Back in 1984, Tim Burton's live action short,
Frankenweenie, about a boy who brings his beloved pet dog back to life, got him fired from Disney for "wasting company resources on a film far too dark for children".
Now, in 2012, and with billions behind his name for
Alice in Wonderland, Disney has had Burton back to release
Frankenweenie as a full length, black & white claymation feature.
Frankenweenie is a full circle moment for Tim Burton and a true vindication for the trail blazer who stuck with his vision from obscurity & disapprovingly shaking heads all the way to creative & commercial success.
Frankenweenie continues
many elements from Burton's body of work: the signature style animation developed from
Nightmare Before Christmas to
Corpse Bride; the loving black-and-white evoking the Vincent Price genre horrors he loves so much, as in
Vincent, 1984 Frankenweenie &
Ed Wood; the themes - a well-meaning Dr Frankenstein, suburban outsiders - visual style - sunny, symmetrical suburbia meets ornate, dilapidated world of outcasts - and sweetly dark humour borrowed from
Edward Scissorhands & the roughly sewn-together characters that showed up in
Nightmare Before Christmas, Batman Returns (Michelle Pfeiffer's classic costume, if not her character) &
Mars Attacks! (Remember Sarah Jessica Parker & her dog?) makes a comeback in Sparky the dog
. The doomed return from the dead is also a theme recurring in
Beetlejuice (sort of),
Corpse Bride &
even
Sleepy Hollow.
Anthony Hopkins - The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Steven Spielberg - Schindler's List (1993)
