Frankenweenie, a film directed and produced by Tim Burton (“Corpse Bride” and “Nightmare Before Christmas”) is a black and white stop-motion animation film rendered in 3D that was inspired by classic horror films from the 1930’s such as “Frankenstein” and “Dracula”. Over 200 puppets and sets were created for the film and it took hundreds of artists several years to create.
Set in the town of New Holland, the story is about a boy named Victor Frankenstein and his beloved dog Sparky. Upon Victor’s father’s request, Victor joins a baseball team to “fit in” and make friends with other boys his age. During his first game, Sparky chases after the ball Victor hit out of the park and inevitably gets hit by a car and dies. Victor, a scientist at heart and inspired by his science teacher Mr. Rzykruski brings his beloved dog back to life. As Mr. Rzykruski warns, science can be used for good or evil and when put in the wrong hands can have disastrous consequences. Upon discovery of Sparky being brought back to life, several other neighborhood boys excavate and find other dead animals to bring back to life including a dead rat, a dead hamster, a dead turtle, a dead bat and sea monkeys. In a climatic over-the-top-death finale Mr. Whiskers (Weird Girl’s cat that can ominously predict events by letter shaped poop) turned black cat/bat is killed by stake; a horrifying visual depiction of violent death. Frankenweenie is rated PG.
Call me crazy, but I choose to raise my children in a safe, protected environment free of scary things, bad people and violence. Perhaps this seems naïve to some, but I want my children to have a pure and innocent childhood free of worry and fear; one in the intent that will turn them into loving, wholesome and trusting adults.
Frankenweenie is not a movie for children.
I do not believe that a movie intended for children should catapult a conversation that some children and their parents are not ready for.
I do not believe that movie intended for children should encroach on a few sacred childhood ideals.
Frankenweenie encroaches upon a special relationship that children have with their pets. Next to a child’s parents, family pets can serve as a very valuable emotional bond, one that is important in learning and exploring how to love. This relationship a child can have with a pet is a sacred childhood ideal. We can agree that death is hard for anyone to understand and accept but most especially to children. The death of a family pet can be devastating to children and leave them emotionally wounded.
Tim Burton explains: “The reason I originally wanted to make Frankenweenie was based on growing up and loving horror movies. But it was also the relationship I had when I was a child with a certain dog that I had. It’s a special relationship that you have in your life and very emotional. Dogs obviously don’t usually live as long as people, so therefore you experience the end of that relationship. So that, in combination with the Frankenstein story, just seemed to be a very powerful thing to me-a very personal kind of remembrance.”
Now, I understand Burton’s desire to explore his feelings about his childhood dog and perhaps use imagination in “what if” his beloved childhood dog could be brought back to life. But you know what? That is not real. And why do we, those that live in the real world with our real children have to watch someone’s beloved dog die and come back to life when that supernatural experience can’t be had in this real life. How are we going to explain to our children when our real beloved family pet dies that we can’t bring it back to life using science like Victor because that isn’t real? No, really?
©2012 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Photo by: Leah Gallo
I do not think movies intended for children should depict violence or death or any combination of the two. Frankenweenie depicts several animals dying in several scenes, some of which are violent.
With my opinion clearly being said, in preparation to write this review of a movie I do not feel is fit for children I thought in abundance about the people that spent hours and hours of their life creating and producing this film. Of course, I wondered what they were thinking and how they justified the violence and darkness of this film that was intended to be for children, but I digress. I do not want to discount or nullify their efforts. Frankenweenie is a visually beautiful film that was obviously done by talented masters of their skill. I was blown away by the stop-motion technology and the emotional depth of the film which was personified by the use of black and white. Frankenweenie is a movie for adults that love old classics, Tim Burton, Halloween, Art and Film. This is not a film for children.
Frankenweenie opens in theaters tomorrow October 5th, 2012.
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My family and I were invited to a media screening of Frankenweenie at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood, California last weekend. This is not a compensated or sponsored post. All opinions are my own obviously and do not reflect on Disney or Disney affiliates.
Wow. That was intense. I’m not sure I agree with sheltering your kids from stories that involve death and dying, but then I’m not sure how old they are. Either way, those are your values and you are right to support them. Thanks for a good review/commentary.
They are 2 and 5, however I wouldn’t let them watch this film even if they were 11 and 14 either. I don’t expect everyone to agree with my opinions about this film, but I felt the need to express it for those that do.
I just want to say that I really appreciate your honesty. So many people go to these screenings and just regurgitate the PR statement about it and I love that you had a distinct POV.
Thank you Trina, I appreciate you for appreciating my input 😉
I kind of feel like you are persecuting “fantasy” and imagination. Like the movie shouldn’t have been made because you really can’t bring a dog back to life and that is not fair?
I get you want to shelter your kids but my kids live in a world where my mom is dead and half of their other grandparents won’t pick up the slack and they see they are getting the shorter end of the stick than their cousins. Life isn’t perfect and it never will be but there are good times and bad times and balance is everything. I also kind of feel like you aren’t giving kids enough credit to know when something is real and something is not.
How will they learn to be “trusting” adults if you are lying to them about life? And wholesome? We never swore growing up. My siblings and I never got into trouble and always got good grades. But you know what? My parents never censored us either. We always went to PG-13 and R rated movies with them but what kept us “wholesome” was what our parents expected of us. Not what we watched.
Appreciate you not pulling any punches, though. Good on you. Not sure I could be that honest in a review.
I fully understand that real life situations will catapult difficult conversations about death with our children. That is something that unfortunately happens and it is not under our control. However, I do not agree with extraneous optional variables that are meant for “entertainment” to catapult these difficult feelings and conversations. Could I have chosen to not taken my children to see this movie? Oh absolutely and I quite honestly, I shouldn’t have. But since I did and I did not care for it, I felt it was my obligation to share my opinion with others so that they don’t have to experience the same situation (if they choose) that I did.
I am not lying to my children about life. This movie is lying to my children that beloved dead pets can be brought back to life when they can’t.
I think to put it in a nutshell on the conversation as to whether or not you are shielding your children from reality boils down to this, in MY opinon, you want the choice when to have these conversations with your children and should circumstances do not allow you the “choice” then in the comfort and familiarity of your own home or surroundings of your choice. No one knows a child better than their parent and that parent knows, to the best of their ability, the right time for their child to be exposed to the kind information/images this “entertainment” provided.
I’ve never been a fan of horror movies and perhaps that taints my view of this movie but I also happen to agree that the subject matter is “to much” for small children. Ain’t nothing wrong with wanting to surround your children with pretty pretty/butterflies/fluffy clouds……reality will always be there, lurking, and you can deal with it when it needs to be dealt with.
For those who feel differently and are in love with the horror movie genre…..ENJOY !
That is SO good to know. My six year old wants to see it. But I have no desire for him to be exposed to the material. And sometimes it is so hard to judge before hand. We ran into this problem with CARS 2. My kids were super excited and then it turned out to be way more violent than any of us expected. Thanks for the heads up!
What a beloved tale and excellent review!
Just read your review, and let me tell you that I totally agree with you about your post. I’m happy my kids were not to insisting on watching this movie because I really didn’t like the theme. We recently lost our pet rat and the hole idea that you can actually bring something that you really loved back to life is kind of creepy if you ask me. And how are you going to anwer all the questions that come after watching a movie like that. I believe that there are rigth ages for everything and the more we exposed the kids to things that are not supposed to be for kids is what is making the kids disensitized and then we wonder how is it that kids or teens can do things that they never did before. It’s the exposure to all this stuff that doesn’t really need to be in their lives yet!