Mroski Frankenweenie

Frankenweenie

In 1984, Tim Burton proposed a short film to Disney to be played before Pinocchio.  The film, called Frankenweenie, followed a boy named Victor Frankenstein, who resurrected his dog after it was hit by a car.  After it was completed, the studio rejected the film, asserting that the film was “too dark.”  Years later, the film has been remade, this time as a full length, stop-motion Disney feature film.

Frankenweenie, though it has been changed in many ways, still retains its core elements and plot line.  Also, many of the same exact shots have been replicated into the new film, while characters and events have been added.  The movie’s entire method of filming has been changed from live action to stop motion, with both positive and negative results.

Most of the plot line has stayed the same; the dog gets hit by a car, Victor revives him, the townspeople revolt against the dog, the dog dies, and then they jump him back to life with their cars.  The film shows striking resemblance to its 1984 counterpart; whole scenes have been cloned, such as the resurrection and grave digging scenes.  Other aspects also stayed the same, like the black and white production.  Otherwise, though, many ideas have been added to the film.  New characters from his school have been added, all with wildly odd personalities and features.  A branch has been added to the plotline, as all of these other students attempt and fail to resurrect other animals, with mutant results.  Though all of these aspects were funny, they made us take breaks from the solid, engaging plotline from the 1984 film.  The shorter format allows for a stronger story that moves at a quicker and more emotional pace. 

Though I find that I did not like the stop motion as much as the live action format, the stop motion does have some advantages.  The characters from Victor’s school are a perfect example of the high degree of characterization that can accomplished through this new medium.  Mr. Rzykruski was especially drawn out. His ridiculously long face and thick accent drew constant laughter throughout the audience, along with the other members of the classroom.  The best advantage to stop motion is the ability to further characterize animals.  Sparky is a far better stop-motion character than live action.  Real dogs don’t pay attention to whatever it is that they are trying to “act” out, but animated ones actually do show obvious emotional change and appropriate responses to situations.  Humans, however, are better filmed live.  Victor as a live action child was a far more moving performance than in the new film.  Everyone in a cartoon somewhat looks like a child, so I always forget that Victor is a kid in the newer film, whereas it is obvious that Victor is 10 years old throughout the 1984 film.  Also, seeing  Shelley Duvall in the older film was enough to make me pick the older one, since she is such a great actress.

Mroski Sweeney Todd

Sweeney Todd

Tim Burton’s adaption of Sweeney Todd, though full of cannibalistic murder and corruption, is a strangely happy movie.  While I was watching the film, I actually forgot that the acts that Todd and Lovett were immoral. I was too wrapped up into the music and the characters.

                Firstly, the score was incredible.  The songs are often cheerful and bouncy, unlike the twisted plot that goes with it.  This creates a clash between happy and gloomy that helps us begin to dissolve our conceptions of good and bad.  Their crimes seem almost innocent due to the joy that goes into the act, the prosperity that they gain, and the inclusion of a young kid as a waiter.

                Furthermore, the issue of revenge is strong with us.  We can empathize with Mr. Todd because of the absolutely horrendous crimes that have been done to him.  By the time he goes AWOL we are already so invested in his bloodshed that we are still rooting for him.  His revenge is taken in his murders, even if those murders are unjust, and we must see him take that revenge.

Another reason that the film gets around the question of morality is by simply not mentioning it.  Most movies with so much murder have characters with an internal struggle.  Often, the murderers are either full of guilt, or at least do not like what they do.  In Sweeny Todd, Sweeny only talks of the positives of killing, singing that we “all deserve to die.”  Mrs. Lovett especially takes up the deed with leisure.  She doesn’t say anything but that it is a “downright shame” to waste Mr. Perelli’s body. Both of these characters’ detachment leads us to believe that this is the only option, totally reasonable, given their circumstances in “desperate times”

Mroski Big Fish

Big Fish

Edward has qualities of both an insider and an outsider.  He looks normal, he isn’t disfigured mentally, he lives in the suburbs and he’s fine with it, etc.  His outsider quality is his sense of adventure that makes him leave places very easily, as well as his overwhelming optimism and his disregard for dangerous situations. 

