I was curious about Tim Burton’s “kids’ movie” because it
was in Black-and-white 3D. “Frankenweenie”,
with voiced-over puppets and “real-looking” suburban surroundings, is pretty a
satire of both 50s horror films and of 50s-style science and “Levittown”
suburban life. Victor (Charlie Tahan) dearly loves his dog Sparky and has the
troubles as a kid with fitting in to the expectations of future manliness (like
playing sports). The kid comforts
himself and protects himself from bullies by taking Sparky everywhere.
One day at a baseball game, right after Sparky’s nemesis, a
judgmental white cat, shows up in the spectator stands, and on the “good old
two-strike pitch”, Victor (shocking everyone) clobbers a towering home run. Before he runs the bases, Sparky runs through
a hole in the outfield fence to get the ball and gets hit by a car.
In the meantime, Victor is tantalized by the gaunt middle
school science teacher (Martin Landau), and soon tries an experiment (inspired
by Benjamin Franklin) with the dog’s carcass (taken from the grave) and
lightning in a Pennsylvania thunderstorm.
(Is this a “positive lightning strike”?)
The dog comes back to life, and pretty soon other kids want to try
experiments with other animals. The teacher makes a comment about relativity,
to the effect that the observer (his attitude, or love for the animal) can
affect the outcome. Mayhem ensues, as the movie soon mocks both “
Blood of
Dracula” and “
Horror of Dracula” along with “
Young Frankenstein” (which I saw
at the old St. Marks theater in the East Village in the 70s with a “date”), and
“
Mill of the Stone Women”, and even the notorious Japanese flick “
The Giant
Behemoth”. Unfortunately, the cat does
not come out as well from the rampage as does the dog Sparky, and I’m a
believer in equal time for cats.
The film's opening is notable: Victor's family is watching an 8mm home movie reel of the kids playing with a model city of cardboard buildings, like the kind I used to build in my own basement (or that we kids built behind grandma's house along the walk to the outhouse in Ohio back in the 50s), with the dog running through it.
In 3-D, the detail in this film is just out of this world,
most of all in the baseball scene.
Disney’s official site is
here.
I saw this Columbus Day afternoon in a small auditorium at
Regal in Arlington. Even in the smaller auditorium, there is more room for
screen than is allowed. I wish Regal
would publish online on which screen each performance is shown.

For today’s short film, try the 20-minute impromptu “
Inner
Child”, (dir. J. D. Walsh) with Jason Greene and Reid Ewing and a few guest performers. The film (looks like San Francisco) stays completely within PG-13
territory (almost just PG) and explores the joy of a relationship for the psychological
benefit of two young adults who live it, rather than from what society wants to
make of or recognize legally in it. Reid
says something like, “I have to be able to satisfy myself before I can satisfy
anyone else”. We seem to have a cultural
divide over this in the debate over marriage: should someone be his own person
first before getting married, or because of marriage? The YouTube link (free, Igigistudios, 2 parts)
is
here. (Note: the video has become private; perhaps it will be offered "for pay" in a DVD or streaming, or Amazon, etc.; I'll post when I find out.)
There is a "sequel" to "Inner Child" called "
Reidoing", dating to Oct. 2012, a spoof on emulating Julie Andrews, being "who you are", and "street smarts over book smarts". Reid and Jason star, and there is no way for Jason's character to "change". Just "climb every mountain." Donald Trump would approve. It's easy to find on YouTube under Reid's name. One must say that the relationship between Reid and Jason follows the "Polarities" (see Books blog, book by Rosenfels, April 12, 2006).
Note (July 30, 2013): "Inner Child" is now available on the new site belonging to "Igigi" Productions.
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