wood and Sleepy Hollow), and Conchata Farrell (Edward Scissorhands) along with some new voice actors, such as Charlie Tahan and Atticus Shaffer.

In the film, a boy named Victor Frankenstein uses the power of electricity to resurrect his dead Bull Terrier, Sparky, but is then blackmailed by his peers into revealing how they can reanimate their own deceased pets and other creatures, resulting in mayhem. The tongue-in-cheek film contains numerous references and parodies related to the book, past film versions of the book, other literary classics, and other films which Burton has directed.

Frankenweenie, the first black-and-white feature-length film and the first stop-motion film to be released in IMAX 3D, was released in the United States on October 5, 2012 and met with positive reviews and moderate box office returns. The film won the Saturn Award for Best Animated Film and was nominated for an Academy Award; a Golden Globe; a BAFTA; and an Annie Award for Best Animated Film in each respective category.

Plot

Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist, lives with his parents and his beloved Bull Terrier dog, Sparky, in the quiet town of New Holland. Victor's intelligence is recognized by his classmates at school, including his sombre next-door neighbour, Elsa Van Helsing, the mischievous Edgar "E" Gore, the obese and gullible Bob, the overconfident Toshiaki, the creepy Nassor, and an eccentric girl nicknamed "Weird Girl". Despite their admiration of him, he communicates little with them due to his relationship with his dog. Concerned with his son's isolation, Victor's father encourages him to take up baseball and make achievements outside of science. Victor hits a home run at his first game; Sparky, seeing Victor's hit, runs away from the bleachers to pursue the ball, to which he is struck and killed by a car, leaving Victor saddened.

Inspired by his new science teacher Mr. Rzykruski's demonstration of the effect of electricity on dead frogs, Victor digs up Sparky, brings him to his makeshift laboratory in the attic, and successfully reanimates him with a bolt of lightning. Seeing Weird Girl's cat, Mr. Whiskers, the resurrected Sparky escapes from the attic and explores the neighbourhood. He is recognized by Edgar, who blackmails Victor into teaching him how to raise the dead. Together, the two reanimate a dead goldfish which turns invisible due to an error with the experiment. Edgar brags about the fish to his classmates, but when he tries to show it to a sceptical Nassor, it is gone, leading him to speculate that they can only last for a short time. In fear of losing the upcoming science fair, Toshiaki and Bob make a rocket out of soda bottles, which causes Bob to break his arm. Mr. Rzykruski is blamed for the accident and fired. The Gym Teacher replaces him; before Mr. Rzykruski leaves town, he advises Victor to use science wisely.

When Edgar is confronted by Toshiaki, Nassor and Bob on the baseball field at school, he accidentally reveals Victor's actions, inspiring them to try reanimation themselves. Victor's parents discover Sparky in the attic and are frightened, causing the dog to flee. Confronted by his parents, Victor reminds them that if they would, they could bring back Sparky, but they told him while that is true, it's also different since they can't and tell Victor that what he did, bringing back Sparky, was extremely serious, but also understand his desperation to be with Sparky again and decide to help him find his dog. While Victor and his parents search for Sparky, the classmates invade the lab, discovering Victor's reanimation formula. The classmates separately perform their experiments, which go awry and turn the dead animals into monsters: Mr. Whiskers holds a dead bat while it is electrocuted, resulting in him becoming a monstrous vampiric feline, Edgar turns a dead rat he found in the garbage into a wererat, Nassor revives his mummified hamster, Colossus, Toshiaki's turtle, Shelley, is covered in Miracle Gro and turns into a Gamera-like monster, and Bob's Sea-Monkeys grow into Gremlin-like amphibious humanoids. The monsters break loose into the town fair, where they wreak havoc.

