Frankenweenie

Plot

Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist and amateur filmmaker, lives with his parents, Susan and Edward, and his beloved bull terrier, Sparky, in the quiet town of New Holland. He does not interact much with his classmates, who include his somber next-door neighbor Elsa Van Helsing, the mischievous Edgar "E" Gore, the naive Bob, the pretentious Toshiaki, the sinister Nassor, and an eccentric "Weird Girl". Concerned with Victor’s isolation, Edward encourages him to take up baseball. When Victor hits a home run at his first game, Sparky chases the ball, but is struck and killed by a car, leaving Victor despondent.

Inspired by his science teacher Mr. Rzykruski's demonstration of the effect of electricity on dead frogs, Victor digs up Sparky, brings him to a makeshift laboratory in his attic, and reanimates him with a bolt of lightning. Victor is elated by Sparky's revival, but keeps him hidden in the attic. While Victor is at school the next day, Sparky escapes the attic to chase the Weird Girl's cat, Mr. Whiskers, and explore the neighborhood. He is recognized by Edgar, who blackmails Victor into teaching him how to raise the dead. Together, the two resurrect a dead goldfish, which inexplicably becomes invisible. Edgar brags about the fish to his classmates, but the fish disappears when he tries to show it to a skeptical Nassor.

Fearful of losing the upcoming science fair, Toshiaki and Bob create a jetpack from soda bottles, but their test ends with Bob falling off his roof and breaking his arm. The townsfolk blame Mr. Rzykruski for the incident, accusing him of negatively influencing their children. When Susan and Edward call upon Mr. Rzykruski to speak in his defense, he gives a tactlessly insulting and threatening speech which results in his dismissal, and the gym teacher replaces him. Before Mr. Rzykruski leaves the school, Victor learns from him that the differing outcomes of his experiment were influenced by his emotional attachment. Edgar accidentally reveals Victor's role in reviving the fish and Sparky to Toshiaki, Nassor, and Bob, inspiring them to conduct their own reanimation experiments.

Victor's parents are shocked to discover Sparky in the attic, causing the dog to flee. Although upset by the gravity of Victor's actions, they set out with him to find Sparky. When the family leaves, Victor's classmates invade the lab and discover Victor's reanimation research. When they perform their experiments separately, their competitive sentiment turns each of their dead animals into a monster: Mr. Whiskers holds a dead bat while he is electrocuted, resulting in both animals being fused into a vampiric feline; a dead rat Edgar found in the garbage turns into a wererat; Nassor's mummified hamster Colossus comes back to life; Toshiaki's turtle Shelley is covered in Miracle-Gro and becomes a kaiju; and Bob's expired Sea-Monkeys grow into amphibious humanoids similar to Gremlins. The monsters converge on the town fair and wreak havoc.

Voice cast

Charlie Tahan as Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who brings his dog, Sparky, back to life.

Catherine O'Hara as:

Susan Frankenstein, Victor's mother.

Weird Girl, Victor's unnamed eccentric classmate who is obsessed with the psychic predictions of her cat, Mr. Whiskers.

The Gym Teacher who replaces Mr. Rzykruski as science teacher when he gets fired and has no knowledge of science.

Martin Short as:

Edward Frankenstein, Victor's father.

Mr. Burgermeister, the grumpy Mayor of New Holland who is the Frankenstein family's next-door neighbor and Elsa's uncle. Burgermeister is an homage to the villainous Burgermeister Meisterburger from the 1970 Rankin/Bass television special Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town.

Nassor, Victor's classmate who was the owner of Colossus the hamster. Nassor has a flat head inspired by Frankenstein's monster, and his voice and face resemble that of Boris Karloff, who played Frankenstein in the 1931 Frankenstein film.

Martin Landau as Mr. Rzykruski, the eccentric, but wise, science teacher at Victor's school who has a thick Eastern European accent. His teachings inspire Victor's effort to resurrect Sparky and he acts as a mentor to Victor. Rzykruski was inspired by Burton's childhood icon Vincent Price.

Atticus Shaffer as Edgar "E" Gore, Victor's classmate who is the first to discover Victor brought Sparky back to life. Edgar was inspired by the Igor stock character and has a hunch-back.

Winona Ryder as Elsa Van Helsing, Victor's kind classmate and next-door neighbor, Burgermeister's niece, and Persephone's owner.

Production

Development

Although Tim Burton signed with Walt Disney Pictures to direct two films in Disney Digital 3-D (2010's Alice in Wonderland and this film), development of a full-length stop-motion Frankenweenie dates as far back as November 2005, when scripts had been written by Josann McGibbon and Sara Parriott. John August was approached to do a rewrite in 2006, but was not hired until January 2009.

Like the original short film, this feature version was shot in black-and-white. Many of the animation artists and crew from Corpse Bride (2005) were involved in the production of the film. Burton borrowed heavily from his design for the titular character of Family Dog (1993) for Sparky.

Filming

Filming began at 3 Mills Studios in July 2010. The crew created three giant sound stages, including Victor's cluttered family attic, a cemetery exterior, and a school interior. The sound stages were then divided into 30 separate areas to deal with the handcrafted, frame-by-frame style of filmmaking. Compared to other stop-motion animation sets, Frankenweenie's set was much larger.

As IGN noted, the main character Sparky had to be "'dog-size' compared to the other human characters, but also large enough to house all the elements of the mechanical skeleton secreted within his various foam and silicon-based incarnation". The mechanics were small and delicate, and in some instances the filmmakers had to have Swiss watchmakers create the tiny nuts and bolts. Around 200 separate puppets were used in the film, with roughly 18 different versions of Victor. The puppets had human hair, with 40–45 joints for the human characters and about 300 parts for Sparky.

