Frankenweenie made it to the cheap theater last week so I went to see it. I didn’t know anything about it except for the poster, which led me to believe that it was an animated Frankenstein with a cute dog. I’m not sure what it says about me that I thought that was a great idea for a movie. I was a little concerned when I got inside the theater and it was filled with children. I thought back to when I saw Babe at the theater and the children acted pretty much the same as they did in the Bride of the Monster premiere in another Tim Burton film, Ed Wood. But there was nothing to worry about.

Frankenweenie is the best big budget film I’ve seen in years. In fact, I’ve started behaving the way I did when I first saw Ed Wood: I’ve started dragging friends to see it. I have a hard time believing that anyone wouldn’t thoroughly enjoy it. Yet strangely, it doesn’t have a 100% rating on MetaCritic. Then again, what do those idiot film ombudsmen know?

The film tells the story of young Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant young scientists who makes movies featuring his only real friend: his dog, Sparky. In return for allowing him to enter the science fair, Victor is forced by his father to play baseball. Victor manages to hit a home run, but Sparky chases after the ball and is killed by a car. Following a demonstration of the effects of electricity on a dead frog by his science teacher Mr. Rzykruski, Victor decides to dig up his dog and bring it back to life.

Spoiler: it works!

Extra spoiler: the movie has a happy ending, unlike Frankenstein.

Everything about the film is first rate. But the two things that really make it work are the animation design and the story. Unless you’ve been living under a rock that doesn’t allow you to get out much, you must be familiar with Tim Burton’s visual style. Frankenweenie is very much in keeping with another fine film, Nightmare Before Christmas. I think it works really well, but I can imagine there are those who have no taste and thus won’t like it.

The story moves along at an extremely brisk pace. It never gets bogged down. Twice in the film they seem to have cut connecting scenes. They jolted me, but I think the film is better to just get on with it. After all, its not like the whole Frankenstein formula is all that believable.

What I most liked about Frankenweenie was its many references to the great tradition of horror films. These are not limited to Frankenstein, although there are more than enough of those including the finale at the windmill. There is also the science teacher, Mr. Rzykruski who sounds an awful lot like Bela Lugosi but looks like Vincent Price. And at one point, Victor’s parents are watching one of the Christopher Lee Dracula movies.

But I realize that all of this is what my friend Kristen would call “movie fuck” stuff. Not everyone likes this. But if you don’t get all the movie nerd references, it won’t matter. The film is above all charming. I will certainly buy it when it comes out on DVD.

Update (10 November 2012 9:58 pm)

I just found this great article in the Examiner, Classic Horror References Bring ‘Frankenweenie’ to Life. It notes a number of things that I didn’t pick up in the film:

Tom Scocca over at Slate created the graph below in an article, Eighty-Eight Percent of Romney Voters Were White. It is a shocking collection of data. Of course, it goes along with my argument that the minority issue the Republicans have is much bigger than toning down the rhetoric.

Another interesting thing to note is how ridiculous is the idea that Obama didn’t get a mandate. If Romney didn’t win, you could say it depended upon a single segment of the electorate. But you just can’t say that about Obama. Those claiming that Obama doesn’t have a mandate are racists. Just saying.

The following graph comes from Up With Chris Hayes of data from the AFL-CIO. Part of this is just that America is a racist country. But another big part of this is the result of Republican efforts to stop Democratic leaning voters. It is disgusting.

Over the years, I have seen the leaders of many regions call for separating themselves from the mother country. But this is always rich regions wanting to take their money and run. For a while Scotland wanted to leave the United Kingdom because they liked all their oil money, thank you very much. True to form, America does everything assbackwards.

Hardin County Texas Republican Party treasurer Peter Morrison is floating the idea that he doesn’t want to live in a democracy. Okay, he doesn’t put it like that. Instead, he claims that since he didn’t manage to force half the country to have to put up with his chosen candidate, he shouldn’t have to put up with theirs. The logic doesn’t really work, but so what? He’s a Texan!

Morrison is calling for an “amicable divorce.” How amicable? As amicable as any husband who refers to his wife as a maggot. I swear I’m not making that up.

What I find most interesting is that these calls for secession always come from the south or Alaska: areas that get a lot more from the federal government than they pay in. To be fair, Morrison’s home state of Texas gives a lot more than it gives. For every dollar of taxes, it gets 85 cents back. But it is part of a broader southern move. Back in 2010, Tennessee Representative Zach Wamp was calling for secession over Obamacare.

The issue of how much money a state gets back for the taxes it pays in is not real, of course. The truth is that the biggest determinant of this difference is the age of the population. Older citizens get Social Security and Medicare. These are very expensive programs that are paid for exclusively by younger citizens. The issue instead is that people in “red” states tend to think of themselves as autonomous: they send all this money to the feds and receive nothing for it. This just isn’t true. (A better case can be made for states like Delaware and New Jersey that get less than half the money back that they pay in.)

A lot of liberals would like to see the south secede. But the truth is, it would be a very bad thing. I’m not talking about the conservatives. I’m more than willing to let them experience the truth of their situation. The problem is that there are a lot of liberals who live in these states. It is wrong for us to abandon them to the likes of Rick Perry.

What’s really funny about Morrison’s little article is what it shows about the Tea Party mentality. They’ve convinced themselves of their talking points. Obama isn’t just a politician who differs with them on the issues: he is a man dedicated to destroying the United States. To quote John Dickinson (in 1776 anyway), “If you have grievances, and I’m sure you have, our present system must provide a gentler means of redressing them short of revolution!”

Of course, I’m not really sure what Morrison and his ilk are on about. I suspect that they are a good deal closer to the President’s policies than I am. But even granting that these people have real rather than imagined grievances, how can secession be the answer? Liberals have lived through decades during which presidents—Republican and Democrat—have pushed our nation ever to the right. Yet liberals do not call for secession.

Update (12 November 2012 4:57 pm)

David Atkins over at Hullabaloo presents us with the following table that indicates that Texas does a little better by the Fed than the data I have. It changes from year to year, but this table is really interesting: