Let's face it, Tim Burton really hasn't made a satisfyingly Tim Burton-esque movie since…"Corpse Bride" maybe? And even that kind of felt like a re-cooked "Nightmare Before Christmas." And even though it's taken him doing a feature length remake of his own "Frankenweenie" to recapture that magic, compared to "Dark Shadows" or "Alice In Wonderland," we'll take it any day of the week.
A new trailer has arrived for for the black-and-white stop-motion animated film and it looks like it's Burton at the height of his powers. Yes, it's all very familiar from the character design to the premise itself — a young boy reanimates his dead dog Frankenstein style — but like Wes Anderson proved with "Moonrise Kingdom," a director can play in the same sandbox, but still yield fresh results, and that's what we're hoping for here. In truth, the couple of minutes of this trailer was pretty much more enjoyable than the best moments of "Dark Shadows" combined.
Anyway, we'll see if Burton can get that lightning in a bottle (ha) once again, when the movie opens on October 5th. [HeyUGuys]
Kevin, this is exactly the same thing you said about "Dark Shadows":
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/look-into-my-eyes-9-clips-from-tim-burtons-dark-shadows-with-johnny-depp-eva-green-20120429
Not trying to play gotcha with you or anything; just saying that you can go on expecting every new Tim Burton movie to be a 'return to form', but after "Dark Shadows" I'll believe it when I see it.
I would say Burton hasn't made a good film since "Big Fish". But this is an argument all up to the individual's personal taste.
Anywho, visually the film looks super promising, but CG overload BS of 'Alice in Wonderland' aside Burton has never faulted on the visual aspect, even 'Dark Shadows' had some good visual wonder. Hope they don't overcomplicate the simple whimsical narrative of the short… which it looks like they may have done to give the feature an action climax.
We'll see. But I gotta say in the world of stop motion animation my money is on ParaNorman being the better film.
Tim Burton hasn't made a good film since Sleepy Hollow. And I doubt this will be a return to form. Stop using so much CG Burton, stop remaking things (including your own films,) and then you'll be back in your heyday.
No love for "Sweeney Todd"? That's one of Burton's best, IMO. (Though in general I agree with your premise regarding Burton's recent output.)