'Frankenweenie': Tim Burton's Mad Monster Party

You can teach a dead dog new tricks

Ever since Mars Attacks!, Tim Burton has mostly been in the adaptation business, rendering dark and becurlicued Sleepy Hollows, Alice In Wonderlands, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factorys. With Frankenweenie, he adapts his own work—the first animated short he produced for a major film studio, the one that semi-famously got him fired from Disney back in '84. Given the crappiness of the studio's Reagan-era output, that has to be seen as a giant badge of honor or something. Working for "the man" generally entails a minimum of boat rocking and originality, and for all of his faults, Burton's vision is still unlike any other filmmaker's.



A Sparky is born
A Sparky is born
Not voiced by Ben Stiller
Not voiced by Ben Stiller


Frankenweenie was directed by Tim Burton; written by John August; and stars Charlie Tahan, Catherine O'Hara, Martin Short, Martin Landau and Winona Ryder. Rated PG. Click here for show times and theaters.


Naturally, any Burton joint is going to include references to vintage films, and most of the classic Universal monsters get little tributes in the form of character designs, comic bits and minor plot points. There's a hunchbacked Igor-looking kid in Victor's science class, a bully who resembles Lon Chaney and one pretty great Bride of Frankenstein hairstyle gag.




The imaginative world of New Holland is lively enough that a lot of critics are probably going to say stupid things such as "You don't even notice that it's shot in black-and-white!" Not to be all contrary, but yes, you do notice it's shot in black-and-white. You'll also be aware that you're watching it through the polarized lenses of 3-D glasses because you're observant. Critics, man.

Burton has always been an uneven storyteller, and a dissident critic might even suggest Batman was a low point in the director's casual relationship with narrative. That seems to be a controversial position, even despite Robert Wuhl's dialogue, the whole Vicki Vale character, the worst songs Prince ever wrote, a rewrite by the horrible Warren Skaaren during the 1988 guild strike and the inexplicable killing of the Joker. Frankenweenie, scripted by John August, based on a screenplay by Lenny Ripps from Burton's original story, is tight and brief, hitting all the marks you'd expect from an animated kid's film, and enlivened by Burton's visual style. The man should make more small movies such as this one.

This review appeared in print as "The Pleasures of Reanimation: With Frankenweenie, the Tim Burton you liked is back."


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