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Rumor: Disney Remaking Tim Burton's Stop-Motion Frankenweenie Short

by Alex Billington
October 1, 2007
Source: Aint It Cool News

Just over this past weekend some rumors have spouted up from the world of Tim Burton. While attending an early screening of Disney's Enchanted at the North Carolina School of the Arts this past weekend, a scooper reported that Dick Cook, the Chairman of Walt Disney, mentioned that one of the future projects in the works at Disney was another stop-motion animation film. When pressed further, he added that "the project would be helmed by the creative mastermind behind the majority of stop-motion pictures in the last decade." Might that be Tim Burton? I think so!

The plot thickens, though, but without any real confirmation. Cook didn't comment further or even hint at anything beyond that it might be Tim Burton or his counter-part, Henry Selick, who actually directed The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach and is a stop-motion mastermind himself. Where the rumors really start to fly is from an anonymous e-mail that the guys over at AICN received just yesterday.

It's a feature length remake of his short "Frankenweenie."

All stop motion.

That's all that it said, short and sweet. Frankenweenie is a black and white 29-minute short that Burton made back in 1984. The rumor is that Disney shelved the project because the content was too "questionable" for kids at the time. However, the film ended up on the Nightmare Before Christmas DVD after a few films like Burton's Beetlejuice and Batman became mainstream hits.

The short is a parody of the 1931 Frankenstein movie. When young Victor’ Frankenstein's pet dog Sparky is hit by a car, Victor decides to bring him back to life the only way he knows how. But when the bolt-necked "monster" wreaks havoc and terror in the hearts of Victor's neighbors, he has to convince them and his parents that, despite his appearance, Sparky's still the good loyal friend he's always been.

All of this is just a rumor at the moment. It is confirmed that Disney is making another stop-motion film, but as to whether it involves Tim Burton or Frankenweenie at all, is not confirmed. I never saw Corpse Bride and I'm personally not a fan of The Nightmare Before Christmas, but either way I do respect Tim Burton's talents. Hopefully if Frankenweenie is the stop-motion film Disney is making that I will come to appreciate it more than the previous Burton stop-motion films.

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