From April 21, 2013
SCORE: B
Overall I liked this movie. I think one of the best things about it is that it was filmed in Black and White. Thank you! I think we need more B&W films. I’m kind of tired of color. I see color every time I open my eyes. B&W films seem instantly more nostalgic and artistic. (btw, I still have yet to see “The Artist”, another recent B&W film).
The film has no songs that anyone sings, which I did sort of miss. One of the best things about “Nightmare Before Christmas” are its songs. Anywho, I liked “Frankenweenie”, just not nearly as much as “Nightmare Before Christmas”.
PROS:
• The film is in Black and White! Awesome!
• Sparky is visually appealing and animated very well
• Victor makes home movies
• Victor’s dad is voiced by Martin Short in one of his only non-annoying film roles.
• I loved seeing Christopher Lee’s Dracula movie on TV in one scene.
• When Victor is sewing Sparky together, they have a cool shot of his cast shadow on the ceiling.
• This film, being a Disney film, is never too gruesome. When Sparky is killed, his body is never shown. When Victor digs him up, it’s seen from far off.
• During the electrical storm scene, the music reminded me most of the score from Burton’s 1989 “Batman”.
• There’s a funny twist with the pet named Colossus
• The rat monster, sea monkeys, and the fat kid look like “Nightmare Before Christmas” character designs.
• There’s a movie theater playing “Bambi”
• The burning windmill ending is just like in “Frankenstein”
CONS:
• Victor as a puppet is not as expressive as other characters in the film.
• The filmmakers should have had Zero’s tombstone in the New Holland Pet Cemetery somewhere. Sigh. Missed opportunity. Although there is a pet’s tombstone named “Shelley” in a nod to Mary Shelley, the writer of “Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus”.
• For some reason the bat-cat rubbed me the wrong way. I just didn’t like it as a monster.
NIETHER PRO NOR CON:
• All the kids in New Holland are weird emo kids.
• Victor reminds me of Johnny Depp
• There’s a remark in the film about Pluto not being a planet anymore
• The dead fish that is brought back to life becomes invisible… Why? It is never explained. Later, it disappears entirely. This is also never explained.
• Is it coincidence that the Japanese kid raises a quasi-Godzilla-looking pet back to life?
• The jerk mayor of the town reminds me of Rudy Giuliani. No? It is just me?
