Frankenweenie

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After 26 years of the short movie, Tim Burton brings us a movie with his name written all over it. Creative and original, Frankeweenie illustrates its writer's original roots.

The concept is fascinating. Most of the characters are based on iconic horror movie characters, like Frankenstein and Van Helsing. In addition, the movie is set in black and white, trying to capture the old look of horror movies. And yes, I don't think this film is suitable for children, more like teenagers and adults, containing some scenes that may disturb children.

It's the story of Victor Frankenstein (voiced by Charlie Tahan), who, after losing his beloved dog Sparky, tries to revive him using lightning. The experiment is a success, but no one should know about what happened. Things start to get messed up when Edgar (voiced by Atticus Shaffer) discovers Sparky.

The animation is great. Tim Burton brings us a stop-motion masterpiece, paying attention to every detail from the movie's beginning to its end. The decent overall voice performance does the job just fine, giving us spooky character, Atticus Shaffer's voice gave me the chills. Tim Burton's fine job and the voice actors' performance give us the horror atmosphere necessary for the movie.

Burton is always highly imaginative and creative, but he's somehow missing something. Don't get me wrong, the movie's great, but something would've made it better. Frankenweenie will entertain a good percentage of its watchers, making it a must see 2012 movie.

Tim Burton hasn't been making any of his original ideas since 2005. His recent films are adaptations that most of them are not outstanding nor creative like his own stories. Tim Burton's returns to his original roots with this. Frankenweenie is based on a short he made decades ago. He remade it into a full length animated feature film with sheer campiness. It's great when it goes there but when it tries to be emotional, it works in a short while but it is more interested to its craziness and the storyline doesn't know where to go. The director may return to his style but he still has his old flaws.

The concept is fascinating. It sounds like it's going to be a heartwarming family fun film. It obviously tries to capture the old horror movies with black and white. Most of the characters are based on iconic horror movie characters. Tim Burton is always highly imaginative but somehow he's lacking something. In family films, he creates a charming innovation but he couldn't bring enough depth to it. There are things that could have been interesting. This is about a kid who brings his beloved pet back to life. There could have been more genuine cherishing moments of Victor and resurrected Sparky. There are times like that but it immediately skims to the comedy. The storyline doesn't quite know what to do until it hits to the big climax.

The voice performances were good. Martin Landau's is probably the best among them who gratifies and delights his character with his campy accent that reminds you of his role in Ed Wood. The stop-motion animation is simply majestic. The black and white effect makes it a lot more fascinating. The character and monster designs are magnificent. It's wonderful enough as a Tim Burton animated film.

Frankenweenie suffers with the same problem of Edward Scissorhands. Don't get me wrong, Edward Scissorhands is a beautiful film but there is a little depth to its concept and serves an awkward climax leads to an underdeveloped romance. At least there's an endearing performance by Johnny Depp. Frankenweenie is fun but it's kind of empty in the end. It's not bad, it just could have been better. The darkness of the film could have been something affecting instead of an impaled cat. The sad parts seem contrived for the idea's sake. The film messes around the rest of the runtime. I guess the throwbacks and the filmmaking are the only merits of the film. Fans of Tim Burton's dark and crazy vision would enjoy. Since we don't see a lot of stop-motion animation these days, I guess that what makes this appealing. To think about the story, still not satisfying.

It's inevitable to compare Frankenweenie to ParaNorman due to both being 2012 stop motion animated films centered around Halloween. I would say Frankenweenie is the lesser of the two, but not by too much. The story is heartfelt, the visuals are distinctive, and there's a peculiar charm to it. This seemed like a passion project for Burton and it shows. There's a lot of love and care put into this film, but it's classic Burton in that it's often weird, idiosyncratic, and grim. Frankenweenie is a fun homage to old school horror movies and should be a welcome return to form for fans of Tim Burton.

In 1984, when Tim Burton worked for Disney made a short film called Frankenweenie, which tells the story of Victor, a boy who after losing his dog Sparky in an accident decides to bring him back to life in the purest Frankenstein style, without considering the consequences this may cause. This work helps us to understand the basics of Burton's thematic and visual style, which became his trademark over the years: dark worlds with isolated and/or solitary characters faced to the reality of the world that confronts or rejects them.

It is almost 30 years later and a streak of quite irregular films that Burton returns to his roots and decided to resume the story of Frankenweenie to make an animated feature making use of the stop- motion technique, with which he created some of his best works such as the Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride, and Frankenweenie is no exception, as it represents a return to the best films of Burton.

On this occasion the original story remains intact and makes a bigger emphasis on the impact of the resurrection of Sparky among Victor's friends and as they'll try to emulate the feat with catastrophic results for the small town they live in. Likewise, the relationship between Victor and Elsa, her neighbor and school crush is explored, through which a great reference to The Bride of Frankenstein is made, although it'snot the only one, since along the film there are winks to classic monsters movies from the 30's as the Mummy, Creature from Black Lagoon, Cabinet of Dr. Cagliari and even classic monsters like Godzilla. And the film itself is a homage to this cinema being filmed in black and white and with music in perfect tone by Danny Elfman (Burton's closest collaborator).

An innate quality of Burton is the skill to create endearing characters out of the dark and grotesque and the best example of it is Sparky, a little dog now part of the most adorable creations on the burtonian universe, and that somehow reflects many of elements or themes that have remained constant in most of Burton's filmography: childhood, loneliness, friendship and a strange fixation with death and what happens after this.

Excepting the end that seems to betray the original concept, it is safe to say that Burton needs to do more films like Frankenweenie and much less like Alice in Wonderland.

In New Holland, the boy Victor Frankenstien is a bright but outcast student without any friend but his dog Sparky. When the newcomer science teacher Mr. Rzykruski challenges the students to participate in the science fair, Victor's father forces him to play baseball otherwise he would not sign the necessary authorization for his son.

During the game, Sparky chases the ball and is hit by a car. Victor recalls Mr. Rzykruski's class about the effects of electricity and successfully resuscitates Sparky using lightning. Victor hides Sparky in the attic but the weird Edgar sees the dog on the garden and blackmails Victor to learn how to bring the dead to life. Edgar does not keep the secret and soon Victor's envious schoolmates revive several creatures to win the science fair contest. When the town is invaded by the monsters, Victor and Sparky are the last chance to rescue the girl Elsa van Helsing from the claws of Mr. Whiskers.

"Frankenweenie" is another stop-motion animation by Tim Burton in black and white with a great tribute to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein with a happy ending. The story is actually an adorable tale of loyalty and friendship and it is delightful to see the frolic of Sparky. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Frankenweenie"