Exclusive: Frankenweenie Gets a New Life on Screen

(upbeat music)

The nervous system is just wires and cables.

Even after death the muscles respond to electricity.

(frog croaks)

(students gasp)

(frog croaks) (electric sizzle)

Being a bad animator at Disney

the opportunity to do live action was great for me

'cause it got me sort of outta my shell

and I had to learn how to talk to people

for the first time in my life.

It was a project that meant a lot to me sort of based on

a relation that I had with a dog when I was a kid.

That's the first kinda relationship where it's very pure.

And so the idea of a boy and his dog

and the Frankenstein story just seemed like

a natural fit, I like those kind of movies so

it didn't seem like a weird

combination it seemed quite natural.

You don't usually get that with humans it's a very pure

relationship it's kinda simple

and like I said it's the first

experience you had with

when I was a child, with death.

And so you know memorable time.

The opportunity doing stop motion

black and white, 3D

it was important for me to feel like it was a new project.

Strangely it's hard to put into words

but it makes it more emotional.

People complain about 3D and it being dark and murky but

it's interesting with the black and white

it's still sharp it's something really beautiful about it

to me it just fits the story

and it fits the technique and

it's like a part of the character of the piece.

And I don't know why I think it's because

you get rid of the color you focus more on

simpler things emotions and things

and it just seemed appropriate.

I mean I don't do the stop motion.

I left animation a long time ago

'cause I was, I didn't have the patience.

I was a very frustrated animator

and at the time the projects they weren't that good.

I got quite disillusioned.

But from watching Ray Harryhausen movies I love stop motion

and it is a special type of person

I do admire them very much because

sitting in a dark room moving a puppet one frame at a time.

And it takes a real special kind of artist to do that.

It's part of my favorite form of animation

especially with the right project.

I try to make everything as personal as possible

in terms of a memory or a type of person or a person that I

recall or like I said teachers and kind of environment

and type of area that I grew up in so Burbank and

even down to some of the architecture

of Burbank so it was all trying to

to go back and find anything that was personal.

I guess the difference is it explores a bit more

the kinda kid politic classroom stuff other weird kids

teachers just a bit more of that life.

You know in the same way that

like in the universe when they started doing things like

Frankenstein versus the Wolfman or you know

House of Frankenstein or House of Dracula or

Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein where they threw in

a bunch of monsters into one movie.

It kinda goes back to that kind of

structure of those kinda movies.

There's a wallpaper I mean all

the costumes the dinosaurs.

That's the beauty of it that's the thing where

I'm glad they did that because

there is something beautiful about

the tactile nature of it and

I've done stuff where it's been

with computers and that can be great stuff but

there's something about walking into a room and

just seeing little props and seeing the little things

it just excites you.

You know I've been so lucky to meet people

like Vincent Price or Christopher Lee

people that have inspired you

for your whole life and so

I've always felt very grateful that I had that opportunity.

Amazing artists.

You meet these people and it's interesting 'cause

you meet people like that that have affected you

then you meet them and they're really nice people

that means a lot.

I remember like out of my whole years of school

I probably had one or two good teachers

and everybody else was crap.

Or didn't inspire.

It is nice to see kids especially younger

have a cool art teacher.

Most people just go like oh wow I'd love to make that

I'd like to come to the class.

So you should be inspired

and there's no reason not to.

It just shows how weird and

bad the system that I grew up in was because

we weren't inspired it was just like oh we gotta go to class

and you see when you get a good one

it means everything.

(upbeat music)