I tried an experiment with Frankenweenie: I didn't watch the movie or read the script before I went through the excellent breakdown by Will King, just to see what I could pick up of the story at that level. And actually, I could 'see' the movie in my mind in the process. Then I screened the 1984 short film (30 minutes) directed by Tim Burton to compare to the breakdown (you can see the movie online here). There are considerable similarities, but also several significant differences including: * The whole New Holland angle. * The Mayor next door. * All of the subplots with the other school children. * The variety of reanimated animals. * The parents' concern about Victor's lack of social interaction. All of those are expansions from the story as represented in the short film. However the setup, even down to Victor's interest in filmmaking, the chaos the reanimated version of Sparky creates, the neighbors taking after him, and the final chase and fire sequence are in the short film. What are you general thoughts about the movie, script and/or scene-by-scene breakdown?

Scott, I've tried a different approach this time. While I was watching the movie, I jotted down the scenes. I came up with this list. 1. Victor shows homevideo to his parents. His parents worrry that he has no friends besides Sparky, his dog, which the mayor dislikes because he ruined his flowers. 2. Girl classmate gives Victor an omen and tells that Whiskers dreamt about him. Something will happen to him. 3. Science teacher announces science fair and tells classmates to partner up. Victor doesn't want to work with the hunched kid 4. Victor's dad gives Victor life lesson: “Nobody gets what he wants. If you compromise you get both”. 5. Victor is at ballgame while his mind is at science. His parents encourage him to play. When his hits the ball, Sparky goes after it and gets hit by a car and dies 6. Science teacher shows how a the muscles of a dead frog reacts to electricity. This brings Victor to the idea to try the experiment on his dead dog. 7. Victor digs Sparky up 8. Victor tries experiment on Sparky, using ligthning as power source, and succeeds. Sparky is alive but needs to be fueled now and then with electricity. His body has stiches and bolts. He looks like a rag dog. 9. Sparky escapes from the attic while Victor is away and chases a cat. He scares everyone he meets on his chase. That makes him sad. 10. Hunched classmate Edgar sees Sparky and can't believe it 11. Edgar asks Victor to show him how he got Sparky back or he will tell everyone his secret 12. Victor tries the experiment on Edgar's fish. The fish becomes invisible and bites. Edgar promises not to tell anybody 13. Edgar shows the invisible fish to two competitve classmates 14. Competitive classmate threatens Edgar that he's going to win the science fair and demands to see the invisible fish and wants to know how he did it. Edgar shows the fish bowl but nothing happens 15. Two classmates fall of the roof during their science experiment, causing their mother to be bothered. 16. Victor still keeps Sparky on the attic because he's afraid others won't understand. 17. Town meeting about the science teacher and his crazy teachings. Science teacher defends his teaching method and says that everyone has a small mind. He want to learn the children something 18. In the evening, when nobody is around, Victor lets Sparky out in the garden 19. Science teacher goes home and gives Victor advice on his science project. The first time the project succeeded because he liked it. 20. Classmate reveals to other classmates, who are Victor's competitors in the science project, that Victor brought Sparky back to life 21. Victor's parents discover Sparky is alive. They are shocked and don't think Victor should have done that. Sparky is afraid of the drama and escapes. 22. Sparky wanders around on the Dutch Day event 23. When Victor and his parents leave to search for Sparky, Victor's classmates enter their home and study Victor's devices on the attic to discover how he did it. 24. Sparky wanders around the graveyard and rests on his grave 25. Elsa van Helsing sings on the Dutch Day event 26. Two classmates visit the graveyard and dig up their dead animal, one of which comes from a tomb 27. Classmates try at home Victor's experiment and use their pet 28. Lightning strikes 29. Cat Whiskers changes in a vampire cat. A rat changes in a monster. A creature rises from a tomb, much smaller than expected by the classmate, a turtle becomes giant, fish cookies change in fish monsters 30. Victor finds Sparky at his grave and picks him up. He notices the empty graves and when he leaves the graveyard, fish monsters pass. 31. At Dutch Day event, the monsters causes trouble. People are afraid. Victor kills a few monsters by electrocuting them 32. Vampire cat gets hold of dog of Elsa. 33. Mayor accuses Sparky of the mess and calls everyone to kill the dog. They chase Sparky who goes after the vampire cat 34. At the windmill, Sparky saves Elsa and Victor from the vampire cat. The vampire cat strikes back and drags Sparky into the burning windmill 35. Sparky seems dead. Victor is sad about his loss. His parents say it's okay if he tries to bring him back to life. Victor tries and after a long moment, he comes back to life. Everyone is happy. I'm going to read the script and compare my list to that of Will.

