Deep Dive Disney: Wes Looks at Frankenweenie

Welcome friends. Today, we’re continuing our month long Halloween celebration by diving deep into the twisted mind of Tim Burton. While Tim Burton’s work has been mostly hit and miss for me over the years, when he’s good, he’s really good as we’ve seen when we covered The Nightmare Before Christmas and Batman, the latter of which you can read by signing up for my Patreon. He’s a guy who seems to work best when he’s passionate about a project and this is definitely the case for today’s outing, the 2012 animated film, Frankenweenie. Before we get into the story, it’s worth noting that this film has a rather unique and interesting history. Turns out this is actually a remake of a live action short film that Burton co-wrote and directed for Walt Disney Pictures in 1984. Said short film actually got Tim Burton fired from Disney for wasting company resources on a film not suitable for the target demographic. The film only saw the light of day once Tim Burton gained notoriety with films like Beetlejuice, Batman and Edward Scissor-Hands. Twenty-eight years later, I guess the company had a change of heart because we ended up with this full-length stop-motion animated remake. In any case, our story is a sort of modern interpretation of the Frankenstein story that reimagines Victor Frankenstein as a middle school student who is both an aspiring scientist and an amateur filmmaker. Despite his parents’ concern that young Victor doesn’t seem to have a lot of friends, the boy seems happy enough in life, especially while he has his best friend in the world, his pet Bull Terrier named Sparky, by his side. However, Victor’s world is shattered when Sparky is taken from him in an unfortunate car accident. Overcome with grief and inspired by the words of his science teacher, Victor stitches Sparky back together and resurrects his beloved dog in an unholy science experiment. Victor tries to keep his resurrected pet a secret, but sooner or later, Victor’s classmates get wind of what happened and try to use Victor’s process to resurrect their own dead pets in the hopes of winning the upcoming science fair. However, these experiments end up going awry and the town ends up overrun with horrific monsters. So, let us take a look at this wholesome boy and his dog story by way of the warped mind of Tim Burton as we dive into, Frankenweenie.

Main Character:

While Victor is unquestionably the main character here, I’m including Sparky here too. Similar to Baymax from Big Hero Six, Sparky falls into this weird middle ground of being too important to the plot to be a side character but not quite important enough to be a full blown main character. In any case, let’s talk about Victor. Victor is not a mad scientist like his literary counterpart. He is simply a child who enjoys science. By all accounts, he’s a perfectly normal, albeit smarter than average, kid. When he indulges in mad science, it is not due to hubris or anything sinister in nature, but rather out of grief for losing a loved one. And really, who among us hasn’t been in Victor’s shoes? It’s no secret that a little over a year ago, I lost my uncle. The two of us were extremely close and even all this time later, his loss still affects me greatly. While I doubt I’d go so far as to dig up and electrocute his corpse, I do know that I would go to great lengths to get him back if I thought there it was possible to do so. Victor just wanted his dog back, and when science provided a potential means for him to accomplish this, he had to at least give it a try. Sparky is your typical good dog. He loves Victor, loves to play fetch, loves to mess around in the surly neighbor’s flower bed and above all, loves Persophone, the neighbor’s pet poodle. All in all, there’s not much too Sparky, but he’s still a lovable pup. That said, I do have a question. Why is the film called Frankenweenie? Sparky, in both this film and the 1984 short film it’s adapted from, is a bull terrier, not a dachshund. Mind you, I don’t know a whole lot about dog breeds, but the title just seems odd to me for that reason.

Side Characters:

While there are many characters in this film who do nasty and even morally questionable things due to ignorance or ambition, this film does not have an actual villain. Sure there are the monsters at the end, but those are ultimately just animals acting on instinct and any malicious intent is speculative at best. At any rate, let us take a look at the many unique individuals populating the town of New Holland. Martin Short does a surprising amount of heavy lifting in this film, providing the voices of no less than three characters. That’s by no means a complaint since Martin Short is awesome. Seriously, go watch Only Murders in the Building. First amongst these characters is Edward, Victor’s father. Edward means well but doesn’t seem to understand his son’s hobbies, something I myself can relate to from Victor’s end. He does his best and I think his heart was in the right place when he encourages Victor to take up baseball, but since that’s what leads to Sparky’s death, maybe he should have just let the kid stick to his science experiments. Short also plays Nassor, a classmate of Victor’s who resembles Boris Karloff and Burgermeister, the surly mayor of New Holland modeled after the villain of the same name from the Rankin Bass short, Santa Claus is Coming to Town. I guess game recognizes game when it comes to stop motion.

The great Martin Landau, who had previously won an Oscar for calling Boris Karloff a cocksucker in another Tim Burton film, Ed Wood, plays Mr. Rzykruski, Victor’s foreign science teacher who is modeled after Tim Burton’s idol, the one and only Vincent Price. Mr. R is a very cool character. His goal is to use science and education to open the minds of children and get them to look at things from new angles in the pursuit of knowledge. He takes a liking to Victor, clearly recognizing his passion for science. Unfortunately, when one of the children ends up getting injured while testing their science project, the poor well-intentioned teacher is unfairly demonized by the townsfolk and driven out of town, though admittedly, the man’s poor public speaking abilities didn’t exactly help his case.

