March 6, 1992 – Tim Burton’s Short Film, Frankenweenie, is Released With the Live-Action Film, Blame it on the Bellboy.
“I guess we can’t punish Victor for bringing Sparky back from the dead.”
Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie, although completed in 1984, was released on a double bill with the live-action film, Blame it on the Bellboy, on March 6, 1992. Filmed in black and white, the short is an homage to horror films of the 1930s, with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as its base inspiration. The short is the story of a young boy named Victor Frankenstein, who brings his dog back to life after a tragic accident. The short was directed by Tim Burton, with the screenplay by Lenny Ripps, and stars Barret Oliver as Victor Frankenstein, Shelley Duvall as Susan Frankenstein, Daniel Stern as Ben Frankenstein, and Sparky as himself. Tim Burton was fired from Disney after the film was finished; studio heads felt the film was too scary for young audiences and that resources had been wasted making the short. A new full-length version of this short, which will be closer to Tim Burton’s original story idea, is set for release in October 2012.
The short opens with a film entitled “MONSTERS from Long Ago” by Victor Frankenstein, starring Sparky as the titular monster. The camera pans out to see the Frankenstein family and some friends watching a home movie. Meanwhile the son, Victor, goes outside to play with his dog, Sparky. Victor throws a baseball and Sparky, running to retrieve it, is struck by a car.
Victor is inspired by his teacher's science experiment
The next scene shows Victor and his parents in a pet cemetery, paying their last respects to Sparky. Victor falls into a deep depression. When his friends ask if he’ll get another dog, Victor says that he doubts that he could ever find another one like Sparky. In science class, Victor is unable to pay attention, as he draws pictures of Sparky in his notebook. The science teacher, however, is about to give a lesson on electricity and the central nervous system, pulling out a frog corpse. When the teacher proposes introducing electricity into the frog’s system, Victor suddenly pays attention. Seeing the frog’s legs move, Victor is inspired, thinking that this is the way to bring Sparky back.
Victor reads several books for research, including Life After Death, On Death and Dying, Modern Chemistry, and Electricity and the Creation of Life. He then begins gathering appliances in the house, beginning with the toaster, until he has constructed a lab in his attic. One night, after pretending to be ready for bed, Victor pulls a shovel out from under his bed and sneaks out to the pet cemetery to dig up Sparky. He hurries home through the rain with Sparky’s corpse and sets about trying to bring the dog back to life, in the same manner as his namesake, Dr. Frankenstein. But nothing seems to happen. Victor brings the corpse back downstairs, believing that he has failed, until he feels the dog licking his hand.
Ben Frankenstein discovers Sparky and Victor hiding out in the attic, unbeknownst to the pair
The next morning, Victor claims he doesn’t feel very well and asks to stay home from school. His parents see right through his charade, and send him off, but Victor waits until they both leave for work, then stays home to play with Sparky, who stays hidden away in the attic. While Victor naps, however, Sparky leaves the attic and goes outside to explore. He climbs into the open window of the next-door neighbor’s shed, only to scare the poor man inside, who sets Sparky into accidentally terrorizing the neighborhood before running back inside the house. Victor’s parents are questioned about their dog when they come home from work, and the father offers to check their house for any dogs. He discovers that Sparky is, in fact, alive. He drags the mother inside to see for herself that Sparky has been brought back to life.
The family sits around the kitchen table, wondering how to deal with this situation, and the implications of it. They are unable to sleep that night, wondering how exactly does a parent deal with their son playing God. They decide to keep Sparky in the house and walk him at night, so people don’t see him and become alarmed. The neighbors, however, start to ignore the Frankensteins, as they know something strange is going on. The father decides that they might as well just introduce the neighbors to Sparky that night, for “the longer they wait, the worse it will be.”
The angry mob of neighbors stands outside the old miniature golf course windmill, demanding "the monster"
The neighbors are seen gathered in the Frankenstein’s living room, with Mr. Frankenstein trying to reassure them that they’ve been seeing the same plain old Sparky. Upon seeing Sparky, however, the neighbors immediately lose their heads in fright, and Sparky runs out the dog door. Victor follows the dog, and the neighbors decide that their best course of action is to kill Sparky. Sparky escapes into the ruins of an old miniature golf course, and runs up to the windmill, with Victor calling his name from the gate. Victor slips through the gate and tries to retrieve Sparky. The neighbors stand as an angry mob outside the windmill, demanding to have their vengeance, while one neighbor pulls out a lighter and sets the old windmill ablaze. Victor and Sparky are trapped inside the burning building, and while everyone stands and watches with horror, they are suddenly amazed to see Sparky pull Victor out of the windmill. As his parents pull Victor away, the windmill suddenly begins to fall apart, trapping Sparky in the wreckage. Victor can only watch as Sparky dies once more.
Lights flash, and Victor is surrounded by car headlights, with one neighbor proclaiming that if Victor brought Sparky back to life before, he can do it again. Inspired by Sparky’s bravery at saving Victor, everyone is ready to start their engines and use their car batteries to give Sparky a jumpstart. Their plan is a success, and Sparky once again is brought back to life.
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