Frankenweenie is a beautiful black-and-white, stop-motion animated movie that tells the story of Victor and his pet dog/best friend Sparky. One day Sparky is run over by a car and so a heartbroken Victor is inspired to re-animate his pet’s corpse. Sparky is sewn back together and brought back to life, but Victors secret soon gets out and his classmates also try dabbling in life, death and electricity, resulting in havoc in the town.
When you read the plot of this movie, your first reaction is probably that this is certainly not your typical Disney family movie. Dead pets is generally not considered to be the best way to attract audiences…especially kids (unless you’re talking about Marley & Me…but Owen Wilson doesn’t try and bring Marley back to life at the end). So this was of course going to be a risky project. But if anyone could make a dead-dog movie work as an enjoyable family movie, it’s director Tim Burton. Famous for movies such as ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’, this quirky film maker can turn the strange and freaky into fun and fabulous. And this is exactly what he does with ‘Frankenweenie’.
There is definitely potential for very young children to be a little overwhelmed – there is, after all, a dead pet involved, along with creepy characters, classroom frog dissection and scary monsters – but for children who are a little bit older, this is definitely a Halloween movie that they will love. Essentially this story about a boy and his dog, and will tug at heart strings throughout. While the concept may seem strange, the end result is actually very touching and endearing to audiences, resulting in a loveable movie for the family.
This is also a gorgeous film visually. The stop-motion, black-and-white filming may be new to the younger audiences (and many of the older audiences too) but it really looks fantastic, especially as a Halloween kiddie-horror movie. The puppetry and hand-build sets are really brought to life with the 3D, and actually ties in nicely with idea of bringing something to life.
‘Frankenweenie’ is a slightly different offering from Disney but we think it was a gamble worth taking, and is the perfect movie to bring the family to this Halloween.
‘Frankenweenie’ is out in cinemas now. Check out the trailer below.
