Roger Ebert said in his
review, “The story takes place in a familiar Burtonesque world of characters
with balloon heads, saucer eyes and pretzel limbs. Seeing them in b&w only
underlines their grotesquerie, and indeed the whole story benefits from the
absence of color, because this is a stark world without many soothing tones.
Burton uses a stop-motion animation method employing puppets, and I learn from
Variety that he employed "about 33 animators working to produce five
seconds of film per week apiece." Amazing that such a lively film took
such laborious piecework.”
The story is about
young Victor Frankenstein, voiced by Charlie Tahan, and his dog Sparky, who is,
as Ebert described, “not nearly as smart as Uggie the dog in "The
Artist."” Sparky is one of those dogs who is really loving and wants to
please, but Victor loves him and is shattered when Sparky runs into the street
and is blindsided by a car. Victor buries his best friend under a sad tombstone
in one of those horror graveyards where you think flowers would be in
black-and-white even if the movie wasn’t.
Victor’s science
teacher is Mr. Rzykruski, voiced by Martin Landau, who, as Ebert describes, “Looks
and sounds like an elongated Vincent Price. If you wonder how his voice can
sound elongated, apply here.” The next day at school he gives the students an
assignment where they apply electrical charges to the nerves of dead frogs,
which makes their legs twitch. Ebert admits, “This brought back strong memories
of my own frog dissections. When you make a list of things you learned in
school and have never needed to use since, don't forget the dead frogs.”
Victor is a
science-loving boy with a weird laboratory up in the attic, which looks two
times larger than the suburban house he shares with his parents, voiced by
Catherine O’Hara and Martin Short. The frogs inspire him to go back to the
graveyard and bring back Sparky into the attic – where, yes, after a few
stitches and patches, Victor is able to resurrect him with a nice lightning
bolt. Ebert notes, “It must be said that the newly energized Sparky has much
the same manic personality as the dog in the original version, although like
your cellphone, he sometimes needs to be recharged.” His tail or an ear falls
off when gets really excited, but overall he stays together very well.
Victor becomes crazy
with hiding the revived dog from his parents. When you think why some kids are
bored in the suburbs, it has to be because of the overpowering rule of parents
like Mr. and Mrs. Frankenstein. Given that they’ve had to live with that name,
undeniably they’re not wanting to have it known that Victor has resurrected his
dog – especially not since he used lightning bolts just as in the making of the
Bride of Frankenstein. It’s the type of thing the town will be scared over.
However, the rumor goes
around and soon all the children in Victor’s class are using high-voltage
electricity to their own dead animals, and even a seahorse. Ebert said, “This
leads to events at a town parade equal to anything you've seen in a Japanese
monster movie.”
This isn’t one of
Burton’s best, but it has obsessive energy. It might have been too gruesome for
kids long ago, but current kids, they’ve seen it all, and the love of a boy and
his dog keeps its demand. Ebert ended his review by saying, “I only hope that
young Victor doesn't let Sparky lie out in the sun for too long.”
I’m going to be honest;
this isn’t one of my favorite Burton movies. He has made better movies, and
this one is definitely one of his weirdest. If that’s what you like, you can
check this one out. However, this is up to you if you want to check it out. I
like how it actually is inspired by the Frankenstein novel and past movies, but
it does get very weird. Like I said, if you watch it, there’s nothing wrong with
that. Not like this is a waste of time, there are some good things in it.
Check out Friday to see
what I have in store for everyone. It’s a current animated film that I actually
think is a nice one for this year’s “Halloween Month.”
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