Animated Antic
I do find it ironic that Tim Burton remade his older short film "Frankenweenie". For those that don't know, Burton started his career as an animator at the Disney studio and made a half an hour live action short film of the same name in 1984. The executives at Disney hated the short thinking it was too scary and fired him from the company. Burton later got hired as a director by Warner Bros. the following year and the rest is history. Almost thirty years later, Burton decided to expand his original story into a stop motion animated movie. How were the results you may ask? Well, here's my synopsis.The film is essentially a different retelling of Mary Shelly's novel. A young boy named Victor Frankenstein (Charlie Tahan) is living a happy life with his parents (Catherine O'Hara and Martin Short) and of course, his dog Sparky in the town of New Holland. His happiness, however, is cut short when Sparky is accidentally struck by a car and killed. Victor becomes depressed and starts wishing for his dog back when he gets an idea. After his science teacher (Martin Landau) shows him the science of electricity on dead frogs, Victor builds a crazy invention in the attic to successfully bring Sparky back to life. After realizing what he's done, one of his pupils named Edgar (Atticus Shaffer) blackmails Victor into showing him how the process works which results in a chaos that should be seen to believed. I'd rather not give anymore details.There are things that I think that the film did better than the original short film. I liked how they gave more personality to Sparky to make the audience sympathize with him more. I also really enjoyed the details they included in the original in this film. But by far, the best part of the movie was the climax which was so insane and crazy that it really made me laugh. Even Burton reusing actors from his previous films like O'Hara, Landau, and Winona Ryder was also a welcoming addition.The animation once again, is great. I love how it was shot in black and white to add to the comedy and also really liked the crazy city they designed for this world. However, I did find the character's designs a little too similar to the ones from "Corpse Bride" considering that most of the crew that worked on that film also worked on this one as well. Speaking of the characters, I really enjoyed them as well. The fact that some of them even looked like the characters from the 1931 original film was also pretty funny. However, the film does have flaws. I do think that some of the emotional moments could have been handled a little better, and some of the scenes were a little pointless, particularly one involving the science teacher. But, I digress."Frankenweenie" might not be one of Burton's best stop motion films, but I think it's still a pretty good movie in general. I has a pretty funny story, some great animation, and some funny characters. I think the film may have been one of Burton's best film had some of the scenes were handled a little better, but I think the film had enough charm and humor for me to give it fair recommendation.
Jackson Booth-Millard
This film started out as a short film in 1984 from director Tim Burton (Beetlejuice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street), a parody and homage of Frankenstein (1931), based on the classic Mary Shelley novel, 28 years later Burton turned into a full length cartoon feature. Basically young Victor Frankenstein (I Am Legend's Charlie Tahan) lives in the quiet town of New Holland, with his parents Edward (Martin Short) and Susan Frankenstein (Catherine O'Hara), and his beloved dog Sparky. At school Victor is recognised for his intelligence by his classmates, gloomy neighbour Elsa Van Helsing (Winona Ryder), mischievous Igor-like Edgar "E" Gore (Atticus Shaffer), obese and gullible Bob (Robert Capron), overconfident Toshiaki (James Hiroyuki Liao), creepy Nassor (Short), and the eccentric Weird Girl (O'Hara), but Victor hardly communicates with them because of his relationship with Sparky. Victor's father encourages him to take up baseball, to get out of isolation, and make achievements outside of science, at his first baseball game Victor hits a home run, Sparky runs for the ball, like a game of catch, pursuing the ball the dog runs into the road and is hit by a car and killed, Victor is heartbroken. In a science lesson, teacher Mr. Rzykruski (Martin Landau) demonstrates electrical impulses in the muscles of a dead frog, a depressed Victor has the idea to dig up Sparky, builds himself a makeshift laboratory, stitches his dog back together, and uses the power of lightning to reanimate him, this is successful. Undead Sparky hides in the attic, but he escapes and explores the neighbourhood, he is recognised by Edgar, who blackmails Victor into teaching him how to bring animals back to life. Meanwhile