Carl the Giant likes Edward Bloom because they are both, in their own ways, larger than life.  Edward is an adventurer.  He is a big fish in a little pond.  Carl is a Giant man in a little Town.  That said, they have lots in common.  Both of them, however, do have something to offer the other.  Edward needs a reason to leave, and Carl is the exact type of person he should be on an adventure with—a giant.  Edward likes Carl because since he was a child, he has understood how some people are too big for one place.  In a way, Edward sees himself in Carl’s giant shoes and sympathizes.   Carl enjoys being with Edward, because he is one of the only people who treat him like a normal person.  Burton’s outsiders, like Carl, crave a sense of normalcy.  That’s why when Edward brings him to the circus, he is so at home.  At the circus, he is normal.  So, they both had to take each other out of that town at the same time.  They bring each other on this journey where they get what they want—Edward, an adventure; and Carl, a home.

The Siamese twins also have a similar connection with Edward Bloom.  The first time we see them singing, they are singing about love.  Though it seems like it’s just a sensual little song, we find later that there is some truth behind it.  They connect so strongly with Edward’s story about his wife that they take a journey all around with him, looking for the affection that they eventually find in Norther Winslow.  They like each other because they share an appreciation for love.

Mroski Sleepy Hollow

Sleepy Hollow

Shortly after starting Sleepy Hollow, we can see that Washington Irving's story has been altered significantly. The “dreamy” wives’ tale that Irving created has been twisted into a dark, gory horror film that feels completely different and yet still very familiar to the short story. 

One way that Tim Burton changes the story is in the movie’s atmosphere.  In the short story, Sleepy Hollow is a prosperous, beautiful place full of food and happy people.  The residents in Irving’s story aren’t in a state of constant fear, but are generally very marry.  The only place that the townspeople are fearful is the forest, and of course, the Hollow.  This overall tranquility is good because it gives the story a fairy-tale feeling that helps make the legend associated with the hollow more ambiguous, much like the tales that the women tell.

Tim Burton changes the hollow into a dreary gray world, always dark, and shrouded in fog.  This grave atmospheric change creates a feeling of dread throughout the movie.  Everyone seems suspicious.  The buildings are falling apart.  Even before anything is said, we can tell that the town isn’t very safe.  Burton uses this alteration to his advantage because it makes the horseman more believable than if Tarry Town were dreamy and peaceful.  One piece of common ground is the fact that the forest is seriously dangerous here.  Both stories share a wariness of the forest and what lurks inside.

In both the story and the movie, Crane carries many similarities.  They both share high levels of education, making them smarter than the townsfolk.  They are both awkward; Irving’s Ichabod is a gangly glutton, and Burton’s is jittery and unsettled.  Burton digresses at one truly major point—their pasts.  The short story doesn’t give much detail to Ichabod’s past, but Burton gives his Ichabod one hell of a history to deal with.  The his father’s cold-blooded murder of his mother shapes him as a person.  He has to deal with this for the rest of his life.  This is mostly seen in an inner clash between his scientific and supernatural beliefs.  I think Burton did this in order to create a depth in the character.  It is just more exciting.  This dark past also compliments the dark world that he is trying to create.  Plus, what is a Burton story without a mentally disfigured orphan man. 

Mroski Planet of the Apes

Planet of the Apes

In the Tim Burton adaption of The Planet of the Apes, there are many dualities expressed that move the characters and the plot along.  My personal favorite is the clash between bellicosity and passivity.  Throughout the film, we find instances in which both types of behavior are crucial to the development of the characters.

One way that this arises is in the very beginning.  It starts with a defiant soldier who wants to go after his chimpanzee in the middle of an electromagnetic storm.  Captain Davidson, against orders, launches himself into the storm, and the main plot begins.  If he had been more passive and submitted to his superior, than the whole mess of Planet of the Apes would have been no more than a chimp being sucked into a wormhole.  We see this again later when Birn, the teenage boy in the band of humans, defies Davidson’s orders to stand back and help with the forces during the final battle.  His defiance shows Captain Davidson what it’s like to be defied, which gives him some insight on his own urge to fight issues of ego.

