Frankenweenie (2012)
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A young boy's attempt to resurrect his dead pet leads to a neighborhood of reanimated monsters.
The story
Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist and amateur filmmaker, lives with his parents, Susan and Edward, and his beloved bull terrier, Sparky, in the quiet town of New Holland. After Sparky is tragically killed by a car, Victor is inspired by his science teacher's demonstrations to reanimate the dog using electricity. He successfully brings Sparky back to life in his attic laboratory but keeps the secret. However, his classmates discover his work and begin their own experiments, reanimating various deceased pets and creatures. This leads to a series of chaotic events as the newly created monsters begin to wreak havoc on the town.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist and amateur filmmaker, lives with his parents, Susan and Edward, and his beloved bull terrier, Sparky, in the quiet town of New Holland. After Sparky is killed by a car, Victor uses electricity to reanimate him in his attic. While Victor is at school, Sparky escapes and is discovered by his classmate Edgar, who blackmails Victor into teaching him how to raise the dead. Together, they resurrect a goldfish. Eventually, other classmates—Toshiaki, Nassor, and Bob—learn of Victor's success and conduct their own experiments, creating various monsters: a vampiric feline, a wererat, a kaiju turtle, and amphibious humanoids. These monsters converge on the town fair, causing chaos. During the mayhem, Elsa Van Helsing's poodle, Persephone, is snatched by the vampiric feline. Victor and Elsa pursue them to a windmill. The townsfolk, blaming Sparky for Elsa's disappearance, chase the dog to the windmill, which is ignited. Victor and Sparky enter the burning structure to rescue Elsa, but Victor becomes trapped. Sparky rescues him but is fatally impaled by a flaming piece of wood as the windmill collapses. Moved by Sparky's heroism, the townsfolk revive the dog with car batteries, and Sparky is reunited with Persephone.
- First release year
- 2012
- Runtime (minutes)
- 87
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Tim Burton
- Writers
- John August · screenplay
- Cast and characters
- Catherine O'Hara · Susan Frankenstein, Weird Girl, The Gym Teacher; Martin Short · Edward Frankenstein, Mr. Burgermeister, Nassor; Martin Landau · Mr. Rzykruski; Charlie Tahan · Victor Frankenstein; Atticus Shaffer · Edgar "E" Gore; Winona Ryder · Elsa Van Helsing
- Genres
- animated; horror; comedy; science fiction
- Themes
- science and ethics; grief; friendship; heroism
- Tone and mood
- tongue-in-cheek; macabre; heartfelt; whimsical
- Premise and plot tags
- remake; stop-motion; black-and-white; monster movie; science fiction
- Source material / true-story basis
- 1984 short film
- Content notes
- horror
- Reception
- The film received generally positive reviews for its visuals and story, being described as an energetic stop-motion horror movie spoof with a heartfelt story. It was a moderate box office success.
- Reported review scores
- Metacritic · score: 74 · scale: 100 · review count: 38
- Awards and nominations
- Saturn Award · Best Animated Film · win
- Production trivia
- The production used around 200 separate puppets, including roughly 18 different versions of Victor.; The film's design for Sparky borrowed heavily from Tim Burton's design for the character of Family Dog (1993).
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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