Review XLIX - Frankenweenie

Review XLIX
Frankenweenie (2012)

My winter break is coming to an end, so I've been trying to watch movies as quickly as possible. However, I decided to take a break from watching the Oscar nominees for Best Picture for a little bit. But that doesn't mean I didn't watch a film associated with the Oscars! I decided to check out some of the animated films, and I picked Tim Burton's Frankenweenie because it's the one I came across first. The film is a remake of a short Tim Burton did back in the eighties' and includes the voices of Charlie Tahan, Martin Short, Catherine O'Hara, Martin Landau, and Winona Ryder.

Victor Frankenstein (Charlie Tahan) is a young, aspiring scientist who doesn't have friends except for his amazing dog Sparky and his crush next door, Elsa van Helsing (Winona Ryder). His father (Martin Short) expresses concern over this, but his mother (Catherine O'Hara) tells him not to worry. Nonetheless, his father one day asks that Victor play a game of baseball. Sparky accidentally escapes when Victor hits a homerun and is hit by a car and dies. Victor is devasted. However, one day, while Victor's new science teacher, Mr. Rzykruski (Martin Landau), is demonstrating that a current running through a body can lead to it spastically jumping about as the human body contains nerves which makes it react to electricity, Victor gets an idea - why not try it with Sparky? In a typical Frankenstein manner, Sparky is revived and Victor is ecstatic. However, when Edgar 'E' Gore (Atticus Shaffer) finds out about his plan, Victor's science feat will lead to great consequences when his classmates decide they will win the science fair with such an experiment.

If you have any connaissance of horror films, you will recognise a whole bunch of scenes/monsters from them. Apart from the give-away Frankenstein reference given by both the name of the protagonist and his experiment, we have the names of other characters (like 'E' Gore, as in Igor) or just their physique (Nassor looks a lot like the Frankenstein monster, eh?). Mr. Rzykruski is based on Vincent Price, who is known in the horror scene because of films like the original House on Haunted Hill. It's also pretty cool since Martin Landau won an Oscar for playing Bela Lugosi, another familiar face in the world of horror, in Ed Wood. There are other references, but they come later, and I'd like to leave it up to you to guess where they come from (and yes, there is a Japanese character in the movie!). I thought this was a cute aspect - while a younger kid won't necessarily pick up on all the little "cameos", for lack of a better word, older audiences will and give them a little laugh. The plot is simple, but it's heart warming. I wouldn't recommend the film for really young kids since it can be pretty scary, but anyway, it's up to the parents, isn't it? It can be considered on the same level as The Nightmare Before Christmas. I thought it was quite nice - not as spectacular as Tim Burton has done in the past, but it was still entertaining.

I thought the puppets looked typically Tim Burton, but some of them really lacked in facial expression. Victor was able to look happy and shocked. Whenever he was sad, he still looked like he was smiling. Same goes for his parents. Other ones did have an array of expressions, but if the main protagonist is having a problem looking sad, well, I have a problem. Considering I've seen better from Tim Burton, I'm disappointed it wasn't as great as it could have been. The animation itself was still top notch coming from Tim Burton, and the voice acting itself was pretty good. I thought Charlie Tahan sometimes sounded a bit too bored, but I can't recall any other complaints in this department.

I'd give the film seven point three stars on ten. It was enjoyable, but it was far from being Tim Burton's best work. It awakens the nostalgia of classic move monsters and faces, but the way it's presented isn't as good as it could have been, especially considering Tim Burton has done way better.

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