Movie Review: Frankenweenie

I haven't written in some time, but as I alluded to, I have had some reviews sitting around that only needed a little work to get finished and submitted.  I decided this past evening, after looking through the online listings for job leads, to polish this one off and submit it.  Of course, I can't attach the video links while at work, so this won't get submitted until around 4 AM or so (when I get off work), but I think I'll drop it in, just to show I haven't completely disappeared from the scene.

...And then I forgot, and didn't post until the next evening.  Hmmm...

Life has been hectic, and math keeps me busy.  But with this being Spring Break week, I am going to do my best to cram through a section and get ahead.  Finally.  Here's hoping the work is enough.  My plan is to take the class's final exam by the end of March.  That way, even if I fail it the first attempt, I'm far enough ahead that it won't kill me.  And then I can finish the darn class off early and relax a little before I take my summer class (fingers crossed) and get done with school.  I won't be able to graduate this semester as planned.  I'm just not good enough at Algebra.  It's like teaching a parrot to sing opera.  You can do it, but the work is hard, and the results leave something to be desired for aesthetic quality.  But yeah, it can do it.  I can do math, but it ain't a pretty picture.

Anyway, here's that review.  And here's hoping you are well.

Frankenweenie (2012)

Young Victor conducts a science experiment to bring his beloved dog Sparky back to life, only to face unintended, sometimes monstrous, consequences. Short synopsis of Frankenweenie taken from IMDb.com



Ah Tim Burton. What strange events in your childhood still compels your adult movie-making activities? I could look it up, if such an article exists somewhere in the great all-knowing Web. But I think I'll just be lazy and assume you had some interesting things in your personal history that led you to release the sort of films that you do.

Take Frankenweenie, for instance. This is an interesting film. I'd say that the trailer doesn't do the show justice. And no, that's not entirely a compliment. Here we had a spoof on any number of classic horror flicks, from the ubiquitous Frankenstein of the Universal hey-day of black and white pics, to Godzilla  And lots of other references thrown in for good measure. There is even a little bit of live action footage from one of the old Hammer versions of Dracula. I missed a few references a long the way, I am sure, but there were a bunch in this film. The problem is, I probably would have caught a bit more of the nods to scary cinema before slasher films and Japanese Horror took over the genre, except I was too busy worrying about my kid. 


Tim Burton / Source: Biography.com

 Really? Yeah. Call me an over-protective parent, but Frankenweenie was a bit much for my six year old. Not that she didn't enjoy it, but in her words, there were some "freaky" parts to this movie.

And the trailer doesn't show you the parts that made me cringe on her behalf. Like mutated sea monkeys crawling out from under the toilet lid in a port-a-potty to attack the mayor of New Holland, the town in which Frankenweenie is set. Or the hybrid bat/cat that terrorizes the film's protagonist, Victor, as well as his little neighbor girl friend (if these weren't elementary or early middle school-age kids, she'd be his love interest) and her dog (the poodle that gets a shocking case of Bride of Frankenstein hair in the trailer above). That cat-bat thing was scary even for an adult like me. Especially when we see it get shocked with lightning and then sprout claws, fangs, and then - the piece-d-resistance - horrible demonic wings. And don't get me started on said cat's demise. A bit gruesome for children, in my opinion.

Now I'm not trying to bag on the movie, honest. I thought it was amusing and clever. But I'd say that this is not a kid-friendly film. Sure, kids deserve their due; they are brighter than we often give them credit for. Especially in today's world. At the same time, superficially-wise, the film looks like a family-friendly romp through some fun monster movie territory.  But it has a dark side that shows up two-thirds of the way in and made my kid's eye go pretty wide. So I'm saying that if you rent this film when it comes out on DVD, you might consider not watching it with the little ones (this review was first penned when the movie was in the local cheap-seats, and has since moved to DVD). 


