Tim Burton and Disney Bring FRANKENWEENIE Back to Life With a Stop-Motion Adaptation of Burton’s Original Short Film

Tim Burton made a surprise appearance at the D23 Expo to display a 3-D teaser for his upcoming “Alice in Wonderland” feature, and announce his follow up project to be a stop-motion adaptation of “Frankenweenie,” one of the short films he made prior to his rookie feature-length directorial effort in “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure.”  More weenie after the jump.

The original short film “Frankenweenie” was a live-action fantasy about a kid scientist’s pet dog that gets hits by a car, and is resurrected back to life in the fashion of the Frankenstein monster (neck bolts and all), and begins to strike terror amongst the neighbors.  The film starred Shelley Duvall and Daniel Stern as the parents of the young mad doctor.

“Frankenweenie” was one of the projects that helped Tim Burton land “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure” which got his foot in the Hollywood door, which allowed the start of projects that he’s become known for over the past twenty-plus years; such as “Beetlejuice,” “Batman,” “Edward Scissorhands,” “Sleepy Hollow,” etc.   The film is not available for viewing as a stand-alone video, but it is part of Walt Disney Home Entertainment’s most recent special edition dvd and blu-ray of “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” which also contains another pre-Pee Wee short film of Burton’s called “Vincent.”

Click over to Coming Soon to get more of the scoop on Burton’s future project.