The Dream Factory: Frankenweenie

Frankenweenie directed by Tim Burton
Walt Disney Pictures 2012
Rated PG
Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Nominee 2013
BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film Nominee 2013
Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film Nominee 2013
Annie Award for Best Animated Feature Nominee 2013
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I can clearly remember being seven and first seeing advertisements for The Nightmare Before Christmas in my Disney Adventures magazine.  Mr. Burton's ghoulish ink illustrations, used as promotional art, captured my imagination and I began to entreat my parents to take me to the film, though no one else in the family was particularly interested in going to see it.  The film, my first experience with stop motion animation, ignited a lifelong love for the art form, as well as for the story's writer, Mr. Burton.

Since 1993, Mr. Burton has both inspired me and disappointed me, but as I sat in the cinema waiting for his latest creation to begin, I had high hopes that Frankenweenie would belong to the former group and I was not disappointed.

The film follows the same storyline as that of the 1984 short (which I have fond childhood memories of watching every Halloween on the Disney Channel).  When Victor Frankenstein's dog is hit by a car, he attempts to resurrect him with electricity on a stormy night and succeeds.  The film, needing to flesh out the plot, introduces a science fair at Victor's school, and discovering Victor's project, the other students (all of them parodies of some horror figure or other), resurrect their own pets.  But, their motivations being quite different than Victor's, the pets rampage through the town and Victor must devise a way to stop them.

I wasn't expecting this film to be a comedy, but I found myself laughing aloud quite frequently at the numerous horror references sprinkled throughout the film.  Most of these jokes went over the heads of the children in attendance, and I think my husband and I were the only ones laughing most of the time due to the demographics of our particular screening.  But the relationship between Victor and Sparky, his dog, are something all people with pets can relate to, so the references shouldn't prevent non-horror fans from enjoying the film.

Aside from what felt, to me, like a mixed message about science and the failure to teach younger viewers a valuable lesson about letting go, the film hit all the right notes.  This is Mr. Burton as himself, filled with whimsical nostalgia and none of the soulless commercialism of his last few films.

Sara's Library: This Dark Endeavor

This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel
Simon & Schuster 2011
ALA Teens' Top Ten Nominee 2012
Bram Stoker Award for Young Adult Novel Nominee 2012
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I have been a fan of the macabre and gothic for as long as I can remember.  I think I first read Poe in third grade, which I followed up the next year with Hugo's Notre Dame de Paris.  Although Frankenstein was assigned reading during my senior year of high school, I had read it years earlier.  So when I began to see reviews for Kenneth Oppel's prequel, This Dark Endeavor, I knew I had to read it.

In this prequel, Victor Frankenstein has an identical twin brother, Konrad, who he believes to be his better at just about everything.  When Konrad becomes ill with an unknown (and perhaps incurable disease), Victor, his cousin Elizabeth, and their friend Henry decide to save him...through alchemy.  The trio discover a secret library of alchemical texts in the Frankenstein manor, but cannot decipher the archaic texts.  Learning of a disgraced alchemist, Dr. Polidori, living in the slums of Geneva, the group seek out his aid and soon embark on dangerous adventures for the ingredients required for the Elixir of Life.

Meanwhile, the family solicits the advice of an experimental doctor who determines that Konrad's disease is what we now know as leukemia.  While he is able to improve Konrad's condition, he cannot cure it, driving Victor to try yet harder to create the Elixir.

But is it truly brotherly love that drives Victor into this frenzy?  Or the desire to excel at something which his brother never can?  Darker yet, is Victor's secret desire to usurp his brother, especially in the heart of Elizabeth.

One of my only qualms with this book is that it doesn't stylistically mirror its "descendant."  While that marvelous work was an epistolary novel, this one is not.  The prose attempts to affect the style of the period, though I did find Victor's sense of humour a tad out of place, feeling somewhat modern at times.  While the characters are not the most complex or original, often falling into tropes of young adult fiction (snarky protagonist, headstrong girl, etc.), the work substantially reworks Ms. Shelley's story, leading readers to piece together that Victor's later creation is not a mishmash at all, but his brother.  Given the love triangle developing between the brothers and Elizabeth, one can imagine there will be bad blood between the two before events lead to the Modern Prometheus.

