Victor Frankenstein is the protagonist of Tim Burton's 1984 short Frankenweenie and its 2012 animated feature film of the same name.
Development[]
History[]
Victor Frankenstein is the titular character of Mary Shelley's novel. He is a Swiss scientist who becomes obsessively convinced that he can bring the dead back to life, or rather, create life through means of chemistry and biology. Through ambiguous means, he assembles a body composed of previously deceased men (implied to have been criminals) and succeeds in creating life, but becomes horrified by his creation and turns it away.
Victor soon becomes remorseful after the Creature, referred to as "The Daemon" throughout the novel, begins killing those closest to him. He forces Victor to create a bride, but when he refuses, the Creature kills his fiance Elizabeth. Victor chases him to the North Pole where he is found by an explorer whom he relates his tale to. Victor dies and the Creature, saddened by his death takes his body deep into the winter wasteland.
Along with his monster companion, as well as other literary scares such as Dracula, Dr. Frankenstein has become an icon and has been portrayed by numerous actors. The famous 1931 film adaptation, directed by James Whale, starred Colin Clive as the doctor and gave him a hunchbacked assistant named Fritz (commonly mistaken as Igor) while the 1957 film by Terrence Fisher starred Peter Cushing in a more sinister depiction.
Description[]
Victor Frankenstein is a clever and industrious 11-year old boy who is inspired by science. He lives with his parents and dog, Sparky, in the town of New Holland. Victor immerses himself in making films and inventing in his attic workshop. When Sparky dies in a car accident, Victor uses scientific ingenuity to bring him back to life.
Appearances[]
Frankenweenie (2012)[]
Victor is shy, introverted, brilliantly creative, and exceptionally intelligent. He spends most of his time with his dog or up in the attic where he works on his science experiments. He also appears to harbor a crush on his neighbor, Elsa Van Helsing, a somber yet soulful girl whose uncle is the mayor of New Holland; although confirmation is never cleared. Their dogs Sparky and Persephone, however, are another story entirely. In the ending, Victor shows a heroic side that is not shown at first due to his shyness, and the apparent need to work alone.
Victor is first seen watching Sparky's movie with Sparky himself being a star on his own movies only for the film to stop, just as Victor and his family are impressed of Sparky's participation while Victor plans to fix the film reel on the camera that played Sparky's movie. The next day, Victor stumbles upon Mr. Burgermeister who is upset of Sparky who made a mess on his yard while continuing to play fetch with him just as he continues his way to school where he attends Mr. Rzykruski's class. After class ends, Mr. Rzykruski hands a permission slip for a science fair for his students if they want to attend just as Victor and the other students leave. Victor later approaches Weird Girl she tells him that her pet cat Mr. Whiskers had a dream about him last night, thinking that something big might happen just as Victor finds no interest in her before returning home. When he returns home, he encounters Edgar "E" Gore who is curious of his opportunity to participate in the science fair, telling him that he must have a partner to participate, offering him to pick Edgar as a partner, which Victor tells him that the use of death rays is not allowed when participating, telling him that he works alone. During dinner, Victor tells his father to know if he can sign a permission slip for the science fair which his father tells his wife and his son about the importance of compromise, telling him of a conflicting case between the science fair and baseball.
The next day during a game of baseball, Victor's father tells his son to study what Toshiaki is doing in never losing his concentration where Victor is next during a game of baseball. Victor attempts to hit the ball, but Sparky catches it, just as his father tells Victor to tie Sparky to the bleachers so that he won't be a distraction. After Victor gets one stroke during baseball, he remembers what Mr. Rzykruski told him, telling him that when conducting an experiment, it is important to keep trying, telling him that it is all right to fail as long as one keeps trying. During Victor's turn where he is next, he hits a baseball after two strikes and gets a home run, but Sparky suddenly comes loose and attempts to retrieve a ball on the road, unaware of a car about to hit him. As Sparky retrieves the ball, he is suddenly hit by the car, killing Victor's dog as Victor fearfully reacts to the loss of his dog. That night, Victor and his family take Sparky to his grave in the pet cemetery where Victor mourns the loss of his dog. While Victor's parents leave, Victor continues to mourn over his dog's death. Back at home, Victor's mother comforts her son telling him that Sparky will be in his heart, but Victor prefers to have Sparky with him. Later, Victor watches his home movies where Sparky was a star before he was killed.
The next day during a demonstration of experimenting electricity on a frog to see how it reacts to electricity using cable wiring and connecting the frog to a battery, Victor draws a picture of his late dog while Mr. Rzykruski teaches his students of how a motionless frog's limbs react to the process of electricity, which the subject inspires Victor to bring his dog back to life. Using various appliances, Victor returns to the New Holland Pet Cemetery where his dog was buried just as Victor arrives at Sparky's grave in a plan to revive him. He then digs onto Sparky,s grave and grab his remains to take him home passing by his parents watching a scary movie together while Victor continues bringing Sparky's body upstairs. Feeling inspired from the science lesson he had during class, Victor plans to use a kite to wait for lightning to hit his contraption to revive his dog. As Victor start planning to revive his dog with the electricity flowing during a stormy night, as a result of the lightning striking the kites to revive his dog with the electricity flowing. Victor then uses his stethoscope on Sparky to notice signs of life, which Sparky's tail starts wagging, finding out that Victor has successfully brought him back to life, albeit stitched up during Victor's plan to revive his dog.
The next day, Victor's mother is calling her son for breakfast which Victor hides his dog to avoid being seen by his mother while her son offers him waffles for breakfast. Just as his mother leaves, Victor tells Sparky to stay here so people wouldn't see him just as he goes out for a walk, unaware of Sparky chasing Mr. Whiskers across the garden as well as Sparky escaping from his owner's house.
Later when Victor goes out for a walk, he leaves Sparky in the attic only for Sparky to be distracted upon seeing Mr. Whiskers through a window just as he chases him across New Holland. Back at the attic, Victor leaves Sparky on the attic when Victor comes downstairs where Edgar finds out that his dog is alive after meeting him in the school earlier. Back upstairs when Edgar meets Victor upstairs on showing him the process of reviving his dog, he tells Victor to show him how the process works by using a dead goldfish as an example which reminded Victor of bringing Sparky to life while the plan to revive the goldfish was successful, albeit turning into an invisible fish. Later when Edgar returns to Victor to help him fix the fish problems which Victor returns to the attic in a plan to fix the problem only to find Sparky who is safe all along.
The next day, Victor leaves Sparky home, telling him that he cannot risk anyone seeing him again to which after while he plans to catch up with Edgar at the New Holland Elementary School. After Victor returns home, he encounters Sparky who is all right after all, noticing that he maintained his best staying there. That night, Victor approaches Sparky who is trying to interact with Elsa's dog Persephone and as Elsa overhears, she tells Victor that he must really miss his pet dog. The next day when the gym teacher takes over Mr. Rzykruski's position as science teacher just as Rzykruski plans to leave, Victor discusses with him, which Mr. Rzykruski tells him that he should be a scientist like what he did before where Victor recaps of his first time doing a science experiment as Victor's teacher replies to him that people think science is here but it is also here in his experience high Victor remembers his first time experimenting before his teacher left. Mr. Rzykruski then replies to Victor that science is neither good or bad, but it can be used both ways, telling him to experiment carefully just before leaving. When Victor returns home, he finds Sparky in the attic where he tries to calm him down, which his pet dog escapes again. As Sparky escapes, Victor's father is very furious with his son that he did was a very serious thing crossing the boundary between life and death in reanimating a dog corpse, which Victor tells his parents that he wanted to bring his dog back all along while his mother devises a plan to find Sparky and make sure he is safe after a little talk while his father agrees.
In a plan to find Sparky, Victor tells his parents to check the town square while Victor himself plans to check on the park. As Victor enters the baseball field, he tries to find his pet dog, but finds no sign of him. Just as Victor continues exploring the cemetery, he finally finds Sparky who is hiding behind his own tomb just as Victor reunites with him, telling him to make a promise not to escape again. After reuniting with Sparky, Victor shines his flashlight upon Shelley's grave, followed by Colossus' mausoleum while Bob who hides outside the cemetery sees Victor from a distance, just as Victor tries to help him just as Bob and Toshiaki alert Victor to take care of the Sea-Monkeys and Shelley. During battle, Victor and Bob hide inside a tent while being ambushed by the Sea-Monkeys where they plan to distract them with popcorn using a popcorn machine, where the mutated creatures consume the popcorn, killing all of the remaining Sea-Monkeys, followed by Sparky taking over a mutated rat attacking Elsa which is suddenly killed when it bites a screw on Sparky's left side on his head, killing the rat and reverting it to its lifeless form. Seeing Toshiaki being attacked by Shelley, Victor plans to mix liquid which spilled from a keg with wiring to produce electricity successfully saving Toshiaki who is being attacked by Shelley.
