Tim Burton’s latest, Frankenweenie, is at once classic Burton, and also somewhat of a departure from the director’s current trajectory of hyper-colorful, creepy, completely unnecessary remakes. Frankenweenie is a remake, but of Burton’s own 1984 short film, and it’s shot entirely in black-and-white, stop-motion animation. Best of all, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter are nowhere to be found.
In a town seemingly trapped in the atomic ’60s called New Holland, young Victor Frankenstein (Tahan) is a gawky kid with a love of science and few friends. As with many socially awkward boys, Victor’s best friend is his pet dachshund Sparky. When Sparky gets hit by a car, Victor, inspired by his eerie new science teacher Mr. Rzykruski (perfectly voiced by Martin Landau), decides to try to reanimate his beloved pet. When the wonderfully kooky towns children get wind of Victor’s success, jealous that he’ll win the upcoming science fair, they attempt experiments of their own.
The anachronistic absence of color and computer graphics doesn’t keep Frankenweenie from being visually stunning. The film looks great and the visual easter eggs for fans of the classic Universal monsters are too many to catch in one viewing. Some of the more obvious references include a classmate of Victor’s who looks like the original Frankenstein’s Monster, and another classmate named Edgar “E” Gore, a round, hunchbacked, big-toothed, ogley-eyed, Peter Lorre-lovin’ kid voiced by The Middle’s own weirdling Atticus Shaffer, who nearly steals every scene he’s in.
The story is simple, diluted Shelley via diluted Hollywood, and the pacing is brisk and efficient, never lapsing into a lull, but aside from the obvious heartstring-tugging moments (all dog movies have them, you know the type), Frankenweenie’s main shortcoming is a lack of in-depth character development. Without that connection, the exciting finale feels like little is at stake. But that shouldn’t keep legions of little weirdos, young and old, from loving the creatures in this feature. A little too gruesome at points for the K-3rd grade set (even for a PG rating), and a little too strange for everyone else, Frankenweenie might just find its niche among the freaks as one of Tim Burton’s best in years.
