Voices: Charlie Tahan, Atticus Shaffer, Martin Landau, Martin Short, Catherine O’hara, Winona Ryder
Writers: John August, Leonard Ripps based on a story by Tim Burton
Director: Tim Burton
Distributor: Walt Disney Home Entertainment
Suggested Retail Price: $49.99

One of the most criminally overlooked animated features from last fall was Tim Burton’s FRANKENWEENIE, a black and white stop-motion animated feature based on his 1984 live action short. Now that it’s arrived as a four-disc special edition, hopefully people will finally discover what a great and original film this is.

The story follows young tyke Victor Frankenstein who is tied to the hip with his best friend and dog Sparky. He loves his dog and even makes home made movies for that his loyal dog stars in.

Then a horrible accident occurs – Sparky is killed by a car and Victor attempts to bring him back to life. It works, but other kids in the neighborhood find out about his secret and they start to bring their pets back to life too. The end result is a undead pet-palooza by the movie’s end as the action and humor are ratcheted up with some very funny classic movie homages.

While the original short only focused on paying homage to FRANKENSTEIN, the new film needed more material to stretch it to feature length, and the dead pets coming back to life turns out to be a surprisingly and original way to go since it allows for spoofs of other monster movies including those old GODZILLA movies.

The stop motion animation is phenomenal, and while it was a big risk to do the film in black and white, there’s really no other way to capture the flavor and style of the classic Universal horror films that Burton is paying homage to.

Like the original short too, this story is a bit dark for younger kids as well, but considering how THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS took years for it to be appreciated by younger audiences, a similar fate seems destined for this too.

The 4-disc special edition includes a Blu-ray, DVD, Digital Copy and a Special 3D Blu-ray which allows you to view the film as it was in theaters. While most 3D movies tend to be a bit thin on actual 3D, the stop motion world really comes to life in this format. There’s an immersive quality to it, but there’s also an old-school, “comin’ at ya” style to the 3D which is more than welcome as well.

The special features includes the original FRANKENWEENIE short and watching it again, side-by-side with the feature, it’s cool to see how much of the short is actually recreated in stop-motion. The short holds up well too, and really makes for a nice alterna-universe for the stop motion feature.

There’s a bonus FRANKENWEENIE short as well called “Sparky Vs. The Flying Saucers” that showcases one of Victor’s pre-undead Sparky movies as he battles flying saucers. It’s a fun two-minute bonus to add to an already great film.

A standard making of featurette is included, showing how the movie was made in the London studios, a look at a Frankenweenie touring exhibit featurette, and a music video of the Plain White T’s doing a cover of the classic Ramones song “Pet Sematary”.

While Tim Burton had a major misfire with the live action DARK SHADOWS last year, FRANKENWEENIE definitely redeemed him. It’s a dark, original and one of the best animated films of 2012. Sure, it would have been nice for it to be as embraced by audiences like HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA (which came out a week before FRANKENWEENIE did) but, as Burton’s films have proven, time will be the true judge of its longevity. And the odds are very good for this one indeed.

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Tim Burton and his muse Danny Elfman keep doing their darndest to give life to the genie in a stop-motion bottle that was THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, first assembling the body pieces of THE CORPSE BRIDE, and now the doggie bits that comprise FRANKENWEENIE. And even if the public can’t quite seem to get Jack Skellington out of their minds, or ears, it doesn’t mean that this gleefully demonic duo isn’t applying a different shot of energy each time at winged bat (or winged cat-bat demon in this film’s case).

Where BRIDE mainly drew life from the comedic opera stylings of Gilbert and Sullivan, FRANKENWEENIE finds inspiration in the warped suburban wonderland of EDWARD SCISSORHANDS by way of the 50′s sci-fi shtick of MARS ATTACKS, all while jigging the pieces about into a new creation, fueled by equal parts heart and mock terror. Sure there’s the Elfman horror pastiche that also filled this summer’s DARK SHADOWS with Burton.

