Frankenweenie

What’s it about?

Victor Frankenstein is a really clever kid who loves making movies and inventing things. He doesn’t have many friends though and his best friend is his dog Sparky.  His favourite teacher is Mr. Rzkruski, the science teacher who teaches Victor all about lightening and electricity. One day tragedy strikes when Sparky gets run over by a car and dies. Victor, of course, is very upset by this and decides to make a machine that can bring Sparky back to life. So he goes to the pet cemetery and digs up Sparky and tries to bring him back to life during a thunderstorm. All goes well until one of Victor’s classmates finds out what’s happened and then it all turns into a disaster.

What to look out for

This is quite a scary movie and young kids might find it upsetting particularly when Sparky gets run over. Watch out for the horror elements in the movie such as:

• A giant turtle/monster rampages through the town destroying much in its path, stomps on a police car, stomps on and kills a hamster, picks up a phone booth (with Victor’s parents in it) in its mouth as well as a young boy. The monster is finally electrocuted and turns back into a small turtle.

• Victor and Sparky are chased by an angry mob carrying flaming torches and shouting ‘kill the monster’. Victor and Sparky run into a windmill which is set on fire and Sparky has to drag Victor from the building unconscious. Sparky is then dragged back into the burning windmill by a giant cat and we later see Sparky’s corpse being carried out of the building.
• Many of the characters in the movie look like typical horror movie characters such as Frankenstein and a creepy hunchback.

Moral of the Story

Science can be used for both good and bad purposes it’s up to us to decide which we should use it for.