Escaping the fair, Victor hides inside a windmill to find Elsa trapped and held hostage by Mr. Whiskers who was mutated while Mr. Burgermeister leading an angry mob continues chases Sparky atop a hill into the windmill where they attempt to kill Victor's dogs; a man suddenly ties up Sparky in a rope while Mr. Burgermeister raises his torch to burn the windmill while planning to look for his niece just as Victor attempts to rescue Elsa only to be attacked by Mr. Whiskers while Sparky, who frees himself, wrestles the mutated cat to save his owner. Victor then uses a rope to rescue Elsa and Persephone which Elsa is suddenly reunited with her uncle. Victor attempts to escape, but is suddenly attacked by Mr. Whiskers where the two tumble on the building and then crash into the side of a windmill just as Sparky brings his owner to safety only for Mr. Whiskers to drag Sparky ack into the burning windmill only for a falling beam to crash onto Mr. Whiskers which kills him and later Sparky being crushed by falling debris, much to Victor's sadness.
Later after the firefighters rescued Sparky from the burning windmill, everyone uses cables on Sparky to revive him while Victor approaches Sparky to know if he is all right thanks to the electricity planning to revive him just as he searches for signs of life only for Victor to fear that he would let Sparky be in his heart. All of a sudden, Sparky comes back to life, making his owner happy once again.
Once Upon a Time[]
Victor appears on Once Upon a Time, played by David Anders. Dr. Victor Frankenstein is a scientist who believes magic to be inferior to science. He is the older brother of Gerhardt and the son of Alphonse.
In the Land Without Color, Victor originally seeks a way to restore life to the dead but has his funding pulled by his father. Rumplestiltskin offers him gold in exchange for the scientific method on how to revive the dead as magic could not. Victor robs a grave for body parts to experiment on but is caught by Gerhardt who is shot by a police officer. As Victor attempts to bring Gerhardt back to life, electricity cannot revive him, so Rumplestiltskin instead offers a heart from the Enchanted Forest. As part of a bargain, he creates a false attempt to reanimate Daniel to make it easier for Rumplestiltskin to manipulate her. In his own world, Frankenstein reanimates his brother with the heart, thus creating Frankenstein's Monster, who beats Alphonse to death. Victor imprisons the Monster until he can devise a way to help the Monster overcome his psychotic rage. When the Evil Queen cast her curse, Victor is sent to the Land Without Magic.
In Storybrooke, he is Dr. Whale, a doctor working in Storybrooke General Hospital. He originally assists Regina Mills, doing whatever she says without hesitation. After the curse is broken, he leads a mob to Regina's home intending to kill her. Victor later seeks a way to return to his brother, believing if he were to do something for Regina she would bring him back. He successfully reanimates Daniel's corpse with a magical heart, turning him into a monster who savagely rips off Whale's arm. Mr. Gold later reattaches his arm. He is transported back to the Land Without Color when Regina undid her curse.
After Snow White cast a new curse, somehow, Victor returns to Storybrooke, resuming his position as the doctor at the hospital. He also helps deliver Mary Margaret's and later Zelena's baby. He later helps Dr. Jekyll with his experiments to create a new serum to defeat the Evil Queen.
Trivia[]
- Victor is based on Mary Shelley's Doctor Victor Frankenstein, the creator of the monster from the novel Frankenstein.
- Victor Frankenstein looks like a child version of Victor Van Dort from Tim Burton's 2005 film Corpse Bride. On a related note, both characters had and lost their dog at a young age. However, both characters had their dog returned back to them from the dead.
- In Once Upon a Time, Frankstenstein goes by the name "Dr. Whale", in Storybrooke. This is a reference to director James Whale, who directed Frankenstein (1931) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935).
Gallery[]
Frankenweenie[]
Once Upon a Time[]
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