With this, I can check off one entire category from my list of nominations. It's a cute film, but I can't see it winning a statue. I thought it was better than ParaNorman and Pirates! but not nearly as good as Brave or Wreck-It Ralph, which --let's face it-- is my favorite animated film of the year.
After his beloved dog Sparky is killed by a car, Victor Frankenstein (Charlie Tahan) is heart-broken. But a science experiment on electricity by substitute teacher Mr. Rzykruski (Martin Landau) shows him that perhaps all hope is not lost. Victor hoists his dead dog into the night sky and allows Nature to pump 100,000 volts into him. Miraculously, Sparky returns. The local blabbermouth Edgar (Atticus Shaffer) sees the reanimated animal and threatens to tell the world about it unless Victor helps him with his science fair project. Victor turns his dead fish invisible and Edgar immediately tells the rest of the kids. Soon, the town of New Holland is overrun with science experiments gone amok and it's up to Victor to put everything back to rest.
There are references to pretty much every single black and white Universal horror classic here from The Wolf Man to Gojira and plenty of Tim Burton touches, too. The face of grumpy neighbor Mr. Burgemeister (Martin Short) looks like they took the head off of the father of the bride from Corpse Bride, and several notable Tim Burton actors are back including Catherine O'Hara and Winona Ryder. Your familiarity with these properties and/or tolerance of recycled material may affect your enjoyment of this film but there's absolutely one thing we can agree on: this beats the shit out of Dark Shadows.
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