Mr. Oppel has already written a second work in the prequel sequence, titled Such Wicked Intent and released at the end of August.  While I've not yet had a chance to read it, I certainly intend to, and if the title is any indication, we can expect it to grow considerably darker.

Once Upon a Time...in Geneva?

Once Upon a Time Season 2 Episode 5: "The Doctor"

Having been a fan of Once Upon a Time since it began airing last season, I like to guess the fairy tale counterparts of the Storybrooke community before they are revealed.  One character whose identity had been perplexing viewers since the series' inception was Dr. Whale...at least until last week's episode.  Within the first ten or fifteen minutes I had my suspicions as to his true identity, given the plot of the episode, which was Dr. Whale attempting to bring Regina's dead lover Daniel back from the dead.  Add in his Storybrooke name (an allusion to the director of the 1931 film version) and what do you get...Victor Frankenstein.

While some viewers may be left scratching their heads as to why a character from a science fiction/horror novel written in 1818 is a character on a fairy tale show, I think it was a rather interesting move on the part of the writers.  First of all, it reminds me of the comic Fables and its spin-off Jack of Fables, as its author Bill Willingham included various public domain characters and even genres themselves as characters.  We've already seen characters from legend (Mulan) and children's fantasy novels -- which some consider literary fairy tales -- (Jefferson/Mad Hatter and Hook).  While I wasn't particularly expecting Frankenstein, I think given Rumple's scheme of traveling to a world without magic to find his son, this new addition is an interesting twist.  I personally have been hoping for Oz and Narnia characters to turn up, so we'll see what happens.

As for Victor Frankenstein, he's been turning up in a number of places recently, not just Sunday night television.  Look for posts on Frankenweenie and the novel This Dark Endeavor soon.

At the Theatre: A Spoonful of Musical Magic

I never enjoyed the film version of Mary Poppins when I was growing up.  I'm not entirely sure why, though I suspect that my reasons are similar to those held by P.L. Travers, the author of the novels, in that the film was too sugary.  I've somehow never read the novels, but I've now seen the musical adaptation twice, first in Chicago in 2009 and again last week here in Pittsburgh.  And I adore it.

Lolita often seem to gravitate toward children's fantasy from the Victorian and Edwardian eras, especially Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Peter Pan, so I feel that Mary Poppins should be getting more attention.  The play, at least, is whimsical without being too twee, with elaborate sets and special effects that bring Mary's magical world to life.  During the "Step in Time" number, the actor portraying Bert dances on the walls and ceiling of the proscenium stage, and in the Chicago production, Mary flew over the audience during the finale (being a one-week touring engagement, I imagine there was not time to prepare and test the proper rigging needed for that trick here in Pittsburgh).  With epic nanny battles, statues that come to life, and flying umbrellas, I think there's enough magic here to satisfy the Alice-loving Lolita.  And, of course, the ideas of striving to be one's best and retaining the kindness of childhood, which are present throughout, are tenets of most lifestyle Lolitas, which should add to the appeal.

If you find yourself in New York or the tour is coming to your city, please check out the musical.  And remember: anything can happen.

Pulled in a New Direction

After giving it much thought, I decided to attempt to revive this blog. Back in February, I stopped writing for a number of reasons, including being inundated with assigned reading and projects for graduate school and simply having too many books to review, as the idea of attempting to review them all was incredibly daunting! I have since graduated with my MLIS and find myself with too much time on my hands, having not yet found employment. However, I do not intend for this blog to be quite the same as it had been previously. I was stressing myself by trying to review everything I read, so that will no longer be the case. I was also bored with my posts, as they were all reviews. So, after some contemplation, I have decided to give this blog a new direction. It will retain its name and there will still be a number of reviews. However, the focus of said reviews will be shifting. Rather than being a children's and young adult fiction review blog, "An Obsolete Child" will have a more personal focus and a lolita bent. Reviews will focus on those genres I most enjoy, whether the intended demographic is child, adolescent, or adult. Such genres include fairy/folk tale, fantasy/fantastique, gothic, and historical fiction (Georgian to Edwardian). I will also be writing about films, television series, and comics that pique my interest, as well as goings-on in the Pittsburgh area and thoughts on trends in lolita fashion.

To those who have read my blog in the past, I apologize if the new direction will be cause for you to abandon ship. For those who wish to see where our new course will lead, I will be working on several posts throughout the upcoming week. Thank you and welcome aboard.