It’s hard to instill a great deal of faith in director Tim Burton after a string of films that has included the unneeded revisionist fairy tale “Alice In Wonderland,” along with the recent disappointment that was his update of the television series “Dark Shadows.” While 'Shadows' started promising enough – almost returning the helmer to his glory days of atmospheric joy — it fell to pieces in the second and third act. Well, some of us are still remaining optimistic about his next directorial effort, a stop-motion feature version adaptation of his own 1984 short film, “Frankenweenie.” The early trailers have given us a “Nightmare Before Christmas” or even “The Corpse Bride” vibe, and frankly it’s the aspect of the filmmaker’s oeuvre that’s remained the most consistent in terms of quality (even though Henry Selick handled directorial duties on the Burton-branded 'Nightmare').
Well, things are continuing to look fairly impressive, as a new trailer appropriately entitled “Homage” has hit the web, and it certainly pays its respects to the sort of wild sensationalism we’d imagine you’d find in the previews prior to a Saturday matinee for man-eating ant terror “Them” in 1954. There’s a haunting voiceover, which sets up the story of a young boy who conducts a very “Frankenstein”-esque experiment to bring his dog back to life, while text that reads “Millions will be thrilled by the greatest story ever told,” and even cleverly refers to Burton as “The Master of the Fantastic.” It’s all in good fun.
A Comic-Con poster has also hit (via Bloody Disgusting) showcasing the vintage genre film theme, with a particular standout the promo encouraging audiences to see the film in “Spectactular 3-D, Spellbinding!” Not sure how much Burton has to do with all this, but as he’s a big fan of the very films the materials here are sending up, we'd wager he had some input.
“Frankenweenie” hits theaters on October 5th, and fingers crossed it brings a little ghoulish enjoyment just in time for Halloween.