Great, Shari! If you don't mind, I'll pull together a scene-by-scene breakdown of the movie per your comments. Maybe someone will do the short film, then we'll have this story covered but good! Thanks! And will be interesting to compare script to screen. Probably pretty close.

Scott, I don't mind. This is my scenes breakdown while watching the 30 minutes movie. 1. Family – mum, dad, Victor and Sparky- and three kids watch homemade video by Victor Frankenstein, starring Sparky as the monster 2. Victor plays with Sparky. Sparky goes after the ball and gets hit by a car. He dies. 3. Sparky gets burried on pet graveyard 4. Victor is very sad his dog died. He tells his friends (2 boys and a girl) he doesn't know if he wants another dog. He misses Sparky 5. During class, Victor's mind is on Sparky and when the teacher demonstrates how a dead frog reacts to electricity, he gets an idea to bring back Sparky 6. Victor races home and studies on electricity and life. He gathers electronic home devices and creates a device in the attic. His male neighbor with a cat is suspicious 7. Victor digs up Sparky from pet graveyard 8. While lightning is striking, Victor uses his electronic devices to expose Sparky to the electricity and brings Sparky back to life. 9. Victor is sent to school but secretly returns home to take care of Sparky. Female neigbor is suspicious 10. Sparky is alive but looks like a rag dog and leaks water when he drinks. He escapes. 11. Sparky wanders outside and scares neighbors. 12. Neigbor warns Victor's parents that their dog can't scare people but his parents claim they don't have a dog. 13. To make sure, Victor's dad checks on Victor and witnesses that Sparky is alive 14. Victor's dad returns to neighbor and says it was an ally cat 15. Both parents see Sparky. They talk to Victor and don't understand him. 16. Parents decide Sparky can stay but he can't go outside at day. 17. Neighbors behave strangely. Victor's dad suggests Victor to introduce Sparky tonight to the neigbors so they see he's the same old good dog 18. Victor introduces Sparky, patched up by his mum, to his neighbors at home. They scream. Sparky gets afraid, causes havoc and runs away 19. Victor chases Sparky and is followed by his parents. Angry neighbors in tow want to catch Sparky. 20. Sparky and Victor enter an old mill 21. Victor and Sparky are in the attic of the mill when a man sets it on fire 22. Victor passes out and gets saved by Sparky 23. Sparky gets trapped in fire and dies 24. Neighbors understand the heroic act of Sparky and help Victor to bring Sparky back to life 25. Sparky comes back to life and everyone is happy.

Wow, great, Shari! You get some creative juju for that! Whoooosh! Now we can REALLY compare the story as it evolved. I wonder if there are any interviews with John August re the script development process? I'll check online to see.

My first take on some obvious differences I've noticed between the short movie and the longer version. Clearly, there more to discover. - In the short movie, Victor has friends and is not really a science kid like in the longer movie - In the short movie, Victor's parents discover Sparky and agree to keep him but out of sight of the neighbors - In the short movie, the white cat belongs to the male neighbor and the dog belongs to the female neighbor but they don't really play an important role like in the longer version. In the longer movie, the cat, Whiskers, belongs to a female classmate and the dog belongs to the niece of the mayor. Whiskers depicts something is going to happen to Victor and later this cat changes in the vampire cat. The dog seem to get along with Sparky and gets saved by Sparky. - In the short movie, the neighbors oppose Victor and in the longer movie, it's the kids who want to triumph at the science fair and conduct their own version of Victor's science project. - In the short movie, Victor follows Sparky who's afraid and hid in the mill, but ends up being saved by Sparky. In the longer version, Sparky ends up in the mill because he wants to save the dog and Elsa from the vampire cat. Victor follows him. Sparky saves them all before he gets dragged into the fire by the vampire cat and dies. - The longer version has subplots with classmates who creates their own monsters to win the science fair.