Tim Burton
Leonard Ripps
Allison Abbate
Mark Solomon
October 5, 2012 (United States)
Frankenweenie is Tim Burton’s third stop-motion animated feature, based on his old film, which was not cartoon, of the same name and story.
It was released on October 5, 2012.
Summary
Frankenweenie is a heartwarming hilarious tale about a boy and his dog. After unexpectedly losing his beloved dog Sparky, young Victor Frankenstein harnesses the power of science to bring his best friend back to life—with just a few minor adjustments. He tries to hide his home-sewn creation, but when Sparky gets out, Victor’s fellow students, teachers and the entire town all learn that getting a new “leash on life” can be monstrous. In 2018, Tim Burton and Hayao Miyazaki re-direct to a newest Frankenweenie retitled: "Sparky" on March 9, 2018 from Astro Boy Productions.
Plot
Young filmmaker and scientist Victor Frankenstein lives with his parents, Edward and Susan Frankenstein, and his beloved Bull Terrier dog, Sparky, in the quiet town of New Holland. Victor's intelligence is recognized by his classmates at school, his somber next-door neighbor, Elsa Van Helsing, mischievous, Igor-like Edgar "E" Gore, obese and gullible Bob, overconfident Toshiaki, creepy Nassor, and an eccentric girl nicknamed Weird Girl, but communicates little with them due to his relationship with his dog. Concerned with his son's isolation, Victor's father encourages him to take up baseball and make achievements outside of science. Victor hits a home run at his first game, but Sparky, pursuing the ball, is struck by a car and killed.
Inspired by his science teacher Mr. Rzykruski's demonstration of the effect of electricity on dead frogs, a depressed Victor digs up Sparky's corpse, brings him to his makeshift laboratory in the attic and successfully reanimates him with lightning. Seeing Weird Girl's living cat, Mr. Whiskers, the undead Sparky escapes from the attic and explores the neighborhood. He is recognized by Edgar, who blackmails Victor into teaching him how to raise the dead. The two reanimate a dead goldfish, which turns invisible due to an error with the experiment. Edgar brags about the undead fish to Toshiaki and Bob, which, in panic of losing the upcoming science fair, inspires them to make a rocket out of soda bottles, which causes Bob to break his arm and Mr. Rzykruski to be blamed and fired due to his accused influencing and reviling the townsfolk for questioning his methods when he steps up for self-defense. So, the gym teacher replaces Mr. Rzykruski.
Eventually, Edgar's fish disappears when he tries to show it to a skeptical Nassor (who was told by Toshiaki), and when Edgar is confronted by Toshiaki, Nassor and Bob on the baseball field at school, he accidentally reveals Victor's actions, inspiring them to try reanimation themselves. Victor's parents discover Sparky in the attic and are frightened, causing the dog to flee. Victor and his parents search for Sparky while the classmates invade the lab, discovering Victor's reanimation formula. The classmates separately perform their experiments, which go awry and turn the dead animals into monsters — Mr. Whiskers holds a dead bat while it is electrocuted, resulting in him fusing with it and becoming a monstrous bat-cat with wings and fangs. Edgar turns a dead rat he found in the garbage into a wererat, Nassor revives his mummified hamster Colossus and Toshiaki's turtle Shelley is covered in Miracle Gro and turns into a giant Gamera-like monster. Bob's Sea-Monkeys grow into amphibious humanoids. The monsters break loose into the town fair where they wreak havoc.
After finding Sparky at the town's pet cemetery, Victor sees the monsters heading to the fair and goes with his classmates to help deal with them — the Sea-Monkeys explode after eating salt-covered popcorn, and Colossus is stepped on by Shelley, while the rat and Shelley are returned to their original, deceased forms after both being electrocuted. During the chaos, Persephone, Elsa's pet poodle, is grabbed by Mr. Whiskers and carried to the town windmill with Elsa and Victor chasing after. The townsfolk blame Sparky for Elsa's disappearance and chase him to the windmill, which Mayor Burgermeister accidentally ignites with his torch. Victor and Sparky enter the burning windmill and rescue Elsa and Persephone, but Victor is trapped inside. Sparky rescues Victor, only to be dragged back inside by Mr. Whiskers. A final confrontation ensues, and just as Mr. Whiskers has Sparky cornered, a flaming piece of wood breaks off and impales Mr. Whiskers, killing him. The windmill then collapses on Sparky, killing him again. To reward him for his bravery and saving Victor, the townsfolk gather to revive Sparky with their car batteries, reanimating him once more. Persephone, who has a hairstyle similar to Elsa Lanchester's Bride of Frankenstein, comes to Sparky as the two dogs share their love and kiss.
