https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBfcGLBJ2Uc
Frankenweenie tells the story of Frankenstein in the medium of a movie. The monster in this delineation is a dog, rather than a human monstrosity. The movie came out in 2012, and was a big hit with younger audiences. It is interesting how one of the most famous horror stories became a staple of many childhood costumes and bedtime stories. Numerous children even dress up as the monster from Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein on Holliween. Frankenweenie is just one of the many movies created that resembles or retells the story of Frankenstein.
Amidst the common misperception that Frankenstein is actually the monster, Disney too tells the story as if Frankenweenie is the creation, whereby his creator should be Victor Frankenstein. But this is not the only place where Frankenweenie departs from our novel. In Disney’s movie, the dog dies and is brought back to life. It is stated in Frankenstein that Victor cannot bring anyone back from the dead, rather only create the living. These two reshaping of our story are amongst the most common deviations because it helps create a form of brand recognition around the original Frankenstein. Frankenstein has become synonymous with the monster itself.
Since this is a movie geared towards children, there is no sense of despair in creating the monster as Victor had. I feel as though this adaptation is somewhat true to the novel in some aspects. This modern retelling of the story helps capture an important idea of the novel in regards to the alchemists. Alchemy is a science whereby someone transforms something through a seemingly magical process. Although not inherently obvious to the readers, electricity is most likely the source for life of the wretch as is with the dog. Mary Shelly eludes to electricity when Victor Frankenstein, “collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet” (57). Shelly is up to date with her knowledge of the sciences as electricity is the leading thought of the source of life. Frankenweenie is able to convey this message from the novel by creating a modern retelling of the most up to date knowledge that they have. Shelly used science as the bases of her story, but Disney uses a very different method to separate itself from 19th century Geneva. Frankenweenie belongs to a modern family that has a house, a backyard, and a pet dog. The movie utilizes many motifs of love and sacrifice in order to grasp the attention of its viewers. It does so by sympathizing with the idea of man’s best friend. All the Monster in the novel wanted was to be loved, and Disney takes this idea and makes it the focal point of its movie. This in essence changes the feeling around Frankenstein to one of care and friendship. When we look at what drove the monster crazy, it was the idea of a lack of social affection, but if he only had that feeling, he would be happy.