Next on the road to Halloween trip is a fun movie for all ages made back in 2012. The film is Frankenweenie and it’s the perfect film for anyone trying to get into the Halloween spirit despite the Coronavirus quarantine.
The 2012 film, directed by Tim Burton centers around the idea of bringing back to life a beloved pet that is taken suddenly. It plays around with the classic Frankenstein story as the young boy name is Victor Frankenstein, who is the one who “creates life”. The animated film features the voice talents of Ozark‘s Charlie Tahan as Victor Frankenstein as well as Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short, Martin Landau and Winona Ryder as the voice of Elsa Van Helsing.
A tribute to the monster genre in a fun and child friendly way, the film also pays homage to a short live action film which Tim Burton created in 1984 for Buena Vista Studios. The very limited cast of the live action short does star a relative known actor, Daniel Stern as Victor’s father as well as Shelley Duvall as Victor’s mother. Also Never Ending Story‘s star Barret Oliver plays Victor in his debut show. All in all, the live action is very enjoyable and the actors do a great job in portraying what Tim Burton’s vision of Frankenweenie was in that current time. The effects used also matched the time period and made it enjoyable to those watching.
Both versions bare similarities as the short is getting down to bare basics between what the animated version took three times as long to do. That being said, there are differences in that of the Dog which if one didn’t know any better would think by the title and appearance of the animated “Sparky” that it was a dachshund playing him. However if one watches the live action, one can see instantly that Sparky is in fact a Pitbull terrier breed.
The other difference which is highlighted in the animated remake is the idea that “creating life” is duplicated by Victor’s nemesis’ who want to win the science fair themselves, though one thing is missing to make the creating life possible for the other subjects; that is the idea of loving what they are bringing to life. It’s an idea that is hinted in the live action short however explored to its fullest in the animated remake.
That being said, both the 1984 as well as 2012 version of Frankenweenie are showing exclusively on Disney plus for the Halloween season and definitely is a must see for all who love the idea of classic Universal monsters with a Disney twist.