So unfortunately, due to RF preperations, I did not get to review ParaNorman or post a most anticipated fall movie list like I wanted. But there is absolutely no excuse to pass up reviewing a new Tim Burton movie :D

Hope you enjoy, leave your thoughts on the movie and this review in the comments selection below. Cudose goes to the ones who make their comments with lightning and organ music!

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Frankenweenie
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When discussing the entire career of the popular cult director, Tim Burton, there is one thing that can always be agreed upon. Whether or not you think his twisted quirky mind is an opus for cinema, you can always agree that his career has never been stable. Even directors like M. Night Shyamalan stay consistently worse. With Tim Burton it’s like a roller coaster, you have no idea when the next rise or fall will be. After the disappointing release of Alice in Wonderland and Dark Shadows, it looked to the gothic cinematic world of Burton has finally dried up his barrel of succulent quirks. Now he is just bringing our dinner table bouquet of flowers, hoping we don’t notice they’re inedible and therefore won’t cast him onto the sidelines like a Japanese demotion, only with less shame. So you can tell there’s absolutely no pressure on the success of Frankenweenie or anything. True to Burton’s form though, he has once again shown that he’s still got many fun rides for his twisted patrons.

For those of you who aren’t cool enough to know, Frankenweenie, or Lightning Vets R’ Us, is a remake of Tim Burton’s 1984 Disney short film of the same name about a boy named Victor Frankenstein who brings his dead dog back to life via science. It’s funny when you begin to remember that Burton got his start under the eye of the mouse. His work was considered too dark and scary for family viewing under the Disney trademark and he even lost his job at the studio for wasting resources. Of course that didn’t stop them from releasing the short on VHS during his termination after Burton became popular. It’s like when the football captain realizes the Goth girl is hot after humiliating her from a barrage of rotten tomatoes, courtesy of him and his other sexually confused mates, I digress. Returning to an old piece of work is Burton literally returning to his roots as a director, luckily not in the way that makes it feel like he’s recycling old material, like the Super Mario franchise. This is how a remake should be done: it keeps what people loved about the first one, it’s not afraid to change what didn’t work and it adds to make it better. 2012’s Frankenweenie does all of these requirements to an astoundingly memorable degree, even when it doesn’t entirely work.

Tim Burton gives testament to his mastery of visuals and aesthetics by taking audiences back to where he learned all of his tricks. Frankenweenie is created to be a tribute to the classic cinematic monster pieces and ridiculous B-movies that Burton, and others grew up with. ‘Others’ meaning kids who grew up glued to books or TV and the thought of sports could literally mean the destruction of many, as Burton actually describes in this film. Therefore Burton opts to having the entire film be shot in black and white. And while that may upset those born with half a brain cell, already drunk from their parents inhaling too much paint thinner, the film’s wide variety of characters provide all the colour this movie could ever need. While there are some voice actors who act blander than a high school retelling of a sawdust milkshake, the actors who bring their A-game quickly become your favourite, especially the children. In fact, Frankenweenie presents some of the most adorable abominations to hit the screen since a clever girl ripped off an Australian’s face and I’m not just talking about the dog. I would love to see the film’s Romanian self esteem school assemblies because this school has the most acceptably diverse group of kids I’ve ever seen. “Haven’t you ever heard of ‘suspension of disbelief’?” Why yes I have Mr. Ed Wood but seriously if this was real life not even being locked into a library with John Hughes could get a recluse science nerd, a Hispanic Asian, Augustus Gloop, Luna Love-good on meth, the bell tower’s hunchback and the town’s future keeper of the crypt to all get along. Then again, we’re in the Burton universe, a place where the right combination of lightning, shadows, organ music and troll science can make even the most jaded realist curl their fingers in malicious scientific delight! Plus are you really going to be raising these kind questions when Vincent Price is your teacher?

That being said, Frankenweenie is a ton of fun, but it never really goes beyond that to make it a cultural or an intellectually significant film, much like how Para-Norman and The Cabin in the Woods did. At first it begins to set up a running narrative about intellect/science, the social standard for conduct and the effect that loss has on a human being, much like the original Merry Shelly’s Frankenstein, but it never does anything with it. Then again Tim Burton has never been known for creating strong narratives revolving around character or setting. Frankenweenie is more like a child playing with their favourite random toys and creating a ludicrous but cohesive story that almost every grown up has forgotten how to do. While ‘Burton though’ kids will enjoy this movie, they will not be able to get all of the quirky classic monster references. But who cares about kids? That just makes it even more fun for the adults! In the end, though lacking in thought but large in heart, Frankenweenie is the closest the world has come again to empathizing with the insecurities of the abnormal child since Edward Scissorhands. And I got to tell you, as a viewer, it feels great to be recognized again.