First Images of the Boy and his Dog in Tim Burton's 'Frankenweenie'

Thursday, 27 October 2011 08:49 Written by Jordan DeSaulnier

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First Images of the Boy and his Dog in Tim Burton's 'Frankenweenie'

What with the presence of Johnny Depp and all, Dark Shadows is the 2012 Tim Burton film that's been hogging the attention as of late, but today Disney released the first official images from Frankenweenie, the director's feature-length stop-motion expansion on his 1984 short film of the same name. These two stills introduce Sparky, a dog, and Bob, the suburban boy who uses science to play god and resurrect his beloved pet when Sparky dies unexpectedly. Of course, this leads to all manner of complications. For the first time since Ed Wood, Burton's doing an entire feature in black and white, and I'm sort of astonished Disney is allowing it. The lack of color carries over from the original short, is inarguably stylish, and fits the tone of the material like a glove.

These two stills and one picture of Burton debuted over at Entertainment Weekly, where Burton explained of the film, "It just tries to keep that idea of a very, simple pure relationship. Mix that with the Frankenstein myth, and it causes problems.” Despite the obligatory morbidity, he said, "Ultimately, we try to go with the slightly more positive aspects of keeping that [boy-and-his-dog] relationship going.”

The short film that Burton shot more than 25 years ago alienated him from Disney, which found it too strange to release and basically fired him for it. That was Burton before he even directed his first feature, Pee-wee's Big Adventure, and went on to become one of the biggest directors on the planet though.

Robert Capron voices Bob, while other actors lending the vocal talents to the film include Winona Ryder, Martin Landau, Catherine O'Hara, and Martin Short. Frankenweenie will hit theaters in 3D on October 5, 2012.