Frankenweenie

After the COLOSSAL disappointment that was "Dark Shadows" and "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter," I was starting to lose interest in Tim Burton's work. It was just so annoying how his work in the past decade has ranged from either good, bad, or just okay. That's when I made this promise, that if his next film wasn't good, I would be officially done with Tim Burton. So now we have "Frankenweenie," and continuing on with the Halloween film reviews.

First, a little backstory. "Frankenweenie" was originally a black-and-white short film, made in 1984, and was one of Tim Burton's first projects, when he first worked for Disney. It was about a boy named Victor Frankenstein, who after witnessing the death of his dog Sparky, decides to bring him back to life. How? With SCIENCE of course! For a short film, it's not too bad. The acting's pretty good, and the nice little references were pretty funny. However, this short never saw the light of day, until it was on VHS in the 90's, when Burton became more well-known. This project is what got him fired from Disney, thinking it was too scary, and wouldn't be with the re-release of "Pinocchio." Yeah, kids can take children turning into donkeys, but CLEARLY a boy bring a dog back to life is too much. And this was BEFORE cencorship got too much.

Since then, Burton's gotten to become a household name, and when he started to collaborate with Disney again, signing on to do two 3D films, the other being "Alice in Wonderland," Burton was set to do a remake of the short that he made, longer and in stop-motion. How did it turn out? Well, better than what I had expected, and even more! This was a glorious movie to watch, just in time for the Halloween season.

The film does follow the same formula as the last, but with some added context to it. We see more of Victor's relationship with Sparky, and what he does in his time. He's into making his own little movies with Sparky, and it's very creative to see how well they do it. Not only that, we're introduced to more of the neighborhood, including some of Victor's classmates and see what's unique about them, like how one girl's very creepy and has a cat that can predict the future, one kid looking like the Frankenstein monster, and another looking like Igor, even being named 'Edgar E. Gore,' as well as Victor's neighbor and assumed love interest has the last name, 'van Helsing.' I also found it pretty clever, how the teacher Martin Landau plays looks like Vincent Price, whom Burton draws inspiration from.  And let's just say the other elements added the film were very fun to watch, and give the movie some pretty interesting substance, but I'm I the only one who thought the added stuff made this movie darker than the original? I'm not saying it's a bad thing, I'm just making a point.

The stop-motion animation was pretty good, and it was just so much fun this year, to see three great stop-motion movies this year. And needless to say, Burton finally delivered a remake that was actually better than the original, and it was of his own work. This is by far his best film since "Sleepy Hallow," which is another good remake. The 3D was also used very effectively, and the imagery really captures on how 3D and stop-motion can be used right.

Overall, "Frankenweenie" is a great Tim Burton movie that goes back to his roots, and is one of my favorite movies of the year. Sadly, I wished this film wasn't bombing at the box office as hard as it was, because it's definitely worth the price of admission, especially for the 3D.

Rating: 10/10

Next time: ParaNorman