Frankenweenie: B+
I've been a fan of Tim Burton since I saw Pee Wee's Big Adventure at the drive-in with my family when the movie first came out. Ok, I didn't know who Tim Burton was, but I loved the movie. Next up was Beetlejuice at the theater, again loved Beetlejuice and I'm sure the advertisements at the time said "From the director of Pee Wee's Big Adventure", which is probably why I saw the movie. The movie was weird and different, and even though Pee Wee's Big Adventure had a few truly weird moments in it (Large Marge, his dream sequences, etc), Beetlejuice was almost completely filled with these weird moments. Something that I learned to accredit to Tim Burton. So over the years, I learned to appreciate Mr. Burton's films more, especially when his popularity skyrocketed with Batman and Batman Returns. I would pick up issues of Starlog and Comics Scene magazines from the local comic book store and I'm sure it was during that Batman craze when I learned who Tim Burton really was. He had a vision for dark, yet reserved characters. The characters tended to mirror Burton himself. So much so, that the character Edward Scissorhands, resembles Tim Burton in his style of hair and black clothing.
(cover of one of my Comics Scene issues)
Then The Nightmare Before Christmas came out....
I instantly fell in love with the movie. The look, the unique storyline, and the music (yes I do like some musicals) all made the movie completely enjoyable to me. It was the first completely stop-motion animated feature film I had ever seen. At this time, I already knew I wanted to be an animator, specifically a Disney animator, and through the articles (so annoying pre-internet you had to find magazines or go to the library to research people!) I had read about Tim Burton working as a Disney animation artist early in his career. This made me appreciate the director even more!
In the Cinefantastique magazine above, I had read how this wasn't Burton's first stop-motion project and that he had created a stop-motion short called Vincent. Burton had also directed another live-action short called Frankenweenie at the studio, which ultimately got him fired from Disney because of it's PG rating and dark nature. Well I wanted to see these films desperately! I wouldn't be able to see Vincent until the DVD release of The Nightmare Before Christmas in 2000. Frankenweenie on the other hand, I was able to rent on VHS from our local library. I loved the short. It was dark, sweet, and funny. Yet it didn't feel like there was enough time to develop the characters in that story.
At this point in his career, Tim Burton made films that were personal to him (especially Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood). I think that's one of the many reasons why I enjoyed them.
After Ed Wood though, it felt like the movies became less and less personal. There were glimmers of something he felt strongly about with Big Fish, Sweeney Todd and The Corpse Bride, but with films like Planet of the Apes and Alice in Wonderland, it seemed that Burton was more making films simply to make money. Which is fine, because that's what the studios want, but I think the fans of Burton, want to see a movie that shows the inner thoughts of Burton.
Frankenweenie, the feature film, finally feels like he's returning to do just that. At first the film seems like it's almost a stop-motion shot for shot remake of the short, but with a much bigger budget. Burton used his original short as a jumping off point to not only develop the characters a bit more, which he wasn't able to do in the original short, but to also take the story into a different direction, which is a pleasant surprise for those of us who had already seen the short. Credit definitely has to go to John August, Burton's screenwriter on Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Corpse Bride, for writing interesting characters, especially Mr. Rzykruski (pronounced Rice-Kriski) who is Victor (the main character's) mentor. He has some really great lines.
The film is completely black and white, which I don't feel has ever been done for an animated feature film. It's a vision Burton had for the original short, and Disney trusted him to keep the feature film that way. The movie looks great and you never once question, "Am I going to see any color?"
The animation is of course top notch and the characters are designed with that Burton look that many people know and love. Credit has to also go to Rick Heinrichs, Burton's close friend who has been production designer on many of Burton's films, going all the way back to the original Frankenweenie short that he also co-produced!
I saw the film in 3D as well and it looked great! I've seen a handful of 3D movies in the theaters over the years and most of them have let me down, because I don't see the dimension at all that they promise. For the first time since How to Train Your Dragon, I could see the 3D dimensions and it felt like I was in the room as they were filming the stop-motion puppets.
I really had a great time watching this movie, especially the things that happen near the end, but I don't want to give that away, because I encourage you to see it.
I did find some story problems with the movie. A major one being that Victor's dad feels that his son is too different and he encourages Victor to play sports like the other kids. So Victor plays baseball, which ultimately gets our story in motion (a bit of a spoiler, so I won't ruin it), but ultimately I feel Victor would now hate his father for pushing him into doing something he really didn't want to in the first place and now something terrible has happened. There is never that moment of animosity between Victor and his father, which is a shame, because it's definitely something that could've been explored. Other story problems were minor and it happens later in the film, again I don't want to spoil anything, but they can be overlooked.
Frankenweenie is a pleasant return for Burton to create movies that are personal to him again. Hopefully he'll continue to do so.
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