Film Review by Philip French: Frankenweenie

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This article titled “Frankenweenie – review” was written by Philip French, for The Observer on Saturday 20th October 2012 23.03 UTC

Before he directed his first feature film in the mid-1980s, Tim Burton made a 30-minute live-action Frankenstein comedy for Disney, Frankenweenie, in which an 11-year old Victor Frankenstein retrieves his much loved dog Sparky from the local pet cemetery and reanimates him using the process popularised by his ancestor and namesake Victor. Burton had wanted to do it as a stop-motion animated film, but the cost was prohibitive. The situation and Burton’s standing having radically changed, he’s returned to the project using his original drawings and made a full-length film in black-and-white 3D. The result is an uncloying homage to the gothic horror films Burton loved in his youth, funny, fairly scary, extremely charming and not a minute too long.

The plot turns on the other kids in New Holland elementary school discovering Victor’s secret from his idiotic assistant, Edgar E Gore, and wanting creatures of their own to compete in the local science fair. But they have to be made with love or the results will be truly monstrous. The sinister-looking but kindly science teacher, who sees a fellow spirit in Victor, is drawn to look like Vincent Price (who made his final screen appearance in Burton’s Edward Scissorhands) and speaks with the voice of Martin Landau (who played Bela Lugosi in Burton’s Ed Wood). Victor’s parents shudder to Christopher Lee in Hammer’s Dracula on TV, and in a splendid climactic sequence a giant tortoise rips up a funfair (a favourite target of movie monsters). At the end, the movie briefly stumbles – dramatically and thematically – but that’s a minor detail in a true labour of love.

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