
Date: 15 October 2012
Place: London
I shall save my full thoughts on the film Frankenweenie for my, general review This feature shall be devoted to a description of the press conference for the film and the behind the scenes animation master class presentation on the day of Frankenweenie’s Gala premiere at the BFI London Film Festival.
After the press screening of the film, a question and answer session took place at the Cornithian Hotel. On the table at the front where filmmakers and actors were to sit, figures of the film characters had been placed by each name so they looked out onto the audience.
The session was hosted by Chris Hewitt, who welcomed into the room were director Tim Burton, actors Martin Short (voice of ‘Mr. Walsh / Toshiaki / Mr. Bergermeister / Bob / Mr. Curtis), Catherine O’Hara (voice of Susan Frankenstein / Gym Teacher / Weird Girl) and Martin Landau (voice of Mr. Rzykruski) and producers Allison Abbate and Don Hahn.
During the start of the press junket, Tim Burton explained the reason for making Frankenweenie – a film he described as a ‘real memory piece’ – using stop motion animation. He had previously shot the film in live action, but he said the thought of seeing the story brought to life in stop motion in black and white and presented in 3D inspired him to start work on it as a full length animated feature film
Throughout the questions put to them, the enthusiasm from actors Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short and Martin Landau about the project was obvious. They spoke in depth about creating the characters through voices and pictures of who they would be playing. Martin Short described the process as ‘an ideal working situation for an actor’, as Burton would cultivate a ‘collaborative’ approach to filmmaking and ‘hone and refine’ the ideas people came up with.
I asked Tim Burton if he had any thoughts about why cinemas are currently seeing a lot of dark and macabre animated films at the moment (in the space of a few weeks we’ve had Paranorman, Frankenweenie and Hotel Transylvania). He said he didn’t know where the trend was coming from, but added that although people always describe his films “dark”, he himself has never thought of them as dark.
The topic shifted off Frankenweenie when Veteran actor Martin Landau was asked to comment on his time working with Alfred Hitchcock (he was in North by Northwest), and he provided a humorous description of his experience working with the master of suspense, and jokingly said ‘he certainly did not make advances towards me’.
If you wish to see some of the amazing puppets and designs from the film, the BFI London Film Festival is hosting The Art of Frankenweenie Exhibition of props, sets and puppets from 17-21 October at London Southbank. The exhibition is free to the public.
Frankenweenie (2012), directed by Tim Burton, is distributed in the UK by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Certificate PG. It is released in cinemas on October 17.