Frankenweenie

Based on Tim's short of the same name back in 1984 which got him fired by Disney for being considered way too scary (I have seen it & yeah, it is pretty dark, but it's still very good thanks to the heartwarming relationship between Victor & Sparky), 28 years later, he finally decided to bring it to the big screen in stop motion. Up against Hotel Transylvania & ParaNorman (which I'll also be reviewing) in 2012, this one was an interesting one for people for the reasons mentioned as it had been a while since Tim went back to stop motion. The film ended up nominated for an Oscar, Annie, BAFTA & a Golden Globe, but lost all of them to Brave & Wreck-It Ralph. On a brighter note though, it did win a Saturn Award for Best Animated Film. Now that Tim has gone back to stop motion a fourth time, will be be as good as his other works, or is it as painful as being struck by lightning? Let's find out!

Story: Honestly, while the plot is pretty much an extended version of the original short, it doesn't really do well as a movie. The main problem I have is that the main plot doesn't really hold up as a film & as a result, there are subplots going on & it goes against the original message of the short & the relationship between Victor & his dog isn't really as heartwarming (there is still some sweet scenes & it does deal with the death of a pet pretty realistically before Victor decides to revive Sparky.) & it ends up being like ET where he has to hide Sparky from his parents & the town. Also, the fact the father wants Victor to be a 'normal kid' is just cliched nowadays & very predictable. However, there are still some good things like the fact the set-up is more about the ideology of bringing animals back from the dead & it is interesting mostly thanks to the very quirky side characters & the fast paced action scenes during the climax. However, unfortunately, I don't think this version of Frankenweenie is as strong as the original short or Tim's other animated film despite his good intentions.

Animation: Yeah, like Corpse Bride & The Nightmare Before Christmas, the animation has the classic Gothic Tim Burton style & also paying tribute to the classic monster movies & not just because it's in black & white. The character designs this time round are much eccentric this time round & mostly pay tribute to the classic Universal monster movies like the Weird Girl (seriously, you can't stop staring at her freakishly ginormous eyes), E.Gor with a design similar Igor from Frankenstein & Nassor to Boris Karloff from the mentioned movie & Mr Ryzkruski being a caricatured version of Vincent Price. By the way is it me or does Elsa look a lot like Lydia from Beetlejuice (not saying much since she is voiced by Winona Ryder)? But that's nothing compared to the very creative monsters for the film after the kids' attempts at bringing animals back to life go horribly wrong, like the combination of Mr Whiskers & a bat, that werewolf monster, the sea monkeys being similar to the Gremlins & Shelley the turtle looking like Godzilla. As for the backgrounds, it's not that special or as creative as Tim's other works, but it does look nice for what it is. In fact, the area about suburbia actually kind of reminds me of Edward Scissorhand thinking about it! Overall, the animation in this is really good, but not as creative as Tim's other films.

Characters: I feel bad for saying that the characters aren't really as good as his other films because they do bring the film down. Victor is the cliched outcast with no development, his parents voiced by Catherine O'Hara & Martin Short are the cliched loving mum & dad who wants his son to be more normal, Elsa is pretty much a blank slate & doesn't contribute anything to the plot (I feel bad cos Winona Ryder is good in it & I was expecting her to be Victor's love interest when I first saw it, which did not happen) & Sparky is the cliched dog (OK, his relationship with Persephone is cute). As for the side characters, they are easily the most memorable parts of the film with the Weird Girl, voiced by an unrecognisable Catherine O'Hara with an eccentric personality & a freaky design, Edgar is Igor style character who is the first to know about Victor bringing Sparky to life & backstabs him by telling the other kids, Nassor, voiced by Martin Short (yeah, Martin & Catherine do play quite a few roles in this & they are very good), is the Boris Karloff-esque bully, Bob is the fat kid that wants to win the science fair with Toshiaki, who's the cynical & smart kid & pretty much nothing else. (OK, the scene where Shelley dies again proves he did miss her) Mr Rzykruski is the eccentric science teacher & is probably the most interesting adult character in the film as despite his eccentricity, his heart is in the right place & wants to inspire the kids to do science. Overall, despite the uninteresting main characters, the side ones manage to pick up the film & make it fun to watch!

 

 Overall, this isn't really Tim's best animated film, but it doesn't mean that it's bad. The animation is great, the quirky side characters avoid all of them from being unlikeable despite the main ones & there is some heartwarming & funny moments in the story along with a sweet message despite it not really being as strong as the short it's based on. I would recommend it to those who enjoy Tim's other works & the original Frankenweenie to give it a watch at least once because the positive aspects are still there despite the flaws. Just don't expect it to be his best work is all I'm saying.

