Frankenweenie

In 1984 Tim Burton made a short film called 'Frankenweenie' for Disney. They did not like it. In 2010 Tim made 'Alice In Wonderland' for Disney which made over $1 billion for the company. This gave him the chance to expand his short film into feature length like he always wanted to.Long time readers will know that Tim Burton is my favourtie director, so you may need to take my reviews of his films with a grain of salt. I can be critical but perhaps not as much as I should.

 

I was so proud when 'Alice In Wonderland' made so much money at the box office. While I can admit that it is by no means the best Burton film, I was pleased that it meant Tim got a lot more creative freedom because of this.I believe it gave him the chance to make 'Dark Shadows' and this film. This is a stop-motion animated film which has not been a successful animated medium lately. The subject matter is very weird and macabre. Then when you add to this that the film is in black and white, these are not elements which make a major film studio like Disney want to make a film.

One criticism that Tim Burton gets is that he mostly makes films that are adaptations of existing works. He rarely does original films based on his own ideas. 'Frankenweenie' is one of those rare occasions and it really shows. As you know my favourite film of all time is 'The Nightmare Before Christmas', so I was really excited for this film. I was not disappointed. The one thing that made me love the film more was that this feels like a very personal film for Tim. I can see so much of Tim in the character of Victor. While he probably did not bring his dead dog back to life, I can imagine Tim doing just about everything else in this film. I have already spoken of my love for stop-motion animation and this film is no exception. The black and white cinematography just adds to the beauty of the puppets. Tim is obviously a fan of old horror films which were mostly filmed in black and white so it is his way of honouring these classics. The story is also brilliantly done too. It is very sweet as well as being funny and weird. All the elements I look for in a film. 

Tim has assembled a voice cast which features a few old favourites. Catherine O'Hara has worked with Tim before on 'Bettlejuice' and 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' and she gives another wonderful performance here. Her range is delightful too as she goes from playing something sweet like Victor's mother all the way to playing the weirdness of Weird Girl. Martin Short worked with Tim on 'Mars Attacks' and also plays a variety of characters brilliantly. Another Burton veteran is Winona Ryder. Her character is very similar to the one she played in her previous Burton film 'Beetlejuice'. The last time Martin Landau worked with Tim Burton is got him an Oscar. While that won't happen again here Martin is still brilliant. Charlie Tahan is excellent as Victor. The best voice for me though is Atticus Shaffer as Edgar. Atticus manages to do a great parody of the Igor character from other Frankenstein films.

Another master work from the genius that is Tim Burton. Being an original work for him this has a more personal touch which makes it all that much better.