One of the funnier moments of the film came when the Van Helsing's poodle accidentally bumbs hewr nose against Sparky's neck bolt and gets the shock of her doggy life.  / Source: Colider.com

 On the other hand, from an adult point of view, Frankenweenie did have a rather heavy-slopped on but still relatable message about the way people view science as a source of magical wonders without truly appreciating the work put in, or the fundamental questions that must be addressed when any scientific work is being done. For instance, halfway through, the New Holland science teacher - a man with a very long face and a surname straight out of Eastern Europe - gets up in front of the assembled townspeople at a school meeting and berates them for turning a blind eye to the merits of scientific education simply because they fear their kids asking questions about things that they, as adults, do not understand. He is, of course, immediately sacked without further recourse.

And then there is the thicker moral daub - the one which tells us that a work done in love will bear better fruit than one done in greed. Not to spoil too much of the film (so I'm putting in the obligatory Spoiler Alert message here), but when young Victor Frankenstein (yes, that's his last name) brings his dog Sparky back from the dead - the poor lovable creature having been hit by a car after running into the road to retrieve his master's first home-run ball - his classmates soon find out about it and demand his help. First comes the kid who looks like Igor from the classic Frankenstein films, and then comes a dead-ringer for Boris Karloff, and then a kid who exemplifies the stereotype of the 1950s Japanese scientist of the Godzilla flicks. All discover Victor's secret and want to use it to bring back lost pets and win the science fair.

I actually had one of these plastic Godzilla toys when I was a kid, and wish I still did.  Yes, this is a bit off topic from the movie, but you're stuck with my musings, so get used to random semi-off topic tangents already. / Source: Amazon.com

But a horrible price must be paid for these acts, and thus enter the scary critters I mentioned at the beginning of this review. As an adult, I found it stylistically fun, as I could relate to all that stuff. As I told my daughter on the way home from the movie theater, I've been watching scary and semi-scary movies since I was a kid. Well, to a certain extent. My mom wasn't big on scary movies, and especially not thrilled by slasher or other gore-fests, and so I discovered them much later in life than my friends did when we were all growing up. In some ways, you could say this was a mistake on her part (my mom), as I took to such things with a vengeance when I was old enough to do so on my own. Sort of making up for lost time, you could say.

On the other hand, I do agree with her methods, as I have a strong appreciation for the fact that some things are just out of line and tasteless. Not being deluged in splattery horror gave me the opportunity to appreciate subtle scares and have a more discerning pallet, as well as the ability to say what I think is ok for kids to watch and what may be too much for them.

This statement brings me back to the beginning of this review. Frankenweenie is not a bad movie per-se, nor is it too much for some kids, in my opinion, so long as they be of a certain age. Unfortunately, it seems to me that somebody, probably a marketing executive at Disney, glamorized the cute side of the film to get parents to take their kids to see it, and forgot to mention that Franknweeine may be too much for younger viewers who they (the movie studio) seem to have targeted most directly as their audience. Big mistake. I can see why the movie was not in the main theaters for very long. It is an amusing tale, but seems to have been poorly targeted. If they lost money on it, they deserved it. But it does once again demonstrate Burton's particular talents, as well as his particular nerossies. For what that is worth.

The kids of Frankenweenie.  From left to right, Weird Girl, Nassor (I think), Edgar "E" Gore (I'm not making that up, I got this from Wikipedia... ok, I'm only going with what might have been made up), Victgor and his dog Sparky, Elsa Van Helsing, Toshiaki, and Bob.  / Source: TheDisneyBlog.com

Bottom line? I thought it was worth my half of the cheap seats ticket price. The film has a big screen appeal, due to the cinematic nature of the presentation. There are some really awesome and quite stark visuals here that a big screen did well for. A smaller screen probably would be just as good, but maybe not. I'd also say it would be worth a rental fee, if you choose to do so. But as for the half of the ticket fare that was my daughter's admission? No. I wouldn't have taken her to see it - as a six year old - had I really known better. But as always, I gotta say that your mileage as a parent may vary.

The parting comment:


Is that really Vincent Price?  If it isn't, it's the best version I've ever heard.  Cool.