Frankenweenie was directed by Tim Burton and was released in 2012. The film stars Catherine O'Hara, Martin Short, Martin Landau, Charlie Tahan, Atticus Shaffer and Winona Ryder.
Here is what I thought was good about the film.
The story- A boy named Victor Frankenstein (Tahan) whose dog Sparky recently died decides to attempt to bring the dog back to life using methods he heard about in his science class. I found the story of the film very interesting and enjoyable to watch, even if the film as a whole is trying to be a joke on a certain film that was been made in the 1930s.
Acting - I enjoyed most of the actors in the movie. But two who definitely stood out a bit more than the others were Landau and Shaffer. Landau was definitely the best voice actor in the film since he was more experienced and was perfect for the role he was chosen to play. I could easily see why Burton chose him for the role, it probably had something to do with the great job Landau did of playing Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood back in 1994. As for Shaffer he makes some noticeable expressions through the film, especially with his eyes. A few times during the film he goes over the top when saying bits of his dialogue which was maybe not needed as often. But he was trying to play his part as best he could.
Screenplay - The film's screenplay was written by John August and was for me quite a surprise. Most of the actors in the film have dialogue that is definitely suited to the characters they were voicing. If I had to pick one person who has the best dialogue in the whole film my pick would once again be Landau. His dialogue in the film is very clearly only the kind of words you would expect to hear from someone who was living in a Burtonesque world.
Cinematography - The film's cinematography is by Peter Sorg. Most of it is quite enjoyable but I found myself being most impressed with the night-time exterior shots combined with the film's animation style and the tone and feel of the movie. The night time exterior shots were in my opinion a perfect combination and I was very pleased by all of those shots during the film.
Music - the score was composed by Danny Elfman. I think he did a very good job with the music. It is very well-suited to the film's style and what you will see and witness when watching the movie. I especially took notice of the opening title music. I thought it was the perfect way to start the film and the score continued to impress me throughout. But the opening title music is definitely another one of the movie's best qualities.
Animation - The film was animated using stop-motion animation. I believe I was seeing this kind of animation for the first time and the impression that it gave me was that I was enjoying the idea of seeing a new type of animated movie. Burton has used this type of animation on three occasions before so clearly he has now become something of an expert in the field. If he learned anything from his time making Frankenweenie then he should make more films with same type of animation.
Here is what I thought was not so good about the film.
The 'Monsters from beyond' scene - this comes right after the opening studio logo and I do not see why it is necessary. All we see in it are three people watching a film that is supposed to be in 3D, but it does give us our first look at some main characters and the dog Sparky. They could have picked a better way to introduce the characters - maybe a way that did not feel as if it had nothing to do with the main story. To me it felt more like just a quick way to get things going rather than building things up at a normal pace.
Science class scene - very early on in the film we get a science class scene that I personally thought went on for a bit too long, apart from being the first appearances of the characters played by Shaffer and Landau. This scene could have been cut shorter but instead it goes on for a long time. I know that science class is where Victor learns how he could bring his dog back to life, but maybe the filmmakers could have had Landau talk about this earlier. Instead we don't get that until later. I really would have preferred to have heard the important details sooner than I did.
Some of the character designs - there are some characters in the film who look as if, when they were being designed, they had less work put into them than others. If they had better design work done maybe it would not be so bad in my opinion. But what I found even worse was that one of these characters is unfortunately Edgar, played by Shaffer.
Baseball game scene - I was not pleased with this scene for very good reasons. Halfway through the scene the outcome becomes quite predictable - I actually had a feeling about what was coming and I was right. Also the idea of baseball in a Tim Burton film does not feel entirely right to me, and like the science class scene it goes on for far too long in my opinion. But at least after a few minutes the scene gets to what I previously described as a predictable outcome.
Sparky's walk around the town of New Holland - once again I found myself seeing the same problem - a scene that goes on too long. All we get from this scene is Sparky walking around the town of New Holland, clearly happy to be alive again. Did Burton really think that the audience would want to see an entire scene of nothing more that Sparky walking around the town? Instead we could have seen Sparky's first few minutes back to life put to better use.
In conclusion, it is very clear what this film is trying to be a spoof of since its inspiration has been revisited by filmmakers over and over again since the Karloff Frankenstein in 1931. But this was probably the first time a filmmaker tried to make a version aimed more at attracting a younger audience. There are also things that older audiences will enjoy in this movie and it was very interesting to know that back in 1984 Tim Burton made a short also called Frankenweenie. If he was willing to attempt a remake of one of his own projects then clearly it was important to him and I think I saw just how important making this film well was to him. And I would also like to say that remaking this film was possibly a good career choice for Burton since, when the original was made, he was not that well known as a director. But now he is known by many people and is thought of very highly as a very good director. And it is my opinion that he achieved some success in what he was trying to accomplish with his directing.
Thank you for reading.
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