We recently watched Tim Burton's Frankenweenie in my Frankenstein and Film class, and it was super cute in a creepy sort of way. It's sweet; it's funny; it's clever. There are so many references to other Frankenstein films, the original novel, and monster movies in general. Shelly the pet turtle, Edgar E. Gore, Percephone's Bride of Frankenstein hairdo, Godzilla rampaging and crushing a car. And of course, there's the usual Tim Burton visual vibe of tall, gaunt, pale, spindly legged people. Everyone in town is distinctive, but the best representation of this is a character whose name on the script is just "Weird Girl."
Weird Girl
My favorite character is Mr. Rzykruski (no I can't pronounce his name), the science teacher styled after Vincent Price. There is a (mild spoiler) great scene in which the towns people/mob are gathered at a parent meeting to question whether this science stuff is healthy for their children. They accuse him of being a monster (figurative, not literal, need to clarify for this movie), but they give him a chance to defend himself, and he basically calls them ignorant, small-minded, fools and proceeds to use cracking-head-open imagery to describe his teaching. So he basically plays right into the town's preconceived prejudices about him, and I can't decide if he did that intentionally or not. Since I can't find the clip of the parent meeting, here's a clip of one of Mr. Rzykruski's science lessons, just so you can get a feel for his character.
Frankenweenie is a great adapation of the Frankenstein story. So go forth and watch it on Netflix or Amazon Prime or Redbox or wherever you watch things.
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