Review of Frankenweenie (2012) by Ian F — 26 Feb 2013

Tim Burton's newest Disney animated feature is ironically a remake of the short film that got him fired by Disney back in the 80's. Burton originally worked as a Disney animator, but was fired when he produced a short film that was labelled as "too scary" for children.

Disney, claiming that Burton had wasted company resources, was shown the door. But, enough of history lessons and onto the film! The stop-motion is brilliant, the characters are well crafted (both in an animation and emotional sense), and the black-and-white suits the film perfectly.

It starts out like a typical family film about a kid and his dog, but soon it becomes apparent that is not the case. It's a rare movie where I actually find myself caring about the characters. The references to classic horror/sci-fi movies are great if you get them and they don't take away from the movie if you don't (I noticed "Nosferatu", "Godzilla", "Gamera", possibly "Gremlins" and obviously "Frankenstein").

It's what you would expect from an animated Tim Burton film, but it achieves a level of charm and wit that many family films fail to do.