Passivity does help character and plot development, too.  There is a scene at the beginning, when Limbo ends up in the mix between the apes and the human escape attempt.  When Davidson turns the gun toward Limbo, Ari tells him to stop.  Telling Davidson not to “stoop to his level,” Ari chooses a passive route that sends Limbo on the same journey as the other runaways.  This pivotal point leads to an exodus that ultimately changes his view of the humans in the end.  

Both attributes have different strengths and weaknesses, but at the same time, there is no right answer to which one they pick.  Either path that they choose, the other side is just as legitimate. Each temperament has the ability to strongly influence the plot.

Mroski Mars Attacks

Mars Attacks

In Mars Attacks, Tim Burton uses conflict between man and Martian to satirize the military, as well as science fiction as a genre.  One of my favorite jokes was the flip of how most movies portray generals in conflict.  When the aliens first arrive, they obliterate what looks like a thousand people in a number of minutes.  Immediately, the people assume that it was a “cultural misunderstanding” and attempt to make up the issue, while General Decker is suggesting an offensive attack.  Instead, the government decides to let the aliens into their congress!  Obviously that turns into a big snafu and we are left with the president again suggesting that they try to make peace with the Martians.  By this time, General Decker is literally screaming at the president for war and the president scolds him for it.  It’s really funny because normally the warmonger general in a movie is the bad guy, or at least the stupid guy who makes everything go to hell.  In this case, he is the voice of truth.  Instead of satirizing the overzealous general, Burton takes a poke at the government as it tries again and again to make amends with an overtly bloodthirsty race of Martians. 

                It also pokes at the government in another way.  The Martians seem invincible and no one knows how they are going to get rid of them.  The government tries everything from diplomacy to nukes and everything in between to stop the slaughter, but nothing works.  The government tries so much stuff, they neglect something as simple as the “Indian Love Song.”  After the world is nearly annihilated, we find redneck Richie and his senile grandma about to be killed before they accidentally discover that her god-awful music is the only thing that can kill the Martians.  I think that Burton uses this instance to tell his audience not to trust their government as much as they do.  In a big crisis, we also have to have a plan.  This contrasts greatly with Independence Day, when the government is the end all be all to the human race.  

Mroski Ed Wood

Ed Wood

Ed Wood pays homage to Edward Wood in a tragically dignified manner.  I loved how the movie itself took place on cheesy looking sets in black and white, just to glorify Ed Wood's "style" of screenwriting.  The movie had a great sense of sketchiness about it; its artistic value is great since it takes so much of Ed's cheap looking style into account.  Also, the book-ending helped set the corny tone that was supposed to be felt in the movie.
Ed Wood was filled with many different shots of the films Edward Wood himself created, replicated very well by the cast of the Burton film.  There were many scenes, from the zombie Vampira scene, to the scene with Bela going on his favorite speech, to the scene in Glenn or Glenda when his wife gives Glenn (or Glenda) the shirt.  All of the these scenes are a great homage to viewers who know his works, as well as a hint that the story is biographical to those who do not know about his movies.  I was shocked at the similarity when I watched the documentary  as well as plan 9, at how similar they were. Those similar little shots drew me in and made me want to actually watch more of his movies to see if I could catch the extra shots that were "stolen" from the movie.
Many of the characters were strikingly similar to the real life people that they represented.  The casting was very well done and in some cases looked frighteningly close to how the real people looked. As with the familiar scenes, the familiar characters draw in non-fans and captivate die hard B movie watchers.
All of these characters were total outsiders.  They were all somehow rejected from the Hollywood world.  This was interesting because Tim Burton tends to also have a little cult of people that feel most accepted with him.  Just as Ed Wood, Tim Burton re-cycles actors and works with the outsider-type people that he feels most comfortable with.  Casting characters who look so similar to their real life counterparts brings Tim Burton's ability to withhold judgement, just like Ed Wood, come to life.