Frankenweenie is a remake of the 1984 black-and-white, live-action short of the same name, which Tim Burton directed for Disney when he was 25. At the time, Disney shelved the PG-rated short, about a suburban boy who brings his dead dog back to life, deeming it too scary. But when Burton became a big-name director, the studio gave the short a home-video release in 1992, and it can now be found on the DVD and Blu-ray editions of The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Burton originally envisioned Frankenweenie as a stop-motion animated movie, but opted for live-action due to budgetary concerns. “I’m kind of grateful that it was live-action, because if it had been animation, I probably wouldn’t have gotten into live-action,” said Burton. “It was a very lucky break in a way.” That’s because after actor Paul Reubens saw Frankenweenie, he hired Burton to direct his 1985 film Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, which led to Beetlejuice, which led to Batman, and so on.
Burton’s feature-length stop motion version of Frankenweenie isn’t due for another five months (Disney will release it on Oct. 5), but Entertainment Weekly recently sat down with the filmmaker and picked his brain about the project.
Read the interview HERE.