Edgar Gore, modeled after the stock character of Igor (or is it Eye-Gor?) is the first to learn that Victor resurrected Sparky and blackmails him in exchange for his silence. Unfortunately, Edgar can’t keep his big mouth shut and ends up spilling the beans to Victor’s classmates.

Winona Ryder plays Elsa Van Hellsing, Victor’s next-door neighbor, Mayor Burgermeister’s niece and Persephone the poodle’s owner. Really, what do you want me to say here? It’s literally just Winona Ryder playing Lydia Deetz again, and we’ll be discussing that character in detail soon enough.

Bob is an obese child in Victor’s class who I swear to god is just the fat zombie kid from The Nightmare Before Christmas when he was still alive.

Toshiaki is a Japanese exchange student in Victor’s class and the most competitive student in school. He’s one of the kids who bullies Edgar into giving up Victor’s secret.

I saved the strangest for last. Tim Burton film regular, Catherine O’Hara, in addition to voicing Victor's mom, plays a character identified only as Weird Girl. As you can see from the picture above, Weird Girl looks like she drinks six gallons of espresso with breakfast, lunch and dinner and probably hasn’t slept in six years. Weird Girl has a cat named Mr. Whiskers, whom she believes, and I swear by all that is sacred I am not making this up, can predict the future with his shit. Dear Lord! Even by Tim Burton standards, that’s a weird one.

Memorable Scenes:

I’ll be honest, the best scene in the film is the monster mash that is the third act, but that’s a topic better left to for the Dark Disney Factor. My other favorite scene in the film comes shortly after Victor first revives Sparky. I like how this version of the scene still includes the now iconic “It’s Alive” but completely re-contextualizes it. No longer is it the declaration of success by a mad man, but rather the elation of a child who has his best friend back. It’s actually a really sweet and wholesome moment.

Story:

It almost goes without saying, but I need to say anyway that this is a beautiful looking film. The Black and White aesthetic is a nice choice since this movie is a love letter to the monster movies of old, but more than that, this is some beautiful looking stop-motion. Stop-motion is a truly beautiful art form that we don’t see nearly enough these days and I’m always happy to see it. So, the takeaway from this film is actually spelled out to us by Mr. Rzykruski. Shortly after resurrecting Sparky, Victor, at Edgar’s behest, attempts to recreate the experiment on a dead fish. It works but doesn’t last like it did with Sparky. Mr. Rzykruski hypothesizes that the difference was a matter of passion. Victor truly loved Sparky and was had a real drive to bring him back. With the fish, that passion wasn’t there, thus the variables had changed. This also explains why the other dead pets turned into horrible monsters, since the experiments were conducted out of a desire to win the science fair more than a genuine love for their pets. What I feel the film is trying to stress here is the importance of having passion for what you do. If you’re only creating something for the sake of monetary gain, the work can suffer. But if you have true passion for what you’re creating, then you will have created something truly incredible. I personally believe that it was with this mentality that Tim Burton approached this project, which is why it came out as great as it did.

The Dark Disney Factor:

Okay, let’s talk about that third act, shall we! As I said, the students figure out Victor’s method of reanimating Sparky and decide to try the same on their own pets, or whatever dead animals they can find. Naturally, these experiments end up having monstrous consequences. Edgar finds a dead rat in the garbage and turns it into a feral, werewolf-like creature. Nassor revives his hamster, Colossus, as a mummified revenant. Toshiaki adds Miracle Grow to his experiment, resulting in his deceased turtle, Shelly, growing into a massive Kaiju that resembles Gamera. Bob transforms a bunch of sea monkeys into horrific sea monsters that resemble Gremlins. And worst of all, Mr. Whiskers gets electrocuted with a dead bat in his mouth, transforming the poor kitty into a vampire like monster. Victor’s classmates beg him for help as the monsters all converge on the town fair. Victor uses his knowledge of science to return most of the nightmarish experiments to their deceased states, but the now vampiric Mr. Whiskers grabs Persephone, leading to a showdown between the cat and Sparky in a burning windmill. Sparky defeats the evil kitty, but sadly does not survive the encounter. Fortunately at this point the townsfolk have all overcome their prejudices and use the electricity in their cars to revive Sparky once again.

Final Thoughts: And that was Frankenweenie, and it was perfectly sweet and charming. It takes the classic Frankenstein tale and turns it into something surprisingly wholesome. Burton is definitely in his element here and you can tell he had a blast writing this and paying homage to what I'm sure are stories that he himself has taken influence from. Speaking of Burton, our last two articles for the month of October will be exclusive for my Patreon subscribers, so if you want to check them out, now's a great time to sign up. Our next article will drop on Halloween, and I've decided, as a special treat, we'll be looking at another Tim Burton film that is neither Disney or DC. But first, I'm going to need to summon up a little help.

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