Story: 6/10

Animation: 8/10

Characters: 7/10

Overall: 7/10

Corpse Bride

For today, I'm gonna do a Tim Burton double review with his stop motion films Corpse Bride & Frankenweenie! I already reviewed The Nightmare Before Christmas during my first animation advent calendar, so I thought it'd be fair that I review his other Halloween-esque movies! This one was released in 2005 & stars the quintessential actors he'd cast in his movies like Johnny Depp, Burton's wife Helena Bonham Carter, Christopher Lee, Michael Gough & Albert Finney along with British actors like Emily Watson, Joanna Lumley, Richard E Grant & Jane Horrocks. The film ended up being nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Feature, but lost of Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were Rabbit (wasn't really much competition though since I don't know anyone who doesn't like Wallace & Gromit), which coincidentally also starred Helena Bonham Carter! So can Tim Burton impress me again, or is his quirky gothic schtick getting too repetetive nowadays? Let's find out!

Story: The best way to describe this film in a nutshell is a tragic gothic love story. It is pretty clear what Tim wanted to focus on in this & it is done pretty well most of the time. Not only is the premise original & creative, but it also surprisingly manages to show a lot of emotional depth because of the character Emily & the tragedy behind her death & the consequences of it. I even enjoyed the relationship between Victor & Emily as it turns out they're more similar than expected (OK, it's a bit weird since it's technically necrophilia) & most of the time, it's pretty heartwarming. Another part I liked was the contrast between the land of the living & land of the dead, with the latter ironically looking more alive with more quirky side characters compared to the frigid Victorian style society of the living as the main characters try to get higher in the ranks of society thanks to the arranged marriage used as a framing device for the film. As for the humour, it can vary from being funny with the creative dead characters & the visual gags, some which make my eyes roll like a lot of puns & those which felt unecessary like the arbirtrary adult humour. However, like I said, it's done well for the most part. The main issue I have is the subplot with Lord Barkis trying to kill Victoria & being revealed to be Emily's killer (big shock). Not only is it predictable that he's the one that killed Emily, but there is also no explanation as to why he's evil, how he knew about Victor & Victoria's engagement & his subplot is entirely pointless. Seriously, you could easily take it out of the movie & it wouldn't be that much different! And the fact some characters & subplots like Victor's parents searching for him going absolutely nowhere doesn't help much either. And I know people have complained about the ending &, yeah, it does feel a bit unfinished, but I rather liked the ambiguity of it & it is nice to see Emily find inner peace after all the hell she's been through. But other than that, it's clear Tim put thought & effort into the film & as a little love story, it's pretty good!

 

Animation: Yeah, there's no denying that the animation in this is gorgeous! Not only does the classic Tim Burton Gothic style fit perfectly in a stop motion environment like in The Nightmare Before Christmas, but the attention to detail has greatly improved from the former. I don't think there'd be any other character design that would fit each character in this, with a more caricatured look to them & being similar to their respective voice actors (ESPECIALLY Victor & Emily), even if Lord Barkis kinda bugs me with his design making it blatantly obvious that he'd be the villain. Anyway, another massive upgrade would be from the character animation & it's pretty clear they had fun with it thanks to the wide variety of characters like the almost frigid movements of the upper class in the land of the living & the looser movements of the dead ones, with lots of creativity like on the spiders, that maggot, the skeletons or just animating a decapitated head moving! But possibly the best part in the animation is the backgrounds! Not only is it a great contrast with the lands of the dead & living thanks to the more angular Victorian style buildings & grey colour scheme of the living & the much more colourful & quirky land of the dead, but it also gives the film a much bigger scale & the architecture is just beautiful to look at! But when these two blend together, the contrast is much more exciting to see since it's bigger than you think! Honestly, I can't think of anything bad to say about the animation! This is an example of why stop motion should be more appreciated & I am glad Tim took full advantage of it like The Nightmare Before Christmas.

