Frankenweeine Review

This a pretty good film! To those who don't know Frankenweenie was originally a 30 min short film directed by Tim Burton in 1984. Even though that was good, it still was just a cute little movie, nothing much. I like how they expanded it and gave it more development here. First of all it has a cast of very memorable, likeable, and funny characters like The Weird Girl, the Igor-like kid, the chubby kid (who by the way makes no stereotypical food jokes), the Japanese kid, and the Boris Karloff-like kid. Tim Burton must be really good in giving child characters interesting and enjoyable personalities because it shows in this and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. They are just so enjoyable, plus they have great moments, they work off each other perfectly, and they get good jokes. Plus there are a lot of clever homages to other classic horror films than just Frankenstein. Other characters I like are the parents and Elsa. Yeah sure they are run of the mill nice, but they are excusable to how supportive they are to the main character Victor. Victor also is pretty likeable, I like how he's not really a bullied outcast, just a nice and smart kid who does is own thing and who doesn't want to change or harm anybody because he feels its right. Sure not much development is there for a lot of characters but the setting in which they live in more than makes up for it. It is easy to accept this world and this setting because it is very entertaining, good of how different it is far from ours, and pretty much everybody is weird. There is no one norm they must follow and the whole town doesn't bully or pester the kid because they are all pretty much weird and have their own personalities. THANK GOD! Another thing which I feel is important to mention is that I really liked this film better than ParaNorman. ParaNorman is good it's just that there are a few parts of it which I can't stand like the mean-spirited first act, the mean-spirited dad, and pretty realistic but still sort of cliched characters. A lot of it we've seen before EXCEPT the third act which more than makes up for the flaws and has a charm that only Miyazaki would think of. But still Frankenweeine has several elements that help it surpass ParaNorman for me such as the characters, setting, delivery of the story. Even though it's more developed than the original short film, it still keeps it simple and it works being simple. It didn't need anything too complex to make it good because it already had a cast of characters and setting that the audience can enjoy. Overall Frankenweenie is and enjoyable film with enjoyable characters, enjoyable settings, enjoyable scenes, and an enjoyable story. A definite recommended family film! Grade: P+