Wednesday, 17 October 2012

Frankenweenie

Frankenweenie is a 2012 3D stop motion science fiction film directed by Tim Burton.[4] It is a remake of Burton's 1984 short film of the same name and is a parody of and an homage to the 1931 film Frankenstein based on Mary Shelley's book of the same name. Like both those films, Frankenweenie is in black and white. In the film, a boy named Victor loses his dog, named Sparky and uses the power of science to resurrect him. The film was released by Walt Disney Pictures on October 5, 2012 and met with positive reviews and moderate box office sales. It was the first black-and-white feature film and the first stop-motion film to be released in IMAX 3D.[5] The film appears to be set sometime in the 1960s.



In Tim Burton’s “Frankenweenie” young Victor conducts a science ...
Directed by Tim Burton
Produced by Tim Burton
Allison Abbate
Screenplay by John August
Based on Frankenweenie by
Tim Burton
Starring Charlie Tahan
Frank Welker
Winona Ryder
Catherine O'Hara
Martin Short
Martin Landau
Robert Capron
Atticus Shaffer
Music by Danny Elfman
Cinematography Peter Sorg
Editing by Chris Lebenzon
Mark Solomon
Studio Tim Burton Productions
Distributed by Walt Disney Pictures
Release date(s)
  • September 20, 2012 (Fantastic Fest)
  • October 5, 2012 (United States)
Running time 87 minutes[1]
Country United States
Language English
Budget $39 million[2]
Box office $27,335,000[3]

Plot

Young filmmaker and scientist Victor Frankenstein lives with his parents and dog Sparky in the quiet town of New Holland. Concerned with his son's isolation, Victor's father encourages him to take up baseball and make achievements outside of science. At his first game, Victor hits a home run, and Sparky, pursuing the ball, is subsequently killed by a car.
Inspired by a demonstration of the effect of electricity on dead frogs, a depressed Victor digs up Sparky's corpse, creates a makeshift laboratory in the attic and successfully reanimates Sparky with lightning. Seeing a cat, Sparky escapes from the attic and explores the neighborhood, recognized first by Edgar, Victor's hunchbacked classmate. Edgar blackmails Victor into showing him how the reanimation worked, resulting in the two reanimating a goldfish (which turns invisible). Edgar brags about the fish to their classmates, sparking their interest in reanimation.
Victor's parents discover Sparky in the attic, causing him to flee. Joined by Victor, the family search for the dog while the classmates invade the lab, discovering Victor's reanimation formula. All the classmates, going their separate ways, perform their own experiments. Nassor revives his hamster Colossus at the cemetery; he now bears a resemblance to the Mummy. Toshiaki's dead turtle Shelly becomes a huge Gamera-like monster. Bob dumps a package of sea monkeys into his pool; they transform and chase him into the streets. Edgar breaks into the school and brings back a were-rat. Weird Girl's experiment takes a wrong turn when she accidentally mutates the bat intended for the experiment and Mr Whiskers into a vampire cat. The animals wreak havoc in the town. Although each pet is eventually defeated, Mr Whiskers carries off Elsa van Helsing, Victor's love interest, to the town's windmill. The townsfolk blame Sparky for the monsters and chase him inside the windmill, setting it ablaze. Sparky rescues both Victor and Elsa from the burning windmill to the town's approval, only to be pulled back inside by Mr Whiskers. The cat is staked through the heart with a falling rafter just as the windmill crushes Sparky to death.
As reward for his bravery, the townsfolk gather to revive Sparky with their car batteries, reanimating him once more. Sparky awakens and is reunited with his own love interest, Persephone, Elsa's Bride of Frankenstein-style poodle.

Cast

  • Charlie Tahan as Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who brings his dog (and best friend) Sparky back to life.
  • Catherine O'Hara as Susan Frankenstein, Victor's Mother / Weird Girl, an eccentric girl who is one of Victor's classmates and obsessed with the psychic predictions of her cat, Mr. Whiskers/ Gym Teacher[6]
  • Martin Short as Ben Frankenstein, Victor's father / Nassor, Toshiaki's partner and Victor's other rival-like former enemy, who has a flat head inspired by Frankenstein's monster. / Mr. Bergermeister, the grumpy Mayor of New Holland, the Frankensteins' next-door neighbor, and Elsa's uncle.[6]
  • Martin Landau as Mr. Rzykruski, the new eccentric but wise science teacher at Victor's school who speaks in a thick Eastern European accent more like the voice and the facial appearance inspiration of Vincent Price. He is the one who inspires Victor to bring Sparky back to life, and acts as a mentor to Victor.[6]
  • Winona Ryder as Elsa van Helsing, Victor's kind next-door neighbor, one of his classmates, and his assumed love interest.[6]
  • Atticus Shaffer as Edgar "E" Gore, a deformed, igor-like child and one of Victor's classmates. He's the first to know of Victor's success in bringing Sparky back to life.[7]
  • Robert Capron as Bob, one of Victor's classmates.[8]
  • Christopher Lee as Dracula
  • Conchata Ferrell as Bob's mother, an obese and stereotypical suburban housewife who dotes upon her son. She believes in the status quo, and that her misguided actions are in Bob's best interest.[8]
  • James Hiroyuki Liao as Toshiaki, Victor's rival-like former enemy and one of his classmates.[9]
  • Tom Kenny as Fire Chief / Soldier / Townsfolk[10]

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