Badass Femmes is a bi-weekly column that I write on Crome Yellow about all the Badass Females in pop culture that has shaped my life.

As a woman in a male dominated world, it’s easy to feel helpless and preyed upon, having most of our opinions sidelined and our bodies served as eye candy. Needless to say, it’s an idea our media is happy to uphold, and one that Tim Burton’s iconic Batman Returns brings to light so well through Selina Kyle. Played by Michelle Pfeiffer, Kyle is the epitome of a working class woman, combating patriarchy and sexual harassment on the daily. It’s only when she hits rock bottom that she transforms into the resilient and powerful Catwoman, awakening a side of herself she never knew existed. Reborn as the lethal femme fatale, she fights against the very system that made her who she is – it’s a poignant, tragic transformation, one that’s too important to ignore

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Year: 2012
Director: Tim Burton
Cast: Charlie Tahan, Catherine O'Hara, Winona Ryder, Martin Short
Country of Origin: U.S.
Rating: PG
Time: 87 mins.

Tim Burton goes back to his roots with this black and white, stop-motion animation, family flick, Frankenweenie, which is his most personal and endearing film yet. In the 80's, Burton worked at Disney as an animator. Obviously, he wasn't able to fit to the Disney mold so instead, he resorted to making short films based on his ideas. During this time, he made two films, Vincent and Frankenweenie. Thirty years later, he's finally able to make a feature length film that is an accumulation of all of his films combined. Frankenweenie is quintessential Tim Burton from the misunderstood outcast to the gothic visuals to its fantasy elements. But while his previous films all held to this standard, his last two films Alice in Wonderland (2010) and Dark Shadows (2012), it seemed like Burton focused more on being a stylist than a director which handicapped his story and characters to merely be characterize as another picture of Johnny Depp being weird. Burton fans know his trademarks and scenery all too well but will be surprised how touching and normal this film actually is. Now, that's weird. 

Like I said in my review of Tim Burton's Dark Shadows earlier this year (read here), that his films are filled with such eccentricities that it can only be enjoyed by a few. This is not the case in Frankenweenie, considering this is a universal story about a boy and his dog. Victor (Charlie Tahan) is an introverted kid living in a small Dutch-influenced town in the same era as Edward Scissorhands, with his best friend Sparky, his dog. Victor's father agrees to sign his science fair permission slip if he signs up to play baseball but after a game, tragedy hits when Sparky chases a ball into the street. After seeing his science teacher re-animate a dead frog through electricity, it inspires Victor to do the same and magically succeeds and reunites with Sparky. Naturally, with all the barking, prancing, and dog parts falling off, the resurrection of Sparky doesn't stay a secret for too long when his science fair contenders and classmates are eager to test the experiments on their own deceased pets. 

This is one of the very few films that doesn't have another Burton trademark: Helena Boham Carter and Johnny Depp. The absence of his two favorite actors is refreshing in Frankenweenie with Catherine O'Hara filling in their spots with flair and ease. Winona Ryder, an early collaborator of Burton returns as Elsa Van Helsing, the girl next door. I was sadden by the miniature amount of screen time she had. For the few minutes that we shared, her voice haunted me with flashes of her piercing angelic beauty in Edward Scissorhands (1990) and gothic idiosyncraticities in Beetlejuice (1988). Each classmate of Victor's look as if they came straight out of a Boris Karloff film with their hunchback, gapped tooth, blunt hair cuts, doe eyes, overly rectangular jaw, and jet black hair. His classmates' vehement longing to win the science fair with ill-intentions causes their experiment to go haywire erupting havoc on the town. Some sensitive children may whimper at some scenes, even I was biting my nails in suspense and horror. Frankenweenie provides insight to life and death of a kid and his best friend but it delivers the message of unrelenting hope that gives the film the biggest heart that any Burton film has ever had. A-

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Frankenweenie

(2012, Tim Burton)

Grade: A-

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Year: 2012

Director: Tim Burton

Cast: Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Eva Green

Region of Origin: U.S.

Rating: PG-13

Time: 113 mins

Like most Tim Burton films, Dark Shadows is filled with such eccentricities that can only be enjoyed by a few. The target audiences are either Burton fans, who will watch anything he comes out with or the fans of the actors. I mean Chloe Moretz in a Tim Burton film, IM IN! Guilty as charged, I fall into both of these categories. Even though the film is an adaptation of the 60’s broadcast of Dark Shadows, most of the audiences were in their teens to early twenties who probably have never heard of Dark Shadows before this film. Embarrassingly, I must admit that I fell asleep. Possibly from the lack of sleep the night before or because of the sheer prolonged and unsensical happenings on screen. Which is the real reason is still unknown.

After being rejected by Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp), servant Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green) kills his parents and the love of his life Josette DuPres (Bella Heathcote). If that wasn’t enough she turns him into a vampire and buried alive for 200 years so that his suffering would never end.  