Music

In early 2011, it was announced that Danny Elfman would score Frankenweenie, with work already started on pre-production music.

Prior to the film's release, both an "inspired by" soundtrack album, Frankenweenie: Unleashed!, and Elfman's Frankenweenie: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack were released by Walt Disney Records on September 25, 2012. The download of Frankenweenie: Unleashed! contained bonus content, including a custom icon and an app that loaded a menu to view more bonus content, provide input, or buy more music from Disney Music Group.

Release

Marketing

In the lead-up to the film's release in October 2012, there was a traveling art exhibition detailing the work that went into creating the film. During the exhibition, it was possible to see sets and characters that were used for this stop motion feature film.

From September 14 to November 5, 2012, Disney California Adventure offered exclusive scenes from the film during nighttime operating hours of Muppet*Vision 3D.

At Disneyland, Sparky's tombstone was added to the pet cemetery outside of Haunted Mansion Holiday, a seasonal attraction that features characters from Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas.

The free version of Where's My Water? received a level pack called 10 Days of Frankenweenie. It was only available for a limited time, from September 27 to October 6, 2012

Victor's mad scientist outfit and some clothes with designs inspired by the film were added to the Xbox 360 Avatar Store along with an interactable Sparky prop.

Premiere and theatrical release

The film’s world premiere took place on September 20, 2012, on the opening night of Fantastic Fest, an annual film festival in Austin, Texas. It also opened the 56th BFI London Film Festival, on October 10, 2012.

Initially set for theatrical release in November 2011, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures moved the film twice, first to March 9, 2012, and then, in January 2011, to October 5, 2012, with John Carter taking the March 9 release date.

Home media

The film was released by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on DVD, Blu-ray, and Blu-ray 3D on January 15, 2013. The Blu-ray releases included the original live-action Frankenweenie short and a new two-minute animated short, titled Captain Sparky vs the Flying Saucers, as bonus features.

Reception

Box office

Frankenweenie grossed $35,291,068 in North America and $46,200,000 in other countries for a worldwide total of $81,491,068. In North America, it earned $11,412,213 its opening weekend, finishing fifth at the box office (behind Taken 2, Hotel Transylvania, Pitch Perfect, and Looper). Its second weekend, the film dropped to seventh place, grossing an additional $7,054,334. Its third weekend, it dropped to ninth place, grossing $4,329,358, and its fourth weekend, it dropped to twelfth place, grossing $2,456,350.

Critical response

The film received generally positive reviews from critics. Based on 222 reviews, it holds an approval rating of 87% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 7.5/10; the website's critical consensus reads: "Frankenweenie is an energetic stop-motion horror movie spoof with lovingly crafted visuals and a heartfelt, oddball story." On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, it has a score of 74, based on 38 reviews, indicating "generally favourable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

Justin Chang of Variety reacted positively to the film, saying that it "evinces a level of discipline and artistic coherence missing from the director's recent live-action efforts". Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter gave it a mediocre review, explaining that, while the various creative elements "pay homage to a beloved old filmmaking style", the film mostly feels "like second-generation photocopies of things Burton has done before". Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars, writing that it is "not one of Burton's best, but it has zealous energy" and "the charm of a boy and his dog retains its appeal". Chris Packham of The Village Voice gave the film a positive review, saying: "Frankenweenie, scripted by John August, and based on a screenplay by Lenny Ripps from Burton's original story, is tight and brief, hitting all the marks you'd expect from an animated kid's film, and enlivened by Burton's visual style. The man should make more small movies like this one." Christy Lemire of the Associated Press gave the film three out of four stars, saying: "Revisiting the past - his own, and that of the masters who came before him - seems to have brought this filmmaker's boyish enthusiasm back to life, as well." Kerry Lengel of The Arizona Republic gave the film three out of five stars, saying: "It's all perfectly entertaining, but never really reaches the heights of hilarity, perhaps because everything about the plot is underdeveloped." Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly gave the film an A−, saying: "The resulting homage to Frankenstein in particular and horror movies in general is exquisite, macabre mayhem and a kind of reanimation all its own."

Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune gave the film two and a half stars out of four, saying: "The monster-movie component of Frankenweenie stomps all over the appeal of the original 30-minute version." Linda Barnard of the Toronto Star gave the film three out of four stars, saying: "High-concept and stylish, Frankenweenie is a playlist of films and characters from Burton's movie-loving childhood." James Berardinelli of ReelViews gave the film three out of four stars, saying: "Even as the narrative becomes progressively more ghoulish and a Godzilla wannabe shows up, Frankenweenie never loses its heart." Joe Williams of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch gave the film three out of four stars, saying: "Some audiences might feel that Frankenweenie is creaky, but those on the same wavelength as Burton will gratefully declare it's alive." Alonso Duralde of The Wrap gave the film a positive review, saying: "Fans of Tim Burton 1.0, rejoice: Frankenweenie hearkens back to the director's salad days and, in turn, to the old-school horror classics that inspired him in the first place." Claudia Puig of USA Today gave the film three and a half stars out of five, saying: "Frankenweenie is enlivened with beguiling visuals and captivating action sequences. The science is murky at best, but the underlying themes are profound, and the story is equal parts funny and poignant. It's Burton's most moving film." Rafer Guzmán of Newsday gave the film two and a half stars out of four, saying: "It's a quintessential Burton film, but also more Disney than a lot of Disney films." Amy Biancolli of the San Francisco Chronicle gave the film four out of four stars, saying: "The overall effect is great cinema, good fun, a visual feast for pie-eyed Burton fans - and a terrifically warped reminder of just how freaky a PG film can be."