Frankenweenie (2012)

Directed by: Tim Burton | 88 minutes | animation, comedy, horror, science fiction | Original voice cast: Charlie Tahan, Martin Landau, Christopher Lee, Martin Short, Robert Capron, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Billy Burton, Tom Kenny, James Hiroyuki Liao, Atticus Shaffer

33 people toil to record five seconds (!) of film per person per week. Making stop-motion animation takes quite a bit of time, dedication and above all patience. However, the result is almost always very satisfying. Stop-motion is the technique that attracts the pure enthusiasts among the filmmakers. No wonder that Tim Burton is such a fan of it. For the eccentric American, it’s the ideal technique to shape his signature, macabre style. He can completely lose his creative egg in it. The stop-motion films ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ (1993) and ‘Corpse Bride’ (2005) are therefore among his best work. There seems to be more love and passion in it than in a live-action film like ‘Dark Shadows’ (2012). ‘Frankenweenie’ (2012) is just such a pet project by Burton as ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’. A full-length feature film has finally been made of the short film of the same name that he created in the early 1980s as a trainee at Disney. A dream that comes true, because Burton had been walking around with that wish for years.

Frankenweenie is basically an innocent love story about a boy and his dog. But in addition, Burton pays tribute to the classic horror films that influenced him. The most striking reference is to ‘Frankenstein’ (1931). Victor (voiced by Charlie Tahan) is a quirky but lovable boy who really only has one true friend, his playful dog Sparky. Victor lives in just such a bourgeois suburb as Burbank, where Tim Burton himself once grew up. He likes to shoot monster movies himself – usually with a hero role for little Sparky – but also has a passion for science. His orderly life collapses when his beloved pet is hit by a car and dies. With his soul under his arm, Victor drags himself to school, although it is not easy for him to keep his attention. Until the tall master Rzykruski (a great Martin Landau), modeled after Burton’s hero Vincent Price, talks about the power of electricity. That evening he manages to bring Sparky back to life thanks to an ingenious construction. In order not to arouse suspicion, Victor tries to hide his dog from the outside world, but the energetic animal manages to slip outside. When Victor’s classmates discover his secret, they try to imitate his trick, with dire consequences.

Frankenweenie is unmistakably Burton. Just take the characters, all of which look like they came straight out of a horror movie. Victor’s classmates are a motley crew. Girl next door Elsa Van Helsing (Winona Ryder) is still the most normal, but hunchback Edgar ‘E’ Gore (Atticus Shaffer) and a girl referred to simply as ‘Weird Girl’ (Catherine O’Hara) with immense bulging eyes and an even unbearable and inseparable cat terrify you. But the figures are not only macabre, they also have something endearing. Especially Victor and Sparky – who after his ‘resuscitation’ are held together in an inventive way with tiny seams, screws and bolts – steal your heart. For anyone who has ever had a pet, the unending love the two feel for each other is very relatable. ‘Frankenweenie’ was once a thirty-minute film and is three times as long in this version. Nevertheless, you never get the idea that the story was unnecessarily stretched to make it a full-length film. The brilliant black-and-white stop-motion animation is so mesmerizing that you’ll want to enjoy it even longer.

‘Frankenweenie’ works on several levels. For the movie buff, it’s a pure pleasure to track down all references to classic horror films (there are also a lot of references to Burton’s own earlier work in the film) and to marvel at the animation that is really taken care of down to the last detail. But above all, the film is a simple, effective and heartwarming sketch of a boy’s love for his dog. We’ve had to wait a long time for it, but with ‘Frankenweenie’ Tim Burton is finally back at the level we love to see him perform. You can tell this story is close to his heart; this is pure labor of love!