But what truly distinguishes FRANKENWEENIE is that its protagonists are stop motion kids. Subsequently, Elfman’s stormy menace is inflected with an adolescent’s sense of wonder, hearing the act of unholy creation as done out of love for a pet instead of spite against God- something that was the undoing of an older guy named Victor Frankenstein. All this monster wants to do is lick you, making FRANKENWEENIE veer between terrifyingly humorous orchestrations and the kind of bell-filled sentimentality that would befit a guy stuck with sharp appendages.

FRANKENWEENIE is always in hyperactive cartoon mode, flurrying about like Carl Stalling in a Franz Waxman BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN mood. We also get a1930’s black and white orchestra, along with a wacked 50′s Theremin that at times makes FRANKENWEENIE seem like the steroid soundtrack for the Ed Wood monster picture that Elfman always wanted to score. But in the end, it’s the swellingly magical choral and string sweetness of a little boy and his dog that sticks with you along with a truly genius horror-ification of Disney’s opening signature tune of “When You Wish Upon A Star” – easily the coolest bit of studio logo music subversion since Elliot Goldenthal turned Alfred Newman’s Fox fanfare to dissonance for ALIEN 3.

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The Los Angeles Premiere of Disney’s FRANKENWEENIE was recently held at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood. FRANKENWEENIE is from creative genius Tim Burton and is a heartwarming tale of a boy and his dog. Filmed in black and white, the story makes you think of the original FRANKENSTEIN. When young Victor’s (voiced by Charlie Tahan) dog Sparky dies unexpectedly he uses the power of science to bring him back to life. As Victor tries to hide his home-sewn creation Sparky gets out and fellow students, teachers and the entire town learn that getting a new “leash on life” can be monstrous.

The atmosphere at the premiere consisted of a white carpet and a black and white backdrop, and most of the guests and talent arrived wearing black. Setup near me was a fenced in place with point and shoot cameras, which housed dogs that had been rescued and they called them “Puppyrazzi” in honor of Sparky.

Walking the carpet were the voice-over actors, which included: Charlie Tahan (Victor Frankenstein), Winona Ryder (Elsa Van Helsing), Atticus Shaffer (Edgar “E” Gore), Martin Short (Mr. Frankenstein, Massor and Mr. Burgemeister), Catherine O’Hara (Mrs. Frankenstein, Weird Girl and Gym Teacher), Martin Landau (Mr. Rzykruski), Robert Capron (Bob), Conchata Ferrell (Bob’s Mom), Tom Kenny (Various Voices), Tim Burton (Director/Producer), John August (Screenplay), and Rick Heinrichs (Production Designer).

Joining the stars were guests, which included: Chihuahua’s from Disney’s Chihuahua movies, Teala Dunn, Katherine McNamara, Fileena Bahris, Geno Segers, Kendra Wilkinson, Hank Baskett, Sean Kanan, Skylar Grey, Ian Patrick, Grace Potter, Ryan Ochoa, Luke Benward, Adam Chambers, Kerris Dorsey, Peyton List, Cole Jensen, Chris Galya, Marcia Gay Harden, Raphael Sbarge, Jennifer Aspen, Cassandra Peterson aka Elvira, Catherine Bell, David Arquette, Rufus Wainwright, Tia Carrera and Jennie Garth.

FRANKENWEENIE is now playing.

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Kearran Giovanni in MAJOR CRIMES - Season 1 | ©TNT/Karen Neal

In TNT’s MAJOR CRIMES, which has its first-season finale tonight, Monday at 9 PM, a lot of characters in the Major Crimes squad room have had to make an adjustment. Their previous boss, Kyra Sedgwick’s Brenda Leigh Johnson on THE CLOSER, was a results-at-all-costs type. Their new supervisor on the spinoff, Mary McDonnell’s Captain Sharon Raydor, is a former Internal Affairs officer who’s a stickler for the rules.

However, for Kearran Giovanni’s character Detective Amy Sikes, who is new to the squad, Raydor is a mentor and a role model. They get along very well.

Giovanni worked on the daytime drama ONE LIFE TO LIVE, but up until now, she’s primarily been a stage performer, with nine Broadway productions under her belt, including CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, the revival of FINIAN’S RAINBOW and the concert HUGH JACKMAN: BACK ON BROADWAY.

Seated in a canvas chair near Amy’s desk on the MAJOR CRIMES squad room set, Giovanni talks about her first nighttime drama series regular gig.