After finding Sparky at the town's pet cemetery, Victor sees the monsters heading to the fair and goes with his classmates to help deal with them; the Sea-Monkeys explode after eating salted popcorn, and Colossus is stepped on by Shelley, while the rat and Shelley are returned to their original, deceased forms after both are electrocuted. During the chaos, Persephone, Elsa's pet poodle, is grabbed by Mr. Whiskers and carried to the town windmill with Elsa and Victor giving pursuit. The townsfolk blame Sparky for Elsa's disappearance and chase him to the windmill, which Elsa's uncle accidentally ignites with his torch. Victor and Sparky enter the burning windmill and rescue Elsa and Persephone, but Victor is trapped inside. Sparky rescues Victor, only to be dragged back inside by Mr. Whiskers, who is fatally impaled by a flaming piece of wood during their confrontation before the windmill collapses on Sparky, killing him again. To reward him for his bravery and saving Victor, the townsfolk gather and revive Sparky with their car batteries. Persephone runs to Sparky and they kiss.

Production

Development

Although Tim Burton signed with Walt Disney Pictures to direct two films in Disney Digital 3-D, including Alice in Wonderland and his remake of Frankenweenie, development for its full-length stop motion version dates as far back as November 2005, when scripts had been written by Josann McGibbon and Sara Parriott. John August was approached for a rewrite in 2006, but was not hired until January 2009. Like the original, the feature version was shot in black and white. Many of the animation artists and crew from Corpse Bride were involved. Burton also borrowed heavily from his design from the titular character of Family Dog for Sparky.

Filming

Filming began at 3 Mills Studios in July 2010. The crew created three giant sound stages, including Victor's cluttered family attic, a cemetery exterior, and a high school interior. The sound stages were then divided into 30 separate areas to deal with the handcrafted, frame-by-frame style of filmmaking. Compared to other stop-motion animation sets, Frankenweenie's set is much larger. As IGN notes, the main character Sparky had to be "'dog-size' compared to the other human characters, but also large enough to house all the elements of the mechanical skeleton secreted within his various foam and silicon-based incarnation". On the other hand, the mechanics are small and delicate, and in some instances they had to have Swiss watchmakers create the tiny nuts and bolts. Around 200 separate puppets were used, with roughly 18 different versions of Victor. The puppets also have human hair, with 40–45 joints for the human characters and about 300 parts for Sparky.

Music and Soundtrack

In early 2011, it was announced that Danny Elfman would score Frankenweenie, with work already started on pre-production music.

Prior to the film's release, an "inspired by" soundtrack album, Frankenweenie: Unleashed!, as well as Elfman's Frankenweenie: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, was released by Walt Disney Records on September 25, 2012. Frankenweenie: Unleashed! contains bonus content that includes a custom icon and an app that will load a menu to view more the bonus content, provide input, or buy more music from Disney Music Group.

Release/Reception/Box Office

The film was initially set for release in November 2011, before Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures moved it to March 9, 2012. In January 2011, Box Office Mojo announced the film's new release date for October 5, 2012 with John Carter replacing the film for the once planned March 9, 2012 release. The film premiered on September 20, 2012, on the opening night of Fantastic Fest, an annual film festival in Austin, Texas. The film opened the London Film Festival on October 10, 2012, in the United Kingdom.

Frankenweenie was released by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on DVD, Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D on January 20, 2013. The film is accompanied by a two-minute short animated film, titled Captain Sparky vs the Flying Saucers.

The film received generally positive reviews from critics. Based on 221 reviews, the film holds an approval rating of 87% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 7.54/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Frankenweenie is an energetic stop-motion horror movie spoof with lovingly crafted visuals and a heartfelt, oddball story." Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gives the film a score of 74 based on 38 reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

Justin Chang of Variety reacted positively to the film, saying that it "evinces a level of discipline and artistic coherence missing from the director's recent live-action efforts". Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a mediocre review by explaining that while the various creative elements of the film "pay homage to a beloved old filmmaking style", the film mostly feels "like second-generation photocopies of things Burton has done before". Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars, while regarding the film as "not one of Burton's best, but it has zealous energy" and "the charm of a boy and his dog retains its appeal." Chris Packham of The Village Voice gave the film a positive review, saying "Frankenweenie, scripted by John August, and based on a screenplay by Lenny Ripps from Burton's original story, is tight and brief, hitting all the marks you'd expect from an animated kid's film, and enlivened by Burton's visual style. The man should make more small movies like this one." Christy Lemire of the Associated Press gave the film three out of four stars, saying "Revisiting the past - his own, and that of the masters who came before him - seems to have brought this filmmaker's boyish enthusiasm back to life, as well." Kerry Lengel of The Arizona Republic gave the film three out of five stars, saying "It's all perfectly entertaining, but never really reaches the heights of hilarity, perhaps because everything about the plot is underdeveloped." Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly gave the film an A-, saying "The resulting homage to Frankenstein in particular and horror movies in general is exquisite, macabre mayhem and a kind of reanimation all its own."

Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune gave the film two and a half stars out of four, saying "The monster-movie component of Frankenweenie stomps all over the appeal of the original 30-minute version." Linda Barnard of the Toronto Star gave the film three out of four stars, saying "High-concept and stylish, Frankenweenie is a playlist of films and characters from Burton's movie-loving childhood." James Berardinelli of ReelViews gave the film three out of four stars, saying "Even as the narrative becomes progressively more ghoulish and a Godzilla wannabe shows up, Frankenweenie never loses its heart." Joe Williams of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch gave the film three out of four stars, saying "Some audiences might feel that Frankenweenie is creaky, but those on the same wavelength as Burton will gratefully declare it's alive." Alonso Duralde of The Wrap gave the film a positive review, saying "Fans of Tim Burton 1.0, rejoice: Frankenweenie hearkens back to the director's salad days and, in turn, to the old-school horror classics that inspired him in the first place." Claudia Puig of USA Today gave the film three and a half stars out of five, saying "Frankenweenie is enlivened with beguiling visuals and captivating action sequences. The science is murky at best, but the underlying themes are profound, and the story is equal parts funny and poignant. It's Burton's most moving film." Rafer Guzman of Newsday gave the film two and a half stars out of four, saying "It's a quintessential Burton film, but also more Disney than a lot of Disney films." Amy Biancolli of the San Francisco Chronicle gave the film four out of four stars, saying "The overall effect is great cinema, good fun, a visual feast for pie-eyed Burton fans - and a terrifically warped reminder of just how freaky a PG film can be."

Elizabeth Weitzman of the New York Daily News gave the film four out of five stars, saying "Burton's extraordinary powers of imagination are in dazzling bloom, from the gorgeous stop-motion animation to the goofy, homemade horror movies the children direct." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film three and a half stars out of four, saying "Only Tim Burton could envision this Frankenstein-inspired tale, and it's a honey, a dark and dazzling spellbinder that scares up laughs and surprising emotion." Colin Covert of the Star Tribune gave the film four out of four stars, saying "The story brims with self-parody, social satire, horror, nostalgia, wit and emotional insight, with Burton keeping all the plates spinning." David Hiltbrand of The Philadelphia Inquirer gave the film two out of four stars, saying "Frankenweenie is the apotheosis of goth director Tim Burton's oeuvre: artistic yet sterile, incredibly meticulous and totally misbegotten." Stephanie Zacharek of NPR gave the film a negative review, saying "Burton half succeeds in making this revamped Frankenweenie its own distinctive creature, pieced together from the essential bits of the 29-minute original. But he just doesn't know when to stop, and his overgrown creation gets the better of him." Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times gave the film three out of five stars, saying "There are so many horror auteurs Burton wants to thank that the film is absolutely bursting at the seams with knowing nods." A. O. Scott of The New York Times gave the film three out of five stars, saying "While Frankenweenie is fun, it is not nearly strange or original enough to join the undead, monstrous ranks of the classics it adores."

