Frankenweenie

Frankenweenie is an upcoming 3D black-and-white motion-animated film and remake of the 1984 live-action short film of the same name. Like the 1984 version, it is a parody of and an homage to the 1931 film Frankenstein based on Mary Shelley's book of the same name. In the film, a boy named Victor loses his dog and uses the power of science to bring it back to life. Once the others learn of his secret, they set out to create their own monsters, each based on their respective pets and personalities. It is being directed and produced by Tim Burton, and it is scheduled for release on October 5, 2012.

Plot
After the death of his beloved dog Sparky, young Victor harnesses the power of science to bring him back to life. Victor tries to hide his creation, but Sparky gets out and causes havoc in the town.

Cast
Humans
 * Charlie Tahan as Victor Frankenstein, a child scientist who brings his pet bull terrier, Sparky back to life.
 * Winona Ryder as Elsa van Helsing, a kind girl who is Victor's next-door neighbor, one of his classmates, & love interest.
 * Catherine O'Hara as Susan Frankenstein, Victor's Mother / Weird Girl, an eccentric girl who is one of Victor's classmates and she is secretly in love with Edgar. / Gym Teacher
 * Martin Short as Ben Frankenstein, Victor's father / Nassor, Toshiaki's partner and Victor's other enemy, who has a flat head inspired by Frankenstein's monster. / Mr. Bergermeister, the grumpy Mayor of New Holland, the Frankensteins' next-door neighbor, and Elsa's uncle.
 * Martin Landau as Mr. Rzykruski, the new eccentric but wise science teacher at Victor's school who speaks in a thick Eastern European accent. He is the one who inspires Victor to bring Sparky back to life, and acts as a mentor to Victor.
 * Atticus Shaffer as Edgar "E" Gore, a deformed, igor-like child and one of Victor's classmates & Weird Girl's love interest, but is unaware that she is in love with him. He's the first to know of Victor's success in bringing Sparky back to life.
 * Robert Capron as Bob, an obese kid and one of Victor's classmates.
 * James Hiroyuki Liao as Toshiaki, Victor's enemy and one of his classmates.
 * Conchata Ferrell as Bob's mother, an obese and stereotypical suburban housewife who dotes upon her son. She believes in the status quo, and that her misguided actions are in Bob's best interest.
 * Tom Kenny as Fire Chief / Soldier / Townsfolk
 * Christopher Lee (uncredited) as Dracula

Development
Although Tim Burton signed with Disney to direct two films in Disney Digital 3D, including Alice in Wonderland and his remake of Frankenweenie, development for its full-length stop motion version dates as far back as November 2005, when scripts had been written by Josann McGibbon and Sara Parriott. but was not hired until January 2009. Like the original, the feature version is to be shot in black and white. Many of the animation artists and crew from Corpse Bride are involved. In addition to remaking his earlier project, Burton is also borrowing heavily from his design from the titular character of Family Dog for Sparky.

Filming
Filming began at Three Mills Studios in July 2010. The crew created three giant sound stages, including Victor's cluttered family attic, a cemetery exterior, and a high school interior. The sound stages were then divided into 30 separate areas to deal with the handcrafted, frame-by-frame style of filmmaking. Compared to other stop-motion animation sets, Frankenweenie ' s set is much larger. As IGN notes, the main character Sparky had to be "'dog-size' compared to the other human characters, but also large enough to house all the elements of the mechanical skeleton secreted within his various foam and silicon-based incarnation." On the other hand, the mechanics are small and delicate, and in some instances they had to have Swiss watchmakers create the tiny nuts and bolts. Around 200 separate puppets were used, with roughly 18 different versions of Victor. The puppets also have human hair, with 40–45 joints for the human characters and about 300 parts for Sparky.

Release
The film was initially set for release in November 2011, before Disney moved it to March 9, 2012. In January 2011, Box Office Mojo announced the film's new release date for October 5, 2012 with John Carter replacing the film for the once planned March 9, 2012 release. The film premiered on September 20, 2012, on the opening night of Fantastic Fest, an annual film festival in Austin, Texas. The film opens the London Film Festival on October 10th in the UK.

Marketing
In the lead up to the film's release in October, there will be a travelling art exhibition detailing the work that has gone into creating the film. During the exhibition it will be possible to see sets and characters that were used for the stop motion feature film.

From September 14 to November 5, Disney California Adventure will be offering exclusive scenes from the film during Muppet*Vision 3D's nighttime operating hours.

Music
The "inspired by" soundtrack album, Frankenweenie: Unleashed!, as well as Danny Elfman's Frankenweenie: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, was released by Walt Disney Records on September 25, 2012. Frankenweenie: Unleashed! contains bonus content that includes a custom icon and an app that will load a menu to view more the bonus content, provide input, or buy more music from Disney Music Group.

Reception
So far, the film has received generally positive reviews. Rotten Tomatoes gives it a score of 80%.

Links

 * Frankenweenie on the Frankenweenie Wiki.
 * Frankenweenie on the Tim Burton Wiki.
 * IMDb page