Frankenweenie

Reviving dead pets pays off. It paid off in 1984, and it also paid off in 2012. Still, Tim has learned from the wisdom of film teacher Rzykruski, who sees the success of a repeated scientific experiment in a sufficient amount of invested "heart". For the second time in Frankenweenie, there’s enough of it for the story of a boy and an undead dog to entertain. Although only an old well-known nostalgic-infantile-tribute lemonade, but I still found myself, after a looooong period of time, that I have the old well-known burton frog in my throat in all those clever quotes of old horror, the sexy hoarseness of Winona, windmills and talk about science and love. It's a pity that the ending a bit awkwardly turns into a monster horror, and in the whole film there is perhaps not a single unexpected thing, but otherwise I enjoyed it more than anything from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory onwards. However, I don't know how much Burton is going to keep on stealing from himself. There is not much left to take anymore. (04.12.2012)

After the overwrought yet empty Dark Shadows, Frankenweenie is an endearingly humble film in which Burton refers to his previous work without stealing from it. The opening scene with the film within a film and the very condensed telling of the following minutes prepares us for the “rewriting” nature of Frankenweenie, which shows what was previously filmed in much more amateurish conditions, only on a larger scale. The film captures Burton’s own transformation from a strange child into a widely beloved filmmaker. Several children embark on the same experiment, but only Victor’s intentions are pure and he ends up being the only one to find support among the adults. As with Burton’s other protagonists, what’s important is not that he becomes part of the group, but that the group accepts his eccentricity, and Burton is overwhelmingly successful in depicting this. I suspect that he made Frankenweenie mainly for his own pleasure and that of his most faithful fans. Black-and-white, morbid, anti-Disney (the cutest animal is a bloodthirsty cat-vampire), with an intentionally predictable story. The familiar plot framework is used in the manner of an atmospheric museum of classic horror films recalling not only celebrated monster movies, but also Burton’s earlier works. If you don’t relish visual quotes from horror movies, you will be entertained by Frankenweenie, depending particularly on how much you are able and willing to appreciate its self-referential and auto-biographical qualities, which take the film out of the realm of light entertainment that the whole family will go to the cinema for on a Sunday afternoon without prior preparation. In the context of contemporary major-studio animated films, Frankenweenie is just as much an outsider as Burton’s obstinate protagonists. Commercially suicidal, but very likable. 75% (04.01.2013)

I felt like Tim Burton has made this movie to film something he’d wanted to do for a really long time. An animated movie in his exact style of directing about pets and also about what it means to the kids and their parents when one such pet dies. Everybody’s been through that, including me. And maybe that’s why I’ve related to this (non)fairytale so much. And I must say that the ending was beautifully thought-provoking. (11.12.2013)

Frankenweenie is visually fantastic. The visages of the figures perfectly reflect their nature. But, as has been the case with Tim Burton lately, the film doesn’t have heart. Although the film deals with subject matter from the director’s childhood and early days as a filmmaker, it does not reach the quality of Ed Wood or the charm of Edward Scissorhands. (04.12.2012)

Tim Burton: a return to his roots. Tim Burton: puppets again. Corpse Bride was fine, and The Nightmare Before Christmas has become a legend, but the original Frankenweenie along with Vincent form the absolute core of who Burton the artist is. That's why it's good that the stitched pet has the opportunity to remind us of all this. It's nice, it's cute, and it's a bit sterile and predictable, but if you've also watched something from The World of Stainboy series, it's absolutely perfect. (07.01.2013)