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"It's alive! It's alive!" The super excited Flick Chick exclusively chats with the legendary Tim Burton

Hey Film Fans! In 1984, a young animator working at Walt Disney Studios made a 30-minute live-action short film about 10-year-old Victor Frankenstein and the trouble that ensues after he manages to resurrect his beloved dead dog Sparky in his makeshift attic laboratory. Early test screenings went so badly that Disney shelved the film and the animator was fired. That novice animator was Tim Burton, and considering the incredible career he’s had since, one could say there is some merit in failure.Decades later, that very same studio is fully behind Burton’s return to that same pet project, this time as a full-length, black-and-white, 3D stop-motion animated film. And thank goodness for that, because here’s how good 2012’s Frankenweenie is: It is more Beetlejuice than Alice In Wonderland, more Ed Wood than Sweeney Todd, and infinitely more Edward Scissorhands than Planet Of The Apes. Hoorah! Burton has said that Sparky was inspired by the dog he had as a child, and his emotional connection to the material shows. It feels personal, from the characters and the plot, to the lovingly detailed stop-motion animation.  What makes this movie extra special is the story: A cleverly simple tale of a touching relationship between a boy and his dog, all wrapped up in kook, funny and fright.

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