Frankenweenie (2012)

Through the years, I have been rather enamored with the films of Tim Burton. Back in the 80s and 90s, his pictures were among the most impressive, imaginative and unique movies being released. I still love several of those movies from the first half of his career, but his latest ventures have been leaving me cold. Alice in Wonderland and Dark Shadows are probably the worst things he’s directed. They are visually vibrant, I admit, but they otherwise have literally none of the macabre charm that his early efforts had. Frankenweenie is a new animated movie that Burton has remade from his first live-action short. The story is a parody of the Frankenstein movies, involving a genius little boy who resurrects his dog from the dead. Some of his meaner schoolmates catch on to the basics of the procedure and attempt a few of their own experiments, which go horribly wrong.

This movie is an enormous improvement over Burton’s last two films. Running not much over an hour and containing numerous monster movie references, it is fun and cute and fluffy. It is the sort of movie families will go see at the theater, enjoy it for what it is, and quickly forget about it. If you keep up with my reviews, you know I love stop-motion animation. Since it is such a time-consuming process, I am truly glad to see it being used with some regularity. To be sure, Frankenweenie is very fun to watch for the quality of the animation alone, but it remains disappointingly bland. Since this movie takes place in the “real world,” we get none of the limitless creativity that animation allows, and which can be seen in Burton’s own Nightmare before Christmas and this year’s ParaNorman. That being said, I don’t really have any other big objections. I can still recommend the movie as solid entertainment, because it is fun and it at least offers something different from the other movies of the year.

What can I say? I will again point out that the movie is cute and breezy. Kids will love it. Their parents won’t mind it either. That’s it. It is a decent kid’s movie and I’m sure that’s all it ever wanted to be. It has its particularly charming moments, like the poodle that becomes the bride of Frankenstein’s puppy, and it has a great deal of flaws, like the meandering subplot with the weird Igor-like kid. Where the movie most succeeds is in speaking to the inner pet-owner we’ve all been at some point. We take part in little Victor’s tragedy when he loses his dog, and mutually rejoice when it comes back to life. So, besides looking neat, it was a Tim Burton movie that made me feel good things rather than aggravation, and that’s something. Burton has proven that he does have some magic left up his sleeve, though I hope his next project will reflect that even more. Also, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter are nowhere to be found, and that’s something else too.

7/10