Ty Burr of The Boston Globe gave the film four out of four stars, saying "Frankenweenie is a mere 87 minutes long, which turns out to be just the right length; there's not enough time for Burton to go off the rails as he does in so many of his films." Tom Long of The Detroit News gave the film a B+, saying "Frankenweenie may just be a wacky horror cartoon, but it's an awfully good wacky horror cartoon. Frighteningly good, you might say." Lou Lumenick of the New York Post gave the film three and a half stars out of four, saying "Frankenweenie is still the most Tim Burton-y of the director's films, and not just because it contains a vast catalogue of references to his own movies - everything from Edward Scissorhands to the underrated 1989 Batman." Richard Corliss of Time gave the film a positive review, saying "This 3-D, black-and-white "family" comedy is the year's most inventive, endearing animated feature." Stephen Whitty of the Newark Star-Ledger gave the film four out of four stars, saying "The stop-motion animation - a favourite tool of Burton's - is given loving attention, and the character design is full of terrific touches, such as the hulking flat-topped schoolmate who looks a bit like a certain man-made monster." Michael O'Sullivan of The Washington Post gave the film three out of four stars, saying "Designed to appeal to both discriminating adults and older kids, the gorgeous, black-and-white stop-motion film is a fresh, clever and affectionate love letter to classic horror movies." Moira MacDonald of The Seattle Times gave the film three out of four stars, saying "Older kids, horror-movie buffs and Burton fans will likely enjoy this oddly gentle tale of a boy and his dog."

Frankenweenie grossed $35,291,068 in North America and $46,200,000 in other countries for a worldwide total of $81,491,068. In North America, the film opened at number five in its first weekend, with $11,412,213, behind Taken 2, Hotel Transylvania, Pitch Perfect and Looper. In its second weekend, the film dropped to number seven grossing an additional $7,054,334. In its third weekend, the film dropped to number nine grossing $4,329,358. In its fourth weekend, the film dropped to number 12 grossing $2,456,350.

Budget $39 million

Box office $81.5 million

My Review

This 2012 film of Frankenweenie I don't think is as good as Edward Scissorhands (my personal favourite), Ed Wood, Beetlejuice, Batman and Big Fish. If Nightmare Before Christmas counts, I'd include that as well. Sleepy Hollow was also excellent, as was Sweeney Todd. As a matter of fact I was dithering whether to say that this was Burton's best since Sweeney Todd, but I felt Big Fish had more heart. And I consider the 1984 short film superior. This in mind, it is vastly superior to Planet of the Apes (his worst), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Alice in Wonderland and Dark Shadows.

Frankenweenie (2012) is not quite perfect. The story wavers slightly in pace and focus when Victor's classmates plot to uncover his secret. That said, I was hugely impressed with it, one of my personal favourites of the year so far actually. The visuals are simply gorgeous. The black and white shadings fit with the Gothic atmosphere, and the deliberately grotesque characters are vivid in their design. The music score by Danny Elfman has this haunting undercurrent that Sleepy Hollow had as well as the sparkling beauty that made Edward Scissorhands so poignant. It is a very dynamic and atmospheric score indeed.

It is a very well-written film as well. It is wickedly funny, already improving on Dark Shadows with some very clever nods to Godzilla movies and other B-movie horror films. But Frankenweenie doesn't rely on manic humour, fart jokes or slapstick to make itself funny. The humour here is actually very subtle and deadpan. What is further special about Frankenweenie was its story. Having seen and loving to death the short film I knew what to expect, but I found the telling of this story to be fresh and just with as much heart. While there are funny moments that don't jar with the focus of the story and generally the film is full of energy, the film is often very poignant. The ending in particular has genuine pathos to it.

The characters are instantly engaging, oddball like with the best of Burton's films but engaging nonetheless. Aside from Sparky, the most memorable of them were Victor, Mr. Rzykruski- there is an intentional uncanny resemblance to Vincent Price- and the creepy girl with the cat. The voice work is really excellent, Catherine O'Hara, Martin Short and Winona Ryder give wonderfully dry vocal performances but it was Martin Landau who stole the show, he was an inspired choice for Mr. Rzykruski, and he is deliciously eccentric yet does equally wonderfully in conveying the character's wisdom.

Frankenweenie is another stop-motion animation by Tim Burton in black and white with a great tribute to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein with a happy ending. The story is actually an adorable tale of loyalty and friendship and it is delightful to see the frolic of Sparky.

All in all, a really delightful film, not Burton's best or quite one of my favourites, but I do consider it his best film in the past decade or so. 9/10