Suspense, mystery, not-so-happy endings and a little fun are all part of what make scary stories exciting for tweens (and parents). We’ll never forget one Girl Scout camping trip when the girls gave endless accounts of “scary stories” exciting each other and putting the already exhausted moms to sleep. The appeal of a good scare with the magic of Disney and Tim Burton comes together to make “Frankenweenie” (in theaters on October 5th) a tween and parent friendly film.
To make it all even more exciting: Disney is hosting the Frankenweenie Monstrous Sweepstakes where one Grand Prize winner will receive a 4 day/3 night vacation to Disneyland Resort and Disney California Adventure Park to experience the world of Tim Burton and Frankenweenie during Halloween time! See more sweepstakes details and how to enter below.
And because we always have to make it a little educational, we’ve also included some “Frankenweenie” Fun Facts to share with the tweens.
Saludos,
Katherine & Cristy
“Frankenweenie” Fun Facts for Parents and Tweens
- “Frankenweenie” follows in the footsteps of Tim Burton’s other stop-motion animated films “Corpse Bride” and “The Nightmare Before Christmas”—both of which were nominated for Academy Awards®.
- Stop-motion animation is one of the oldest animation styles. There are 24 frames per second in the stop motion for “Frankenweenie.” This means that the animator must stop and position the puppet 24 times to get one second of filmed action. On average, one animator can only produce 5 seconds of animation per week. Multiple puppets of the same character allowed animators to work on more than one scene at once. There were as many as 18 animators working independently of each other at one time.
- “Frankenweenie” is the first animated film that Tim Burton has directed for Disney.
- All of the characters in “Frankenweenie” are based on Tim Burton’s drawings. He did some of the drawings in 1984 when the original live-action short of “Frankenweenie” was done and the others he drew especially for this new, feature-length animated version.
- Classic horror films from the 1930s, like “Frankenstein” and “Dracula,” inspired several of the character names—Victor, Elsa Van Helsing, Edgar “E” Gore and Mr. Burgemeister.
- Over 200 puppets and sets were created for the film; there were 17 Victors and 12 Sparkys. Since each animator worked independently on different scenes, multiples were needed. They also needed backup in case a puppet required repair.
- The Puppet Hospital on the “Frankenweenie” set was always full. These highly trained model makers spent months repairing limbs, fixing hair and skin issues and mending costumes that were ripped or dirty. This team even found time to create all of the generic background puppets as well as a few of the main characters from scratch.
- The first puppet designed for the show was Sparky and the scale that they established with him set the standard for the whole rest of the film. Tim Burton had a very specific vision for Sparky’s character and really wanted him to act and move like a real dog. The armature needed to be very intricate and 4 inches is literally the smallest they could make him and still have him display all the behavior and personality that was required. Once they had his size fixed, the puppet makers were able to scale the rest of the characters and sets properly.
Frankenweenie Monstrous Sweepstakes Details
Enter the Frankenweenie Monstrous Sweepstakes for a chance to win a spooktacular vacation for four to experience all the fun of Halloween Time at the Disneyland® Resort. Plus, don’t miss The Art of Frankenweenie Exhibit only at the newly expanded Disney California Adventure Park, where you can get an up-close look at the amazing world of Frankenweenie through sets, puppets, props and more. And for a limited time Guests will be treated to a special 4D extended preview of the film at the Muppets Vision 3D Theater before Frankenweenie comes to theaters in 3D October 5th!
