Frankenweenie -
This was fantastic fun! I haven't smiled this much watching a movie in a long time. The story is a pretty basic one, that I can summarize in a couple sentences. Smart kid figures out a way to bring his recently killed dog back to life. Newly risen dog, and the method that got him there, causes chaos. The end.
But there's so much more to it! We have the many homages to past horror movies that are a delight to spot. We have the amazing science teacher(voiced by Martin Landau) who inspires Victor, and rails against the town for their scientific ignorance. I had to stop myself from clapping. His speech needs to be played in every church and Republican office across the land. I couldn't have said it better.
I love the look of the movie. It was a brilliant choice to go with black and white. It really adds to the classic horror feel.
The stop motion is amazingly done, as always. I even thought the soundtrack was very well done, which is great considering Danny Elfman has been kind of lacking lately.
Burton himself has been lacking lately, so this movie is a great turnaround. I didn't see Dark Shadows, but I heard it wasn't very good. Alice in Wonderland looked great, but was terrible in every other aspect. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory paled in comparison to the old one. Still; this movie isn't really a new idea. It's based on Burtons own live action short of the same name that came out awhile back. I never saw it, but I find it curious that he has to mine his own material to get his groove back. I guess we'll have to wait and see how his next original movie turns out.
I'm baffled by the weak box office for this so far. Are people just tired of all these spooky kid fliks lately? Both Paranorman and Hotel Transylvania were released recently, to more success than this. We saw Paranorman, and it was good, but nowhere near as great as this. Hotel got poor reviews, and I lost interest after seeing the trailer a million times. That has made a ton of money, though, which bothers me. Why do so many great movies get ignored while mediocre or crap movies make big dough? My point? Go see this movie! You won't be disappointed.