Kirpianuscus all is known. the atmosphere, the animation, the story. maybe, the different sides of the action, the boy with a dog becoming part of a B horror with the each ingredient of classics of genre. short, Tim Burton. without the desire to demonstrate something new, using old tools for a form of copy of yourself. result - maybe the comparison with ParaNorman, new adaptation of Mary Shelley novel and the dark atmosphere who is better used in other animations of Burton. it is far to be a bad movie. only one out of surprises. because the evolution of the story, the pledge for life and the portrait of small hero who, after a mistake, has the mission to put in order everything are good points but, in same measure, pieces of demonstration of the mark of its director.

Jackson Booth-Millard This film started out as a short film in 1984 from director Tim Burton (Beetlejuice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street), a parody and homage of Frankenstein (1931), based on the classic Mary Shelley novel, 28 years later Burton turned into a full length cartoon feature. Basically young Victor Frankenstein (I Am Legend's Charlie Tahan) lives in the quiet town of New Holland, with his parents Edward (Martin Short) and Susan Frankenstein (Catherine O'Hara), and his beloved dog Sparky. At school Victor is recognised for his intelligence by his classmates, gloomy neighbour Elsa Van Helsing (Winona Ryder), mischievous Igor-like Edgar "E" Gore (Atticus Shaffer), obese and gullible Bob (Robert Capron), overconfident Toshiaki (James Hiroyuki Liao), creepy Nassor (Short), and the eccentric Weird Girl (O'Hara), but Victor hardly communicates with them because of his relationship with Sparky. Victor's father encourages him to take up baseball, to get out of isolation, and make achievements outside of science, at his first baseball game Victor hits a home run, Sparky runs for the ball, like a game of catch, pursuing the ball the dog runs into the road and is hit by a car and killed, Victor is heartbroken. In a science lesson, teacher Mr. Rzykruski (Martin Landau) demonstrates electrical impulses in the muscles of a dead frog, a depressed Victor has the idea to dig up Sparky, builds himself a makeshift laboratory, stitches his dog back together, and uses the power of lightning to reanimate him, this is successful. Undead Sparky hides in the attic, but he escapes and explores the neighbourhood, he is recognised by Edgar, who blackmails Victor into teaching him how to bring animals back to life. Meanwhile many students are preparing for the upcoming science fair, Edgar brags undead fish to Toshiaki and Bob, they are panicked they will lose the prize, making rockets out of soda bottles, this fails miserably with Bob breaking his arm, Mr. Rzykruski is blamed for influencing them, he is replaced by the Gym Teacher (O'Hara). Edgar is confronted by Toshiaki, Nassor and Bob, he accidentally reveals Victor's actions, inspiring them to reanimation themselves, meanwhile Victor's parents are frightened discovering Sparky in the attic, he flee, Victor and his parents go in search for the dog, while classmates invade the lab and discover the reanimation formula. Classmates separately perform experiments on dead animals, they go awry and the creatures are turned into undead monsters, Weird Girl's cat Mr. Whiskers is electrocuted biting on an undead bat, he fuses with it, becoming a bat-cat monster with wings and fangs, a rat becomes a wererat, a hamster becomes mummified, a turtle becomes a giant Gamera-like monster, and Sea-Monkeys grow into amphibious humanoids, all these creatures break out and cause havoc to the town. Victor finds Sparky in the town's pet cemetery, he then finds his classmates to help conquer the many monster creatures, during the chaos, Elsa's poodle Persephone is taken by Mr. Whiskers and carried to the town windmill, Victor and Elsa chase after them. The townspeople are blaming undead Sparky for the devastation to the town, Mayor Burgermeister (Short) accidentally ignites the windmill, Sparky and Victor enter the burning windmill, Elsa and Persephone are rescued, but Victor is trapped inside, Sparky rescues him, but Mr. Whiskers drags him back inside, before being killed by falling debris. The windmill finally collapses on Sparky, killing him again, but the townspeople work together to help Victor get his friend back again, using car batteries to reanimate him once again, Persephone, who now has a hairstyle like the Bride of Frankenstein, comes to Sparky, the two share their love and kiss. Also starring Conchata Ferrell as Bob's Mom , Tom Kenny as New Holland Townsfolk (voice) American Dad's Dee Bradley Baker as various characters and Frank Welker as the barks of Sparky. The voice casting is well chosen, the use of black-and-white colour keeps with the feel of a classic scary B-movie, the cast is full of suitably weird and grotesque looking characters, the story sticks with the concept of the original short, but leaves room for some new additional stuff, but best of all is the impeccable stop-motion animation, it is funny and spine- tingling in equal measure, a most worthwhile animated fantasy horror comedy. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, it was nominated the BAFTA for Best Animated Film, and it was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature Film. Very good!

