Frankenweenie both (1984) and (2012)

Rating: 65%
Okay so this past Monday, one of my best friends who is a big Tim Burton fan and I went to see Frankenweenie in theaters. But shortly before he picked me up for that, I found a youtube link were I could quickly watch the short film that it's based off of. So here's my review for both the short and full-length films of Frankenweenie.

Plot: Victor Frankenstein is a young boy who has a dog named Sparky who is also his best friend. But after Sparky gets hit by a car, Victor is left heartbroken and is wishing nothing less then to have Sparky back. So when he learns a few things about electricity in his science class, he gets the idea to take Sparky's body and create an invention to bring him back to life. He succeeds in resurrecting him, but he wants it to become a secret for fear of how people will react. But eventually Sparky is discovered and that's where things get out of control for him and Victor.

Now the short film I thought was just nice. It was cute and fun and is easily a kind of film for kids to enjoy. However one issue I have is how similar it is to Frankenstein. I mean I know that's the idea, but they set the story to make it a little too similar, particularly when it comes to the climax of the film. But all the same it's still a cute, simple short film that is a nice little time for kids to enjoy.

Rating: 75%

Okay now I'm going to be completely honest; when I first saw the trailer to this film, I didn't think it was going to be all that great. I just thought it was going to be cheesy plain and simple and that while it wasn't going to be Razzie worthy, it still wasn't going to be that great. And by the time I finished watching the short film, I felt that way a little more because it made it seem like the idea of the story was too simple to actually work as a full-length movie. But surprisingly, I was proved wrong. I mean the first half of the movie was generally predictable considering how much it was basically most of what happens in the short film. But what happens in the second half- while not too incredibly original - actually made the movie a whole lot better. I mean during the first half of the movie, Burton did give us a fair amount of supporting characters that were pretty good, and then what he ends up using them for in the second half of the movie - I won't give anything away to those who haven't seen it of coarse - I thought was a really clever. The idea may not have been entirely explained per say, but altogether it made me go "...okay...I can dig this. This works as a full-length film." And also the animation was really good, particularly with Mr. Rzykruski, who both in terms of being a character but mostly with his appearance was creepy as frick.

So that's my review for both the short and full-length films of Frankenweenie. The short film may have been a little too similar to Frankenstein, but it was a nice simple fun film. And while the full-length film had his predictability due to mostly the first half, the second half makes up for it with good supporting characters and a climax that makes the idea of Frankenweenie as a full length film far more interesting. Both are good, the full-length one is better, but you'll probably have a nice fun time watching either one.