many students are preparing for the upcoming science fair, Edgar brags undead fish to Toshiaki and Bob, they are panicked they will lose the prize, making rockets out of soda bottles, this fails miserably with Bob breaking his arm, Mr. Rzykruski is blamed for influencing them, he is replaced by the Gym Teacher (O'Hara). Edgar is confronted by Toshiaki, Nassor and Bob, he accidentally reveals Victor's actions, inspiring them to reanimation themselves, meanwhile Victor's parents are frightened discovering Sparky in the attic, he flee, Victor and his parents go in search for the dog, while classmates invade the lab and discover the reanimation formula. Classmates separately perform experiments on dead animals, they go awry and the creatures are turned into undead monsters, Weird Girl's cat Mr. Whiskers is electrocuted biting on an undead bat, he fuses with it, becoming a bat-cat monster with wings and fangs, a rat becomes a wererat, a hamster becomes mummified, a turtle becomes a giant Gamera-like monster, and Sea-Monkeys grow into amphibious humanoids, all these creatures break out and cause havoc to the town. Victor finds Sparky in the town's pet cemetery, he then finds his classmates to help conquer the many monster creatures, during the chaos, Elsa's poodle Persephone is taken by Mr. Whiskers and carried to the town windmill, Victor and Elsa chase after them. The townspeople are blaming undead Sparky for the devastation to the town, Mayor Burgermeister (Short) accidentally ignites the windmill, Sparky and Victor enter the burning windmill, Elsa and Persephone are rescued, but Victor is trapped inside, Sparky rescues him, but Mr. Whiskers drags him back inside, before being killed by falling debris. The windmill finally collapses on Sparky, killing him again, but the townspeople work together to help Victor get his friend back again, using car batteries to reanimate him once again, Persephone, who now has a hairstyle like the Bride of Frankenstein, comes to Sparky, the two share their love and kiss. Also starring Conchata Ferrell as Bob's Mom , Tom Kenny as New Holland Townsfolk (voice) American Dad's Dee Bradley Baker as various characters and Frank Welker as the barks of Sparky. The voice casting is well chosen, the use of black-and-white colour keeps with the feel of a classic scary B-movie, the cast is full of suitably weird and grotesque looking characters, the story sticks with the concept of the original short, but leaves room for some new additional stuff, but best of all is the impeccable stop-motion animation, it is funny and spine- tingling in equal measure, a most worthwhile animated fantasy horror comedy. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, it was nominated the BAFTA for Best Animated Film, and it was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature Film. Very good!
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
This is an absolute pastiche copied up from no matter how many films and books, you won't be able to trace them all from Stephen King to Mary Shelly, to you know whom better than I. But it is a festive big laughing competition against all basic beliefs of parents about the education of their darling children, especially when they, the parents, are at work and the children at home and the latter understood myriads of years ago how to by-pass the "security" on the TV and computer. They are able hours on top of hours to view all the nasty shows they can find and imagine.For them parents science like technology are dirty words and unbearable subjects that have to be kept away from the children's ears and from the dinner table, when there is a family dinner, once every blue moon. For them parents a science fair, festival, competition, fest or carnival only has one aim and goal: to learn how to be badder than bad and produce both Viagra and ecstasy. You children know the type of pills your parents or you parents are buying on the Internet. Is it from Amazon or from Alibaba? Maybe only from the corner store, well the chap that is standing ,in front of the corner store. How old is he by the way?This farce is absolutely successful and in black and white, or something close, which is better than you could have imagine. Don't you play with electricity, Benjamin Franklin would say. You may burn your fingers and roast your tonsils. When I say your tonsils you know what I mean. Of course the film has no depth whatsoever and does not pretend to have any. The only point is that it is funny ah ah and nothing else. Enjoy it and play with death as if it were your nightmare friend in the science class of your dear high school. And do not forget the science teacher is necessarily a bomb maker, a heroin refiner, a mental pervert, a serial killer and eventually a religious fundamentalist.Have a good day with Walt DisneyDr Jacques COULARDEAU
