Frankenweenie -2012- < HD >

On its surface, Frankenweenie is about a boy and his dog. Yet, the film offers one of the most accurate cinematic depictions of childhood bereavement. When Sparky is hit by a car (a scene rendered with shocking abruptness for a family film), Victor does not cry. Instead, he retreats into the language he understands best: science. The initial resurrection is not an act of hubris, but of desperate, logical love. Victor’s laboratory—an attic filled with Jacob’s ladders and Tesla coils—represents the child’s mind attempting to exert control over an uncontrollable universe.

Consistently throughout his career, Burton has championed the outsider. Frankenweenie is no exception. Victor is a pale, spike-haired introvert in a town of pastel, conformist neighbors. His parents, while loving, are bewildered by his obsession with death and electricity. The film’s visual language—sharp angles on Victor’s house versus the curved, soft edges of his neighbor’s homes—reinforces this alienation. Frankenweenie -2012-

Frankenweenie (2012) won the Saturn Award for Best Animated Film and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature (losing to Brave —a controversial loss that many animation historians still debate today). On its surface, Frankenweenie is about a boy and his dog