 

 

Characters: There isn't really much to say about the characters in this since they're probably the part you'd least remember (at least the main ones). Victor Van Dort, of course voiced by Johnny Depp, is a meek young man who. Honestly, he can come across as unlikeable towards Emily until he suddenly takes a liking to her after he finds out about his love Victoria. Well, Johnny does do a pretty good job. The other main character is Emily AKA the Corpse Bride, voiced by obviously Helena Bonham Carter, is probably the most interesting character in the film due to her rather tragic backstory of being murdered by her love after planning to elope with him, yet is still sweet & optimistic, if not naive with her marriage to Victor technically not being legal. I liked her & Helena's performance is amazing capturing a sweet & quirky yet tragic side & making her easily relateable. Victor's other love interest, Victoria, voiced by Emily Watson, is probably the most forgettable character as she's pretty much a copy of Victor. Well, at least she tries to help Victor when she discovers he's married to a corpse! Lord Barkis, voiced by Richard E. Grant, is probably the most cliched & blatantly obvious villain ever! He has no development whatsoever, there's no explanation as to why he wants to kill Victoria other than just for money (a cliche which I despise in villains) & is just there for the movie to have an antagonist. As for Victor's & Victoria's parents, they are pretty quirky & funny thanks to Albert Finney, Joanna Lumely, Tracey Ullman &, but my biggest gripe is that we never see them again after the final act! Seriously, the last time we see Victor's parents is when they look for him & Mayhew dies & they're never mentioned again & Victoria's parents aren't seen after they run away from the corpse of his great grandfather Everglot! The only exception in this case is Pastor Gallswells thanks to Christopher Lee's performance & it does not disappoint being the strict & cynical pastor with hilarious reaction shots & his booming voice makes him intimidating every time he's onscreen. As for the side characters (or the dead ones downstairs), they're easily the best part with fun personalities, quirky traits that only Tim could think of like Bonejangles (voiced by Danny Elfman), the Maggot, Paul the Head Waiter, Elder Gutnect, that Jane Horrocks widow spider & Mrs Plum! They're all highly memorable & funny whether it's their designs, the voice acting & the personalities. While the main characters aren't as memorable, thankfully the side characters & a well written Emily manage to even it out along with really good voice acting from everyone!

 

Songs: Yeah, this is also a musical & honestly, they feel unecessary! While they all have the same whimsical charm Danny Elfman is known for in his songs & score, they really don't have any relevance to the plot & are nowhere near as memorable as the music he did for the Nightmare Before Christmas! According to Plan doesn't do much to explain the characters or progress the plot, but is rather just there for exposition about the arranged marriage & the contrasting feelings between the bride & groom's parents. Remains of the Day is pretty catchy & is probably the best song in the film thanks to the jazz feeling & Danny Elfman's singing as Bonejangles & I do like the way it explains Emily's backstory. Tears To Shed isn't really as good since it's pretty much just there for the spider & maggot to make Emily feel better about herself. It doesn't really help Helena's singing voice isn't as strong (OK, she was pretty good in Sweeney Todd & Les Miserables) as the others. As for the Wedding Song, it was entirely pointless & unecessary & did nothing to progress the plot at all other than a quick montage of everyone preparing Victor & Emily's wedding! Although the score & songs themselves are whimsically good, they're sadly not as memorable as his other work & they mostly feel useless.

 

Corpse Bride may not be as strong as The Nightmare Before Christmas, but it's still a pretty good & solid attempt from Tim! The animation is gorgeous, some characters are quirky & likeable & the love story is original & emotionally bittersweet, but the addition of Lord Barkis as a villain, some of the main characters & the unecessary unfortunately bring it down. I would definitely recommend this for stop motion fans along with Tim Burton fans because it's definitely worth watching despite the flaws for this Halloween. I love to watch it every Halloween & it is nice to see stop motion be taken to it's full advantage cos I find it sad that it's not as appreciated as hand drawn animation or CGI nowadays!

Story: 8/10

Animation: 10/10

Characters: 7/10

Songs: 5/10

Overall: 8/10

Monster House

Since it's the Halloween season, I thought I'd review some Halloween themed animated movies! Since I already reviewed Hotel Transylvania last year, I looked up some more & I must say I'm surprised with how many there are! The first one I'm doing is Monster House, released back in 2006 & was Robert Zemeckis' next film after the success of The Polar Express. Now, I hadn't seen this in cinemas since it looked pretty scary, but I did ironically have the Game Boy Advance game of it which I never finished cos of how complicated the controls were. It was still crap, but anyway, starring Hannah Montana actor Mitchell Musso, Spencer Locke (Jane in that crap motion capture Tarzan movie), Steve Buscemi (Nucky Thompson from Boardwalk Empire) & Maggie Gyllenhaal, the film ended up being nominated for an Oscar against Happy Feet & Cars, but lost to the former. On a brighter note, it did earn back twice it's budget & is slowly growing a cult following! So can this film confront my fear of haunted houses, or is it as mediocre as the other Robert Zemeckis motion capture films? Let's find out!

