Tim Burton is back with his best film in a long long time. Frankenweenie was a concept short that Burton produced about 30 years ago. The full length realization has now finally come to see the light of day.
He chose black & white cinematography (excellent decision) and a mixture of stop motion and claymation. The film looks great! A supremely apt voice cast was also chosen for this mini masterpiece. The animation felt Burtonesque, without going overboard like he has done with Alice In Wonderland, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride etc. Burton fell back on his roots and made a film worthy of his macabre talents.
The film contains myriad references to the original Frankenstein of 1931 and it's sequel, Bride of Frankenstein. Frankenweenie becomes a clever spin on these familiar tales. This movie eclipsed the other stop motion goth fairy tale of this year, Paranorman, by quite a leap and no doubt a shock!
Some quick facts: Igor, the hunchback, doesn't show up till the third Universal Frankenstein sequel. Frankenstein is the last name of the scientist not the name of the creation—that is simply dubbed 'the monster'. Tim Burton did not direct The Nightmare Before Christmas!
I also viewed Pitch Perfect: mediocre high school piece—it wishes it could be anything like the Breakfast Club. They knew how to make sentimental films in the 80's without feeling mawkish.
Bob Scale: The Critic: 8.0 - The Fan: 8.5
MetaCritic: 74
Rotten Tomatoes: 86
IMDB: 7.3
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