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Frankenweenie

Directed by Tim Burton.

2012. Rated PG, 87 minutes.

Cast:

Charlie Tahan

Catherine O’Hara

Martin Short

Martin Landau

Atticus Shaffer

Winona Ryder

Robert Capron

James Hiroyuki Liao

Conchata Ferrell

Tom Kenny

Victor Frankenstein (Tahan) doesn't have many friends other than Sparky, his dog. Victor’s father notices this and urges his son to get our there with the other kids. Specifically, he gets the boy to participate in a baseball game. Not wanting to be left out, Sparky chases the ball into the street and is killed when hit by a car. Inspired by what he learned in science class, Victor successfully resurrects the dog. Initially, this is unbeknownst to anyone else. When word gets out, all the kids want to bring something back to life in hopes of winning the upcoming science fair. Of course, things don’t go as well for them as they did for Victor.

The journey director Tim Burton takes us on is one steeped in nostalgia, paying homage to horror’s glorious past every step of the way. While Victor himself is a rather typical looking Burton creation, the rest of the kids look like classic monster movie characters. One kid resembles Igor, another Frankenstein’s monster, and so on. The science teacher is a dead ringer for the legendary Vincent Price. There are many instances we’ll note as inspired by those old pictures and the entire thing is shown in a traditional black and white.

Simply incorporating elements from great movies is not enough to make this film any good. Fortunately, Burton tells us a wonderful story. It functions as a tale about a boy and his dog and as a horror flick. In true Burton fashion, the boy is a loner and a bit of an outcast. This is displayed by a brilliant inversion of the way the director usually presents things. In movies such as Edward Scissorhands, Batman, and as recently as Dark Shadows, the protagonist is not only clearly different from those around him, but to us, also. Whether it’s a physical deformity, ghastly colored skin, or just running around in a costume, we saw something strange about them. Here, the hero looks more like us than anyone else in the movie. The other characters are the more gothic creations. Since they are the majority, Victor still comes across as the oddball. However, like other leads in the Burton canon, he’s an oddball by nature, not some stubborn contrarianism. He also has a good heart. Misguided as it may have been, he brought Sparky back to life out of love for the dog. He tries to stop others from doing similar things because he knows there is great potential danger. Victor is easy to root for.

Like the best of Burton, several genres convene seamlessly. Dark comedy and horror blend into a deliciously macabre family flick. Whether we’re laughing, noticing something lifted from an eighty year old movie or staring slack-jawed at all the mayhem of the finale, it doesn’t detract from the overall experience. It’s something the director was unsuccessful doing in the aforementioned Dark Shadows. There, his switches in mode are jarring and leave us wondering what we are supposed to be watching. In Frankenweenie, it all goes down smoothly.

Ed Wood

Directed by Tim Burton.

1994. Rated R, 127 minutes.

Cast:

Johnny Depp

Martin Landau

Sarah Jessica Parker

Bill Murray

Jeffrey Jones

Patricia Arquette

Lisa Marie

George “The Animal” Steele

Vincent D’Onofrio

Mike Starr

Max Casella

Brent Hinkley

Ed Wood, here played by Johnny Depp, is widely considered one of, if not the worst director of all-time. This biopic follows him from the time shortly before he makes his first feature, Glen or Glenda through the completion and premier of his magnum opus of bad filmmaking, Plan 9 from Outer Space.

Let’s face it, Ed Wood was an abject failure in his chosen profession. He was also socially awkward, a fact exacerbated by the less tolerant era during which he lived. Even the end of this movie tells us Mr. Wood eventually descended into alcoholism. The template is there for a dead serious biopic. Luckily for us, our director for this feature, Tim Burton, is both skilled and quirky. The former keeps the story moving briskly and in an engaging manner. He gives us a fun film highlighting the subject’s passion for making movies. We know that he’s bad at his job, but we also know he loves what he’s doing and genuinely believes he’s making masterpieces.

Burton’s quirkiness lead him to some brilliant choices. The most easily recognizable is that we’re watching a black and white picture. It snugly fits the world these people inhabit. Ever the purveyor of palatable weirdness, Burton’s handling of this collection of misfits is also perfectly done. He makes them fun without making fun of them. To that end, he gets wonderfully odd performances from Johnny Depp, Bill Murray (Bunny Breckinridge) and Patricia Arquette (Kathy O’Hara). He also uses Sarah Jessica Parker (Dolores Fuller) as a conduit for the audience, first wide-eyed in amazement of Ed’s ambition and eventually our sober voice of reason. Her final outburst reveals a painful truth to Ed that he unsurprisingly ignores. That he is undeterred is a testament to his love for his craft and belief in himself.

The part of the movie that touches us most is the relationship between Wood and the legendary Bela Lugosi (Landau). They form a peculiar friendship. It seems to be based initially on Wood’s hero worship of the once great star then on his exploiting Lugosi and Lugosi’s willingness to be exploited. Wood is the only director who will have the rapidly declining legend. By this time, he’s more than happy to be in any production so that he can support his drug habit. By the end, we’re not sure who used who more but we realize they actually do care for one another.

When it’s all said and done Mr. Burton’s film is a tip of the cap from one filmmaker to another, a loving tribute to a man who gave everything to tell the stories he wanted to tell. Admiration permeates the movie. It’s evident that Burton understands Wood’s movies are a mess but he can’t help but respect the man’s drive. When the credits begin to roll, we’re in the same boat.

MY SCORE: 9/10