Frankenweenie :: A Second Look
With the release of “A Nightmare Before Christmas” on Blu-Ray disc, I had the opportunity to take a second look at Frankenweenie. Frankenweenie is Tim Burton’s parody/homage to the classic 1931 Frankenstein movie and Lassie. Frankenweenie is a black and white short that was originally made in 1984 and was to be distributed by Disney. Tim Burton was fired from Disney before its release for wasting resources on material that was deemed too scary.
After the success of Tim Burton’s “A Nightmare Before Christmas,” Disney released “Frankenweenie” on VHS in a censored form. It was only until the release of “Nightmare” on DVD that audiences actually saw the restored version of “Frankenweenie.” Tim Burton is now working on a newer version of “Frankenweenie” that is more closely based on his original drawings. Burton states in the commentary that the new film will be a stop motion film much like “A Nightmare Before Christmas”.
“Frankenweenie” holds up fairly well as a Tim Burton film. The plot follows the story of a boy and his dog in the late 1950’s. Victor Frankenstein (Barret Oliver) is a young boy who loves his dog Sparky so much that he includes him in his Super 8 home movies. His parents, Dad (Daniel Stern) and Mom (Shelly Duval) are supportive in his film adventures. One day after showing off his latest feature, Sparky runs into traffic and is hit by a car and dies.
Victor is grief stricken and cannot cope without his beloved pet after the funeral. He thinks about Sparky all day and gets an idea in science class about how he can be reunited with his beloved pet. Without giving too much away, the rest of the story plays homage to “Frankenstein” (1931). There are references to Lassie in the story as well. Tim Burton’s visual style is developing in this film and it is interesting to see how he would continue to expand and improve on elements introduced here.
“Frankenweenie” seems fairly tame judging by current film standards. At the time it was to be released, I could imagine people having a fit about the subject matter, which is a little offbeat, but not jaw-droppingly extreme. It will be interesting to see how Tim Burton develops the new film version now that he has complete artistic freedom.