Cast
Humans
- Charlie Tahan as Victor Frankenstein, a child scientist and the main protagonist.
- Winona Ryder as Elsa Van Helsing, a kind girl who is Victor's next-door neighbor and classmate.
- Catherine O'Hara as Susan Frankenstein, Victor's Mother, Weird Girl, an eccentric girl who is one of Victor's classmates, and Gym Teacher the gym teacher at Victor's school.
- Martin Short as Edward Frankenstein, Victor's father, Nassor, Toshiaki's partner and Victor's other enemy, Mr. Burgermeister, the grumpy Mayor of New Holland, the Frankensteins' next-door neighbor, and Elsa's uncle.
- Martin Landau as Mr. Rzykruski, the new eccentric but wise science teacher at Victor's school who speaks in a thick Eastern European accent.
- Atticus Shaffer as Edgar "E" Gore, a deformed, igor-like child and one of Victor's classmates & Weird Girl's love interest.
- Robert Capron as Bob, an obese kid and one of Victor's classmates.
- James Hiroyuki Liao as Toshiaki, Victor's enemy and one of his classmates.
- Conchata Ferrell as Bob's Mom, an obese and stereotypical suburban housewife who dotes upon her son.
- Tom Kenny as Fire Chief, Soldier, and Townsfolk.
- Christopher Lee (uncredited) as Dracula
Animals
- Frank Welker as Sparky Frankenstein, Victor's pet bull terrier and best friend, who unexpecdly dies and is brought back to life and the deurtagonist. Now he's talk like Edgar and his mentor Atticus Shaffer by Victor.
- Dee Bradley Baker as Persephone Van Helsing, Elsa's pet poodle and Sparky's love interest.
- Ernest Borgnine as Mr. Whiskers, He is Weird Girl's pet cat and friend. She likes to turn him into the Vampire Cat, but she was'nt scared at all. Now he's talk like Ernest Borgnine by Weird Girl.
- Jeff Bennett as Sea Creatures the bag of sea monkeys that cam to life.
- Dee Bradley Baker as Were-Rat the mutated dead rat.
- Dee Bradley Baker as Turtle Monster, the former pet turtle of Toshiaki
Gallery
Videos
Trailers
| File:Frankenweenie - Trailer | File:The New Frankenweenie Trailer |
| Trailer 1 | Trailer 2 |
Clips
| File:Frankenweenie (2012) - Clip Sparky Is Alive | File:Frankenweenie (2012) - Clip Edgar Knows |
| Sparky is Alive | Edgar Knows |
| File:Frankenweenie (2012) - Clip Bigger Problem | File:Frankenweenie Clip - Captain Sparky vs the Flying Saucers |
| Bigger Problem | Sparky vs. The Flying Saucers |
| File:Frankenweenie Clip - Bringing Sparky Back | |
| Mayor Burgermeister's Death |
Interviews
Trivia
- This film reunites Tim Burton with Winona Ryder, Martin Landau, and Catherine O'Hara (who previously worked with Burton on Beetlejuice). However, the last time Ryder worked with Burton was 21 years ago on Edward Scissorhands.
- When Tim Burton originally conceived the idea for “Frankenweenie,” he envisioned it as a full-length, stop-motion animated film. Due to budget constraints, he was forced to direct it as a live-action short, which was released in 1984. 2012's animated "Frankenweenie" is the culmination of his original vision, 28 years later.
- “Frankenweenie” follows in the footsteps of Tim Burton’s other stop-motion animated films “Corpse Bride” and “The Nightmare Before Christmas”—both of which were nominated for Academy Awards.
- Over 200 puppets and sets were created for the film.
- The voice cast includes four actors who worked with Burton on previous films: Winona Ryder (“Beetlejuice,” “Edward Scissorhands”), Catherine O’Hara (“Beetlejuice,” “The Nightmare Before Christmas”), Martin Short (“Mars Attacks!”) and Martin Landau (“Ed Wood,” Sleepy Hollow”).
- Several of the character names—Victor, Elsa Van Helsing, Edgar “E” Gore and Mr. Burgemeister— were inspired by classic horror films.
- It's clearly unknown if Jack Skellington will make a cameo in this film.
- When the monster pets are on the attack, there is a movie theatre that says "Coming soon: Bambi."
- The way Elsa Van Helsing dresses for the Dutch Day carnival is a reference to the Dutch children from the Disney pak attraction "It's a Small World."