Story: Considering how this film was aimed for kids, it's surprisingly dark! And it's not just because of the freaky imagery & atmosphere that plagues the film, but also because of the main themes. The central themes are actually done pretty well like growing up/puberty, loss/death, love & sacrifice, all of this shown through the characters DJ & Nebbercracker. I enjoy how much deeper the reasons for Nebbercracker being a grumpy jerk is & it has perfect opportunities for heartwarming moments, which it thankfully does (especially the flashback with Nebbercracker & his wife before she died) & it's executed pretty well. There are times where they put in comedy to make it less scary for kids & it can be pretty funny (i.e. the 'It's a girl's school' bit made me chuckle a bit) If I did have some flaws with the story, it would be the tonal shift between the comedy & the drama, especially shown through the character Chowder with some pretty crude jokes, attempts at adult humour, some of the characters acting like idiots & the climax is pretty silly with the house going on a rampage throughout the town & it feels like it was just there for some huge fight scene because the movie was into the third act. Despite them flaws, I don't have that many gripes with the plot since it's clear what the focus is on despite the tonal shift & it's executed well most of the time.

 

Animation: Since my thoughts on motion capture aren't all that great, I must say, this isn't all that bad! Instead of the character designs looking too realistic, they're given a much more stylized look with more caricatured features to avoid the eyes looking pretty much dead most of the time. The character animation is of course fluid & very realistic, but thankfully it's not as distracting as others like Mars Needs Moms or that Jim Carey A Christmas Carol film. The freaky imagery actually fits with the tone of the film & I do like the designs of the interior of the house to make everyday things look like the face like a carpet as the tongue, trees are arms & even the furnace being a heart. Even the town the characters live in has creepy old fashioned style to it! However, there are some issues I hav & it's mostly because of the texturing. It looks a bit too plastic-y, especially on the skin & clothes of the characters. But other than that, the animation done on this is pretty solid given that my relationship with motion capture films is pretty frosty at best.

 

Characters: When it comes to the characters, it's a very mixed bag! DJ, voiced by Mitchell Musso, is really the cliched nerdy kid Chowder is probably the worst character from the film as he's a jerk to his best friend, risks their lives, tries to get with Jenny even though it's obvious she likes DJ & says crude & annoying jokes! Token annoying side character fit to a T! Anyway, Jenny, voiced by Spencer Locke, may seem like the token girl/love interest, but she's shown to be smart, funny at times & her little romance with DJ is thankfully just a tiny subplot & they stay friends by the end. Mr Nebbercracker, voiced by Steve Buscemi, is probably the best character in the film as while he is seemingly an grumpy, angry old man, is actually doing it to protect other people thanks to the ghost of his wife attacking anyone & wanting to keep him forever. His development is very well done & Buscemi's performance is pretty amazing considering how big the age difference is between him & his character! There's also Zee, voiced by Maggie Gyllenhaal, who's pretty much a massive bitch towards DJ despite being his babysitter & never comes back after she sees Jenny. Seriously, she only appears during a post credits scene! Her boyfriend Bones, voiced by Jason Lee (AKA Syndrome) was just a creepy ass who looks like he's high all the time & is the first to be eaten by the house! Skull, voiced by John Heder, is just there to give exposition about the house so DJ can find a way to stop the house & is pretty much a lazy game addict who somehow gets with Zee during the post credit scene! The policemen voiced by Kevin James & Nick Cannon don't do much besides be strawmen who don't believe the kids at first but it comes back to bite them in the ass later & DJ's parents only appear at the beginning & the end of the film & don't do anything to progress the plot other than for DJ to have a reason & opportunity to investigate the house. Anyway, there's also Constance, voiced by Jessica Rabbit herself Kathleen Turner, Nebbercracker's wife who was in a circus due to her large size until he freed her & died when the house was under construction thanks to going in a rage when kids were making fun of her. Overall, it's a mix of good & bad characters either being likeable, annoying, funny or never mentioned again!

Thought I'd show you a bit of the motion capture process used from the film! Not sure I'd be able to take it seriously if I had to wear what looks like a wetsuit with dots all over my face!

Monster House may not be the best animated Halloween movie, but it's still better than the other Robert Zemeckis stop motion films out there. Heck, it's probably the best one! The story is kinda creative with nice themes despite some tonal shifts, the animation is good & some characters are likeable! I would recommend giving this a watch since the good things do make it worth watching, but just don't expect it to be the best Halloween animated film out there!
Story: 7/10
Animation: 7/10
Characters: 6/10
Overall: 7/10