History WesternAnimation / Frankenweenie

* HeroicDog: [[spoiler:Sparky at the film's climax; he's the one who leads the town to where Mr. Whiskers has taken Elsa, he's the one who beats Mr Whiskers, and he ultimately helps Victor and Elsa get away... At the cost of his own life, since Mr. Whiskers drags him back into the burning windmill to die along with him.]]

* SodaCanShakeup: Bob and Toshaki try to make a jet pack out of shaken-up soda bottles, but [[RealityEnsues it doesn't work]] and Bob breaks his arm.

* RealityEnsues: What else would you expect when you [[spoiler:[[CurbStompBattle send a hamster to fight Godzilla]]]]?

** The mutated Sea-Monkeys tiny FishPeople, probably a reference to ''Film/CreatureFromTheBlackLagoon'' (and possibly ''Film/Gremlins''), given the movies penchant for Creator/{{Universal}} monster movies.

** Sparky [[spoiler:gets run over by a car the first time he dies in the film when he tries to get a baseball and return it to Victor]]. The same thing happens to Momo in ''Anime/MagicalPrincessMinkyMomo''; the only differences were that [[spoiler:Sparky was actually at the baseball game instead of being near the game like Momo was, he decided to get the ball by himself instead of being asked to get the ball, and he wasn't distracted by something else before getting run over]].

** The gravestone across from Sparky's, on which victor piles the dirt as he's digging Sparky out reads "Goodbye Kitty" with a picture of Franchise/HelloKitty with [[WingdingEyes X's on its eyes]] on it.

The film received a feature length remake as a [[AuthorAppeal black and white stop-motion animation]] film in 2012 with Tim returning as director and his long time composing partner Creator/DannyElfman. The cast includes [[Film/HomeAlone Catherine O'Hara]], Creator/WinonaRyder, [[Film/EdWood Martin Landau]], [[Film/MarsAttacks Martin Short]], [[Film/DiaryOfAWimpyKid Robert Capron]], [[WesternAnimation/{{Thundercats2011}} Atticus Shaffer]], [[Film/IAmLegend Charlie Tahan]] and [[Series/TwoAndAHalfMen Conchata Ferrell]]. This version expands the story with some of Victor's fellow students discovering Sparky's miracle revival and deciding to create their own monster animals out of pets both living and dead. This only serves to bring more chaos to the town.

Victor Frankenstein is a young boy with an interest in science. He doesn't really have many friends, but he really does love his dog Sparky, and even creates movies starring him. After Sparky is killed by a car, Victor learns at school about electrical impulses in muscles, and gets the idea to bring his pet back to life. He creates elaborate machines which bring down a bolt of [[LightningCanDoAnything lightning]] that revives the dog. While Victor is pleased, his neighbors are terrified by the animal, and when the Frankensteins decide to introduce the revitalized Sparky to them, they become angry and afraid. The movie was first made as a short film in 1984 by Creator/TimBurton for Creator/{{Disney}}, which resulted in his termination from the studio under the idea the movie was too scary for children. The film was [[ScrewedByTheNetwork shelved]] and didn't see the light in [[UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates U.S.]] theaters but managed a [[ShortRunInPeru theatrical run in the U.K.]]. Despite the trouble, the film caught the attention of Creator/PaulReubens, who would champion Burton for directing on his film ''Film/PeeWeesBigAdventure'', which would be Burton's feature length film debut.

This was Disney's last theatrically released horror film, until ''Film/ReadyOrNot2019''.

** Elsa van Helsing looks and sounds a lot like Lydia Deetz from {{Beetlejuice}}. It helps that both are played by Creator/WinonaRyder.

This was Disney's last horror film, until ''Film/ReadyOrNot2019''.

** Mr. Burgermeister is obviously the descendant of [[WesternAnimation/CorpseBride Finis Everglot]]. He might also be inspired by [[WesternAnimation/SantaClausIsComingToTown Burgermeister Meisterburger]] because they're quite similar in appearance and personality. While this film is probably not so much inspired by Creator/RankinBass' stop motion Christmas specials, Burton's earlier film ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas'' was, so this may be a little callback to that.

** Mr. Burgermeister is obviously the descendant of [[WesternAnimation/CorpseBride Finis Everglot]].

*** Sparky is [[Film/{{Frankenstein1931}} Frankenstein's Monster]].
*** The fish is Film/TheInvisibleMan.

** The goldfish is pretty much a straight-up shout-out to ''Film/TheInvisibleMan'', right up to it starting to go mad [[spoiler:before disappearing altogether]].

** The movie could also be a metaphor for {{stop motion}} in general, in the sense that one of the major themes is the animation (or reanimation) of dead bodies.

** The movie could also be a metaphor for {{StopMotion}} in general, in the sense that one of the major themes is the animation (or reanimation) of dead bodies.

** The mutated Sea-Monkeys tiny FishPeople, probably a reference to ''Film/CreatureFromTheBlackLagoon'', given the movies penchant for Creator/{{Universal}} monster movies.

** ''WesternAnimation/BambiMeetsGodzilla'': The Colossus versus Shelley scene. Later, the movie theater sign shows ''Disney/{{Bambi}}'' and ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' films as now playing.

* DogStereotype: Played straight with Persephone, at least in terms of "poodles are always female." Averted with Sparky; bull terriers are usually portrayed as large and vicious, but Sparky is friendly, affectionate and good with kids, which is more accurate to how the breed is in real life.

* RetroUniverse: WordOfGod says that while the setting appears to be TheFifties, it's not quite that, yet not quite present day either, with the closest reference to a modern-day event being a parent complaining how [[PlutoIsExpendable doesn't qualify as a planet anymore]], which happened in 2006.

* RetroUniverse: WordOfGod says that while the setting appears to be TheFifties, it's not quite that, yet not quite present day either.