Frankenweenie 3D
Tim Burton | A-
Almost thirty years after his career launching short film, Frankenweenie, Tim Burton remakes the tale in a full-length monochromatic animation of the same name. The newest claymation makeover of Frankenweenie takes a youthful twist on the monster film, while discussing the macabre concept of death. It tells the story of Victor Frankenstein (Charlie Tahan, “Charlie St. Cloud”) a young scientist at heart who is devastated when his dog Sparky is struck by a car. After reflecting on a recent electricity lecture from class, Frankenstein unearths his dead dog, directs a raw surge of lightning into his corpse, and finds himself face to face with his breathing, wagging, four-legged friend. However, with a competitive science fair approaching and curious classmates vying for the prize, Frankenstein’s touching yet culturally appalling experiment cannot stay a secret for long. Ostensibly, this film appears to modernize precursory Frankenstein cinema for young spectators of today. However, it is unique because the attention to mise-en-scene excels his previous animated work, and because no other film directed by Burton reflects on his childhood and cinema more so than this one.
Burton, like Frankenstein, is a scientist bringing life to the unanimated in a marvelously imaginative show of logic and magic. Frankenweenie begins with the Frankenstein family watching a homemade monster movie by young Frankenstein. As a child growing up in California, Burton also enjoyed making his own horror cinema. He also would have grown up watching classics such as James Whale’s Frankenstein and The Bride of Frankenstein, both of which influenced generic conventions of the monster flick apparent in many of his films. The story also takes place in New Holland, a suburban California setting that alludes to famous film district, Hollywood. In one scene this connection is strengthened by use of a New Holland mountain-top billboard composed of large white letters. Other films he satirizes are Godzilla and Gremlins. Burton even presents a pseudo Vincent Price character with Mr. Rzykruski, (Martin Landau, “Mysteria”) a science teacher who reminds Frankenstein that the secret to science lies within the heart. This film is by no means an autobiography, but the self-reflexive moments that reflect on his hometown, work, and childhood past times, make one consider how personal this film is to Burton.
The animation is pleasurably detailed and magical. Because of the practice he gained from previous stop-motions films, such as The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride, his detailed mise-en-scene was specifically high. Everything from facial lines, to hair texture, to rain drops were realistic given most of it was formed from clay. Blankets and sheets ethereally flow in the wind. A child agilely turns his bike down a street. Attention to design was also marvelously gruesome. In one scene, a fly crawls out of Sparky’s stitching after being eaten. Burton is one of the most skillful animators making films today. He takes static models of clay and brings life to them, like Victor does with Sparky. Through the art of extremely rapid montage, Burton is able to skillfully give the impression of movement, so the spectator forgets he or she is watching a motion picture made out of thousands of still shots.
The only faults with Frankenweenie are the utilization of the dark story content for children and racial stereotypes. Children who watch this film may not be able to handle the upsetting and sinister idea of reviving the dead. Far eerier and scarier than his other animated films, it will attract more adult spectators although it is a cartoon. Another fault is the incorporation of Toshiaki, (James Hiroyuki Liao,“Management”) a Japanese classmate of Frankenstein’s who speaks in broken English and has stereotypical thin eyes. Such a prejudiced representation in a character only extends skewed ideas of Japanese individuals. Thankfully, Burton does not adhere to other stereotypical physical characteristics, such as yellow face and buck teeth, exploited in other racist films. However, Toshiaki is also not made into the sole villain nor shown as inept juxtaposed the other, mostly Caucasian, characters. Despite these flaws, old and new Burton fans alike will enjoy his newest animated adventure.
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