Day 14: It’s Alive…Again!

October 14, 2022

Dear Disney,

Yesterday, we discussed the 1984 short film “Frankenweenie",” and today we are going to be looking at the 2012 3D stop-motion remake Frankenweenie. Tim Burton used the opportunity for this remake to throw in every classic horror movie cliche he could think of. The end result is an interesting, quirky, heartfelt story about a boy and his dog.

The story is almost exactly like the original but extended from the original 20 minutes to almost an hour and a half. Where some of the scenes in the original seem to quick or edited interestingly, the remake allows the characters to exist and become more real.

Tim Burton brought together a star studded cast to bring this remake to life, including Catharine O’hara, Winona Ryder, Martin Landau, and Martin Short. They actors brought much more to the table and modern audiences seemed to enjoy the film.

In addition, some of the many easter eggs Tim Burton placed in the movie are the allusion to Dracula’s monster killer Van Helsin in Victor’s neighbor, Elsa Van Helsing. The cemetery that Sparky is buried in is also the resting place for Zero for The Nightmare Before Christmas. The allusion to Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee, monster movie alums, in the character Nassor and the footage Victor’s parents are watching respectively.

This film was more interesting to me then the short, probably because I saw it at a different stage in my life. Frankenweenie is all the weird and bizarreness that is Tim Burton, with a cute twist. I strongly encourage anyone to watch both the short and the feature length film, but if you cannot, try the feature length film for the modern audience.

Sincerely,

Jim Dear