7.3 | / 10 |
Users | 4.1 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.1 |
“Frankenweenie” is a heartwarming tale about a boy and his dog. After unexpectedly losing his beloved dog Sparky, young Victor harnesses the power of science to bring his best friend back to life—with just a few minor adjustments. He tries to hide his home-sewn creation, but when Sparky gets out, Victor’s fellow students, teachers and the entire town all learn that getting a new “leash on life” can be monstrous.
Starring: Charlie Tahan, Winona Ryder, Catherine O'Hara, Martin Short, Martin LandauFamily | 100% |
Animation | 88% |
Fantasy | 58% |
Comedy | 39% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.84:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: DTS-HD HR 7.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
English, English SDH, French, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
It was beginning to look like Tim Burton's feature-length Frankenweenie, the long-gestating adaptation of the director's own 1984 live-action short film of the same name, was never going to claw its way out of production hell. Deemed too frightening for children and buried by Disney upon completion, the original Frankenweenie short didn't make its U.S. debut until 1994, where it proceeded to slowly but surely garner a cult following. And rightfully so. Sharp, lean and surprisingly moving, Burton's short film is less detached and more emotionally involving than many of his more recent films and remains one of his most effective and timeless, despite its length and relative obscurity. Alas, young Victor Frankenstein and his reanimated pup would have been better off in their shallow grave. The new Frankenweenie is a gorgeous undertaking, I'll admit, brimming with striking hand-crafted artistry, marvelous miniatures and truly impressive production design. But at a bloated 87-minutes, the story itself is little more than a cold, hollow expansion of Burton's original short, while his once very human characters, rendered stiff and stilted with lanky toothpick bodies and corpse-like faces, fail to connect.
A boy and his dog...
Frankenweenie ascends to top-tier heaven with a stunning 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentation that looks every bit as good as it should. Crisp, clean whites, gorgeous gray gradients and rich, inky blacks lend the image a wonderful sense of depth and dimensionality, often to incredibly lifelike ends. Contrast is vibrant and unwavering as well, and detail is nothing short of flawless. Edges are clean and refined (without any unsightly ringing), perfectly resolved fine textures reveal every nuance of the clothes, models and sets that appear, and delineation doesn't falter. Moreover, significant macroblocking, banding, aliasing, noise and other abominations are nowhere to be found, and crush isn't an issue (save when lightning strikes, which leads to split-second bursts of hot white light). As it stands, I'd be hard pressed not to give Frankenweenie a second chance, if only to marvel at its visual tricks and treats one more time. No matter your reaction to the film itself, this is one presentation you won't soon forget.
Disney's video presentation isn't the only thing that will pull you into New Holland. Frankenweenie boasts a terrific and terrificly enveloping DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 surround track sure to stir up a few oohs and aahs of its own. Dialogue is clear, nicely centered and impeccably prioritized (despite the slightly detached quality inherent to the film's original sound design), and voices are never lost or buried, even when chaos invades Victor's quiet town. The LFE channel knows when to sit back and when to storm forward too, granting believable weight to low-end elements and power and presence to anything that demands more intense, earth-shaking support. Likewise, rear speaker activity is robust and aggressive, filling each environment and locale with natural ambience and engaging atmosphere, key scenes with neck-twisting directional effects, and the climactic third act with scampering creatures, billowing flames, collapsing ceilings and desperate cries for help. All the while, dynamics are excellent, the soundfield is consuming and cross-channel pans are frighteningly smooth. As animated AV presentations go, Frankenweenie delivers on all fronts.
Once a bold visionary, Burton seems to have lost touch with much of what made his early films so wondrous and his most memorable characters so achingly human. Frankenweenie should be a moving masterwork in stop-motion storytelling. It should be the heartbreaking, perhaps even heartwarming tale of a boy and his dead dog. Instead, it's a stilted, cumbersome expansion of a short film with more heart and soul in its thirty minutes than Burton's feature-length adaptation musters in ninety. Fortunately, Disney's Blu-ray release doesn't go silently into the night. Its video presentation is outstanding, its DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 surround track impresses, and its supplemental package, though lacking in some regards, delivers thanks to a first-rate production documentary. Frankenweenie may have left me cold, but its Blu-ray release did not. If you have any love for Burton's latest, you'll be taken by Disney's efforts.
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