Review of Frankenweenie (2012) by Aidan S — 29 Oct 2013

Tim Burton's movies seem pretty similar right? Well, you could make that argument, granted all of his movies are indeed different from one another; it seems that they have the same shallow themes, the dark tones, cold atmosphere and as always, music from Danny Elfman. And as always, Frankenweenie here is no exception. I know what your thinking, "Why can Tim Burton's movies be any different?" well this one is. It's in black-and-white, that's pretty unique... right?

......

OK! OK! Jeesh. Let's take a look at what we have here.

We have a young boy named Victor Frankenstein, "duh-OK before we continue, yes, Frankenweenie is based off the 30 minute special based off of Frankenstein. Now that that's out of the way, lets move forward." So yes, Victor is interested in science just as he is with his dog Sparky. Sadly, Sparky get into an accident and is killed, however, using the science from a goofy teacher who is trying to teach science into other children for the science fair, forces him to cover the idea that he could bring back his best friend from the dead, which, he does. And everything is all hunky-dory. It isn't until friends and rivals see what he has accomplished and want to do exactly what he wants to do to win the science fair but, unfortunately their plans go amok, and it's up to him and his friends to stop him.

I kid you not, that is the whole story in this hour-and-a-half movie. Granted this film is stop-motion and it does take a lot of time, but, I don't know. I think if they made this movie a little longer we would've gotten more closure. Another thing that you may notice is that the film is shot in monochrome colors. The characters are really colored a pale white to blend with the camera, that's actually pretty clever. The only problem is, the movie didn't make as much money as promised and, well yeah part of the reason is that the kids didn't like that the movie was shot in black-and-white. I mean, I know it's supposed to be based off of both Frankenstein and the original 30 minute show. But at least, the problem comes from the kids who will need to understand why black-and-white is a problem. I'll admit, when I watched a film in black-and-white I was still skeptical about it too. But I learned that, adults back then didn't grow up with color like we did. So I say the cinematography is really well placed, whether it's in black-and-white or not. You could make the argument that the film is actually made for adults, not kids, but only because of the monochrome coloring.

Anyway, does this film hold up? Yes, and no. While I won't say it's as good as Coraline, which compared to also another stop-motion film that I also like, I still think it's a good movie just not a GREAT movie. The plot and the acting is simple, the characters are, OK. The music is good. I don't know, maybe I need to watch it a second time, but I couldn't find anything remotely SPECTACULAR in it.

T.

Wo major things that really pissed me off was the fact that there was a Japanese stereotypical kid, and I mean it, they reference every Japanese stereotype in the book, which I hate with every ounce of my body even top it off with a Kaiju monster that came from that kid, I was still very offended. I was like, "That's it! I'm done!" RAGE QUIT, MEH-HEH-HEH-HEH-HEH, even the other characters are stereotypes, now I'm not sure if that's what it's supposed to be referencing but, the Japanese character, my goodness, I don't know what Japan would be thinking right now. Another thing that bothered me is once again, the "sad-ending fake-out". WHICH I HAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE. I don't know why they keep doing it, it's the most annoying cliché ever created, we know it's not gonna happen, SO STOP SHOWING IT, my goodness they really hammer that cliché in since, I don't know, all the time!

But other than that, the movie is good. It has the Tim Burton's theme's that I really enjoy, the adults have plenty enough to watch especially in a black-and-white cinematography for older adults who grew up with TV without color. As for kids, I'd say to wait until they are a bit older to understand, middle school at least. But other than that, it's still a good movie. Not the best Halloween movie, or the worst, certainly not the best that I have seen from Tim Burton, but a good movie, and a brilliant one at that. Despite it's few stereotypical characters, silly references and the most overused cliché in the book...

Frankenweenie: Classic kids movie revitalized greatly.