Frankenweenie 2012

The electrifying dog is back from beyond the grave

6.959 / 10   3178 vote(s)
PG
Animation Comedy Family

When a car hits young Victor's pet dog Sparky, Victor decides to bring him back to life the only way he knows how. But when the bolt-necked "monster" wreaks havoc and terror in the hearts of Victor's neighbors, he has to convince them that Sparky's still the good, loyal friend he was.

Homepage http://movies.disney.com/frankenweenie-2012
Release Date 2012-10-04
Runtime 1h 27m
Directors Tim Burton, Peter Sorg, Trey Thomas, Kev Harwood, Richard Lake
Producers Tim Burton, Don Hahn, Allison Abbate, Simon Quinn, Derek Frey, Jonny Ffinch, Connie Nartonis Thompson
Writers Tim Burton, John August, Tim Burton, Padraig Collins, Dean Roberts, Christian De Vita, Gabriele Zucchelli, Jorgen Klubien, Sharon Smith, Philip Vallentin, Leonard Ripps

Good stuff, unmistakably Tim Burton.

Frankenweenie is a solid stop-motion horror film from Disney. Interesting plot, coupled with a suitable cast and untypical animation. It's also in black-and-white, which doesn't hamper things at all - I, in a weird sort of way, kinda forgot it was b/w for vast portions.

Charlie Tahan voices the lead character, Victor Frankenstein. You also have well-known names in Winona Ryder (Elsa), Martin Short (Edward) and Catherine O'Hara (Susan). I also liked Martin Landau as Rzykruski. There's decent humour amongst those characters, too.

Worth a watch, for sure.

r96sk

This time it's the Frankenstein story that gets the Tim Burton treatment delivering us an hybrid of "Edward Scissorhands" (1990) and Karloff's "Frankenstein" (1935) with a little pooch throw in for good measure. It's the eponymous mutt that gets hit by car whilst fetching a baseball hit, surprisingly, out of the park by his young master "Victor". Distraught, the scientifically minded youngster concocts a cunning plan to use the attic windows, some toy seahorses and loads and loads of lightning to bring "Sparky" back from the dead. What now ensues is quite a fun series of escapades as the young man resurrects his friend and tries to keep it a secret from his schoolmates ahead of a looming science fair that causes his friends to try to mimic his skills and create monstrous mayhem en route. The monochrome stop-motion animation (especially their eyes!) and typically fun Danny Elfman score make for an effective comedy-horror and it is hard not to engage with the reincarnated patchwork puppy. Their rather menacing science teacher "Rzykruski" reminded me of Christopher Lee, too. It's a quickly paced and engaging tale with a gentle morality to it - love, loyalty, friendship all feature strongly in a narrative that goes some way to illustrate how, illogically sometimes, people can become attached to their pets. Good fun, this film.

CinemaSerf