{"id":28028,"date":"2012-10-02T12:11:30","date_gmt":"2012-10-02T11:11:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/?p=28028"},"modified":"2012-10-02T12:41:50","modified_gmt":"2012-10-02T11:41:50","slug":"frankenweenie-film-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/reviews\/frankenweenie-film-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Frankenweenie film review"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Victor Frankenstein sits his parents down to watch his lovingly crafted homemade movie, it\u2019s as if he\u2019s the alter-ego of director Tim Burton and we are the ones he\u2019s sharing his very personal project with. Frankenweenie<\/em><\/a> draws upon the special relationship Burton once shared with his pet pooch, but the boy in this story has the ability to raise his hound from the grave. It\u2019s an education in death, science and Universal horror<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hordes of classic characters have ambled from the crypt marked 1930 and disguised themselves as Victor\u2019s classmates. There\u2019s the hunchbacked assistant (known as Edward \u2018E\u2019 Gore), Frankenstein\u2019s flat-headed monster, and (bizarrely) a clay clone of Harry Potter\u2019s Luna Lovegood, whose cat spells omens in his excrement. For all their visual charm, the little monsters are never promoted beyond wry references and clay fodder. Winona Ryder\u2019s poodle-owning Elsa Van Helsing only exists for a Bride Of Frankenstein<\/em> gag, and her uncle, the mayor of New Holland, is an underdeveloped authority figure that speaks with a musical accompaniment. It seems energies were poured into the design rather than the absent gags or skewed tale-telling pace, which languishes in the first half and darts to the finish.<\/p>\n

Essentially, it\u2019s an over-simplified adaptation of Frankenstein<\/em><\/a> with a subplot about a science fair tacked on. The kids are hell-bent on winning first prize, especially \u2018E\u2019 Gore (a Transylvanian heavy-breather voiced enthusiastically by Atticus Shaffer), who threatens to expose Sparky\u2019s new leash on life. These wacky experiments resurrect classic scenes from cinema: angry torch-wielding mobs storm the screen, and we\u2019re reminded that no one is safe in a portaloo. There\u2019s even a reprise for Christopher Lee<\/a> in his world-famous Dracula<\/em> role. Unfortunately, it\u2019s not a fresh cameo, rather a clip from an old movie playing in the background, but it\u2019s sweet to introduce a new generation to his black and white past.<\/p>\n

Indeed, Burton washes away his usually vivid palette of colours and the film is executed in greys, blacks and whites in a rare tribute to retro horror. This technique makes you realise how considered each sequence is and lends itself to some wonderfully melodramatic moments, like the scene where Victor sobs himself to sleep as the rain outside throws moody tear-drop shadows across his face. This shock-haired, insomniac-eyed misfit is signature Burton, and so are the regimented lawns of American suburbia that the story is set among. Edward Scissorhands<\/em> could have been assembled just up the road. There are the expert sounds of Danny Elfman\u2019s compositions in the air and the bark of a loveable deceased dog that has become almost as permanent a fixture as Johnny Depp (though he surprisingly doesn\u2019t
\nfeature here).<\/p>\n

Frankenweenie<\/em> is an extended version of Burton\u2019s \u201984 live action short, which earned him a dismissal from Disney the first time around. He sure showed Walt, and there are plenty of adults-don\u2019t-know-best references in there. You can\u2019t help but think it\u2019s rather fitting when the grown-ups start over-reacting to things they don\u2019t understand, like the Vincent Price-inspired science teacher\u2019s methods, when Burton\u2019s first attempt was greeted the same way. It\u2019s a corpse of an idea preserved in formaldehyde and brought back to life with a few stitches and bolts tacked on. Questions are raised about whether it\u2019s kinder to let a loved one go, but we\u2019re pretty glad this idea wasn\u2019t left to die.<\/p>\n

\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=XBfcGLBJ2Uc<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie is in cinemas from 17 October 2012<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":28031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"MSN_Categories":"Uncategorized","MSN_Publish_Option":false,"MSN_Is_Local_News":false,"MSN_Is_AIAC_Included":"Empty","MSN_Location":"[]","MSN_Add_Feature_Img_On_Top_Of_Post":false,"MSN_Has_Custom_Author":false,"MSN_Custom_Author":"","MSN_Has_Custom_Canonical_Url":false,"MSN_Custom_Canonical_Url":""},"categories":[2615,8],"tags":[874,1364,673],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Frankenweenie-Victor-and-dog.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28028"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}