Back to the Start: Frankenweenie

In this year, Tim Burton gives us two movies: Dark Shadows and Frankenweenie. As I watched these two movies, I could not believe that these two movies are directed by the same person. There are huge differences in terms of the storyline, characters and so on. I think this is because Tim Burton turns back to the start of his career because Frankenweenie is the remake of a short movie by Burton: Frankenweenie (1984).

 The first thing that caught my attention in the movie is, of course, its gothic elements. Frankenweenie is completely a gothic movie. Even colours –black and white- play an important role in the movie, indicating the darkness of the events. In addition, its reference to Frankenstein - protagonist of the movie is Victor Frankenstein - can also be considered as Burton’s ambition to master gothic movies.

  

  Although Frankenweenie is a stop-motion animation, it is not for children; I think it is for horror movie fans. It has lots of references to horror movies such as The Mummy (1932), The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), The Birds (1963) and so on. Using stop-motion technique instead of CGI (Computer-generated imagery) also shows that Tim Burton still likes old fashion movie techniques and respects all of these movies.

Overall, Frankenweenie is a pure gothic movie. There is not much to say about it, it is a classic Tim Burton film. The most negative aspect of the movie is it lasts only 87 minutes. When it ends, you just want more – so if you crave more Frankenweenie after the movie ends, you should definitely watch the short version!

 Kaan Akın (ELIT II)