Tim Burton's Gothic Imagination

Note:
Frankenweenie is available as a special feature on The Nightmare Before Christmas DVD and
Vyvyan Stranieri has provided material that focuses on Frankenweenie’s visual language in
The Fantastical Imaginings of Tim Burton, http://www.acmi.net.au/ed-kit-tim-burton.htm.
Discussion questions
• What is Gothic about Frankenweenie? Think about:
o narrative features
o themes
o the visual features of the film
o the soundtrack
o the characters
• In Frankenweenie, Tim Burton uses suburbia to explore the different meanings
attached to death and the unknown.
o Which characters prove to be the ones without any vision or ‘soul’?
o Why do the neighbours behave the way they do?
o How does Burton use dark and light, sunshine and nighttime to explore
the feelings and behaviour of the people who live in the local
neighbourhood?
• Frankenweenie’s pretty suburban setting seems to have come directly out of a
family sitcom. In contrast, the cemetery and the mini-golf course are presented
in the mode of a horror film.
o What is the effect of this contrast?
o If Burton is interested in revealing the dark impulses that lurk beneath
the bland surface of Victor’s community, why does he make this
suburban world so superficially pretty?
• Frankweenie was originally planned as a short to accompany the re-release of the
Disney animation Pinocchio but its PG rating meant that this couldn’t happen.
When Burton asked what he could cut from the film in order to get a G rating, he
was told the issue was the ‘tone’.
o What is meant by ‘tone’ in this context?
o What aspects of Frankenweenie might seem unsuitable for small
children?
FREE FOR EDUCATION Education Resources Tim Burton’s Gothic Imagination 15