While working in Disney's animation department, the young Tim Burton created Frankenweenie, a black-and-white live-action short about a boy who resurrects his dog after it is killed by a car. The project was an unmistakable homage to Frankenstein, complete with macabre imagery and a melancholy emotional core, and it starred Barret Oliver, Shelley Duvall, and Daniel Stern. Burton had already developed a reputation inside Disney as an unusually dark and eccentric artist, producing concept work for films such as The Fox and the Hound, Tron, and The Black Cauldron. Frankenweenie pushed that sensibility beyond what the studio considered acceptable for its family audience. After the short was completed in 1984, Disney dismissed Burton, officially arguing that he had misused company resources on a film that was too frightening and inappropriate for children. The firing became one of the defining ironies of Burton's career: the studio rejected the sensibility that later made him one of Hollywood's most recognizable filmmakers, then eventually returned to Frankenweenie decades later for Burton's 2012 stop-motion feature adaptation.
Preparing the daily feature…
AI concept artworkArchive Record · 1980s
Disney Fired Tim Burton After He Made a Horror Film About a Dead Dog
Tim Burton / Frankenweenie / 1980s
While working in Disney's animation department, the young Tim Burton created Frankenweenie, a black-and-white live-action short about a boy who resurrects his dog after it is killed by a car. The project was an unmistakable homage to Frankenstein, complete with macabre imagery and a melancholy emotional core, and it starred Barret Oliver, Shelley Duvall, and Daniel Stern. Burton had already developed a reputation inside Disney as an unusually dark and eccentric artist, producing concept work for films such as The Fox and the Hound, Tron, and The Black Cauldron. Frankenweenie pushed that sensibility beyond what the studio considered acceptable for its family audience. After the short was completed in 1984, Disney dismissed Burton, officially arguing that he had misused company resources on a film that was too frightening and inappropriate for children. The firing became one of the defining ironies of Burton's career: the studio rejected the sensibility that later made him one of Hollywood's most recognizable filmmakers, then eventually returned to Frankenweenie decades later for Burton's 2012 stop-motion feature adaptation.
The daily feature is taking an intermission. There’s still an entire archive to explore.