This is Johnny Depp and Tim Burton’s Eighth collaboration together and it feels as if Depp is evolving and Burton is just treading in the same chill pool of darkness for all these years. I mean, if it’s not broken don’t fix it right? Every single character that Depp has played through Burton’s vision is continuously without a doubt engraved in people’s mind for all of pop culture eternity. Even in this weirder than his usual character as Barnabas Collins, he speaks eloquently and as-a-matter-of-factly. Collins with his caked face and vampire gear stands out like a sore thumb in the midst of the bellbottom, long hair, and free loving hippie era of 1970’s. Yet again, even though the film wasn’t completely satisfactory, Depp has created a character that is worthy of remembrance.

Rather than focusing on the plot, this film was filled with quirky and memorable characters. Every single character from Chloe Moretz’s teenage angsty Carolyn Stoddard to newcomer Bella Heathcote as Victoria Winters’ ice cold eyes and melodic voice is a charm all in it’s own. Heathcote plays both Barnabas’s long lost love, Josette and Governess of the youngest Collins boy who can see ghosts, David Collins (Gulliver McGrath), Victoria Winters.  The best part of Burton’s films is that he discovers these diamonds in the rough types and most of them so happens to be found in Australia. Like Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland), Heathcote is Australian and won the Heath Ledger scholarship, an award set up by the actor’s family after his death to give Australian actors a chance to make it in L.A. After moving to L.A. and getting a few jobs, in 2010, her manager called and said "Tim Burton saw your picture", and that was that! I don’t know if it was her icy, gothic look that captivated Burton but it was her unexpectedly endearing voice that caught my attention. 

I'm also enthralled that Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children, Watchmen) was part of the Collins clan as their drunken manor caretaker. He is such an underrated actor! Everyone in Dark Shadows couldn’t have been more better casted. No one actor overpowered another with their “superior” acting skills or whatnot. They were individually memorable and quirky in their own way. Moretz did not let me down either.  Her character has Carolyn Stoddard portrayed exactly what a teenager from the 1970’s would be. Despite her only being fourteen at the time of the filming, her character oozed with sexuality, angst, and rebellion. And seriously, don't get me started on Michelle Pfeiffer! I was so glad to see her in another film, it just felt so long since I last saw her in Stardust (2007). I can't believe she was in New Year's Eve (2011) either. That's pretty low Michelle, I know you can do better. She was able to show us a different side of her as sour-faced woman of the house, Elizabeth Collins Stoddard.

If the film is sliced into moment and segments, it truly shows the character's individual quality that make Dark Shadows so great. But put the whole picture together, the story lacks the coherent messages that films need. It gets lost halfway in the midst of Alice Cooper's performance at the Collins mansion (and the point was...?) The point was for funsies and nothing more. We get it, now get back to the story. I guess it was about 3/4 of the way through, my eyelids started to get heavy. And during the climax, something so bizarre happened, i wasn't sure if i was dreaming or not. As a Tim Burton fan, I used to go to watch his films to drown myself in his idiosyncrasies as a filmmaker. But now after Alice in Wonderland (2010), I go for mindless fun. Now, that's another thing I dont know if it's a good thing or not. B

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Tim Burton is making his own remake of Alice in Wonderland and of course he is having his two beloved actors, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter respectively, to play the mad hatter and the red queen. to my surprise, anne hathaway is chosen to play the white witch. and newcomer mia wasikowska is set to play alice.

firstshowing.net said that "Interestingly, this is somewhat of a sequel to Disney's animated movie from 1951. "Alice, 17, attends a party at a Victorian estate only to find she is about to be proposed to in front of hundreds of snooty society types. Off she runs, following a white rabbit into a hole and ending up in Wonderland, a place she visited 10 years before yet doesn't remember."
im extremely excited how this film is going to turn out. ill keep you posted until tim burton's alice in wonderland comes out on march 5, 2010 on both 3-d and 2-d. yayyyy!

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this is a complete dream come true. my favorite actor and director are coming together and making a uberviolent WWII film called inglorious basstards, with pitt as protagonist Lieut. Aldo Raine. Simon Pegg (hot fuzz), eli roth (dir: hostel), and b.j. novak (the office) has joined the cast as im assuming, as part of pitt's army. it is due out june 2009. 

Tim Burton has decided to recreate the classic Lewis Carroll fairy tale, Alice in Wonderland in 3-D. and who else would burton cast as of one the characters none other than depp? depp will possibly star as the mad hatter which does sound like a complete trip. the 1999 tv debut version of wonderland, as i can recall seemed imaginative and well cast. but i have no doubt that burton will really capture the imagery and story of carroll's story. i wonder who will be the cheshire cat because i can vaguely remember whoopi goldberg being pretty fitting for that part. regardless of the cast, i know with burtons name on any project, itll result in dark (yet colorful) imagery and induce a trip on the audience when the film comes out in 2010. (and duuh, its going to be in 3-D!!!!) 

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