Tim’s Burton’s latest attempt to scare us is a quite delightful homage to film noir that turns out to rather a tame spoof of a horror movie that makes one laugh rather than cower in fear. It’s a stop-motion animation (that I saw in 3D) about an ingenious young elementary school boy named Victor Frankenstein who lives with his nice middle class parents in New Holland, an all-American suburb. Victor is a real geek and so his worried father only agrees that he can enter the School’s Science Fair, if Victor agrees to starts acting like other kids his age and plays baseball.
However during the game Victor’s best friend … his dog Sparky … is in a fatal accident. Very soon after that the school’s science class has a new rather exotic foreign teacher and he inadvertently plants an idea in Victor’s mind. In his attic cum laboratory Victor conducts an experiment to use the energy of lightening to bring his precious dog back to life. When he succeeds he tries to keep Sparky hidden away especially with the two big bolts either side of his neck there is more than a passing resemblance to Boris Karloff’s monster!
In such a small town that seems to have more than its share of oddball characters it doesn’t remain a secret for long, and soon some of his school chums who are desperate to win the Science Fair usurp Victor’s idea and bring their own dead animals back to life with hilarious consequences which end up almost wrecking their small town.
Burton’s highly stylized imagery is enchanting as always, and the characters in shape of puppets (British ones at that) and as voiced by a wonderful cast that includes Catherine OHara, Martin Sheen, Martin Landau & Wynona Rider are totally captivating. Where it excelled best was the very Burtonesque collection of quirky eccentric neighbors and their pets too that gave a much needed edge to the movie. But the story however was a little weak and tame even, which probably was fitting for a Disney Production (which this is) but not what one expects from the filmmaker who’s previous animation includes the brilliant ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and ‘Corpse Bride’.
It’s a fun movie and really worth seeing especially if you are a classic horror movie buff and as long as you set aside expectations that it’s one of Tim Burton’s best, because it simply isnt.
★★★★★★★