Cinebuff38 Being a member of the "they don't make 'em like that anymore" brigade, it saddens me that the more we progress into the 20th century, the more of a throwaway culture we seem to be embracing. Whereas in yesteryear for example, we had films that have turned out to be classics and long remembered, their legacy handed down through generations. Nowadays it would appear that the movie moguls are making films on a whim seriously assuming that if they have the backing of a well-known and established studio, the same effect will ensue.The Walt Disney studios have strayed into that path with Frankenweenie, an animated take on Mary Shelley's classic Frankenstein, by director Tim Burton, a one-trick pony whose idea of cinema is to take a timeless piece of work then undermine it by turning it into a whimsical merry-go-round ride that suits the throwaway generation , the term throwaway being apt for this film as the poor animation designs alone (the Dog looks more like an aardvark) make this yet another modern film fit for the dust cart.Shelley's story, about a mad scientist who resurrects a dead body was an adult oriented story at the time, its subsequent films being given an X certificate. Making the subject in Frankenweenie a Dog didn't work for me. This reworking was a poor excuse in order to appeal to kids as well as adults just to get more bums on seats.Disney is still capable of making good films. Tangled is an example. I just wish they would go back to proper drawings like they had in the traditional films like Peter pan for instance. Frankenweenie may have worked if that criteria was used and the characters more in touch with humanity, the story more developed and less shallow. Perhaps a different director would have been more appropriate. As far as this version is concerned, Walt Disney and Mary Shelley must be turning in their graves, and if the current staff of the studios are not carefully, Walt Disney productions could end up as dead as that Dog.

GusF Tim Burton's remake of his own absolutely sublime 1984 short film of the same name, this is an extremely entertaining film but it is not on the same level as its predecessor. The original perfectly conveyed how much a dog can mean to a person and it struck the perfect balance between its heartwarming and macabre elements. However, this version emphasised the latter over the former and I do not think that it was the best idea. That said, the horror elements are very good and there are still many touching moments. The script by John August is strong and the stop motion animation is beautiful. The designs are just wonderful, particularly Sparky himself and the Godzilla-inspired giant turtle Shelley. The film was released by Disney, which is quite funny since they fired Burton after he made the original version as they thought that it was too frightening for children.Like the short film, the film both parodies and pays tribute to "Frankenstein", the 1931 film version in particular. It tells the story of a ten-year-old boy named Victor Frankenstein, based on Burton himself as he makes short films in his backyard, who is distraught by the death of his beloved and very appropriately named dog Sparky. Shortly afterwards, he learns that electricity can be used to stimulate the muscles of dead frogs, a piece of information which inspired Mary Shelley to write "Frankenstein" in the first place. He harnesses the power of lightning to resurrect Sparky but things go awry when his competitors in the school science fair use the same process to revive other dead animals, which cause quite a bit of trouble in New Holland.The film's voice acting is of an extremely high calibre and the cast features several members of Burton's stock company: Martin Landau (who gives the best performance) as the eccentric Universal Monsters-esque science teacher Mr. Rzykruski, Martin Short as Mr. Frankenstein, Nasser and the town's mayor Mr. Bergermeister, Winona Ryder as Elsa Van Helsing (who is reminiscent of her "Beetlejuice" character Lydia Deetz), Catherine O'Hara as Mrs. Frankenstein and Weird Girl and Conchata Ferrell as Bob's mother. Of the younger cast members, Charlie Tahan is very good as Victor while Atticus Shaffer is simply excellent as his hunchbacked classmate Edgar "E." Gore. It was an interesting choice on Burton's part to cast actual young boys rather than the more standard use of older voice actors in such roles and it worked very well on this occasion. As you would expect, the extraordinary vocal talents of Frank Welker are put to work as Sparky.Overall, this is a very good film but it could have been as brilliant as the original if more emphasis had been placed on the emotion of the story as opposed to the admittedly very fun horror parodies. I would probably have enjoyed it more if I had not already seen the short film.