ASSIGNMENT X: Were you and/or your character Amy Sikes ever on THE CLOSER?

GIOVANNI: I was not on THE CLOSER. Graham [Patrick Martin as Rusty Beck] and I are new regulars on MAJOR CRIMES.

AX: What can you tell us about your character?

GIOVANNI: Basically, I’m kind of the young gun on the show. I’m ex-military and I’m an undercover S.I.S. member and I come in with a little bit of conflict with G.W. [Bailey, who plays Provenza]  to shake it up a little bit, and I become part of the squad eventually and join the ranks of the police. She does a lot of undercover work, so you’ll see through the season that if there’s someone who needs to go undercover and use a gun, it’s usually me.

AX: Did you go through any particular training for your role?

GIOVANNI: I did. I actually worked with a man, Marcus Semos, who actually took me out shooting for about four hours on a Saturday and basically military-trained me with the weapons I use to enforce – an automatic rifle, a nine-millimeter Glock and a shotgun. I also grew up shooting, so it wasn’t anything new for me. It was near and dear to my heart.

AX: Any other kind of physical training?

GIOVANNI: You know, I have to say I’m lucky. I’ve danced and done gymnastics for twenty years. I’ve been on Broadway for ten years dancing. I take yoga, I take gymnastics still, and so I keep in shape with that. And the gun training basically helped me with my positioning. It helped me not look like a girl holding a gun. It made me look like I know what I’m doing and that I’ve been military-trained, as opposed to just cop-trained.

AX: What brought you from Broadway to television?

GIOVANNI: You know what? I’d done a bit of [television] in New York, and I was on a soap, ONE LIFE TO LIVE, for a few years. Broadway was my first love, because that’s what I trained to do, and I do sing and I do dance and I do act, but I think a lot of people on Broadway, especially that have been doing it for a long time, we kind of long for something else, and I always wanted to be here [in Los Angeles] – it’s just hard to make the move without having a wonderful job like this. So when this came along, and I read the character, and I read with [MAJOR CRIMES creator/executive producer] James [Duff], “This is it. I’m going. Let’s do it.”

AX: Any possibility that Amy may go undercover onstage in a musical?

GIOVANNI: I don’t know. I’ve been trying to convince them to do an undercover karaoke bar thing, so we’ll see. Maybe Season 2, she’ll go undercover and do some singing. Who knows?

AX: Were you familiar with Mary McDonnell’s work prior to joining this cast?

GIOVANNI: Absolutely. A, I was familiar with her work, and B, I’d only heard wonderful things about her, that she was kind of the Mother Earth wherever she went, and she’s been like a mom to me. She kind of holds my hand and teaches me and helps me through working her and being the new girl, and she’s fantastic.

AX: What’s the relationship like between your two characters?

GIOVANNI: You know, Mary and I were just talking about this when we started, that it’s nice to actually have two strong women on a show that aren’t at war, in conflict. We are both very much on the same boat and if you watch the show very closely, there’s always a look to each other, or an acknowledgement of each other, a mutual respect, and that’s really nice to have on the show.

AX: Captain Raydor is much fonder of rules than Brenda Leigh Johnson was. So your character is a rule-follower?

GIOVANNI: Oh, yes. If Raydor says it, that’s what goes, and yeah, I’m very much a military, straight-laced, follow the rules, check every angle kind of person on the show.

AX: Why are Amy’s relationships like with the rest of the people on the squad?

GIOVANNI: Funnily enough, Raymond Cruz, who plays Sanchez – Sanchez and I both have a lot of gun training, as far as our characters, and so he and I, if there’s any kind of dangerous situation or they need two people going in, it’s usually he and I that are going in together, and we do have a funny brother and sister relationship. He completely reminds me of my brother, and so we get along great, and so usually it’s he and I that are – our minds are always thinking alike, and usually you’ll see us together, doing a lot of things.

AX: Is there anything you’ve learned about police work since you’ve been on MAJOR CRIMES that’s surprised you?

GIOVANNI: Mmm. You know, on this show, we talk a lot about saving money and making sure that the police department doesn’t have to pay for things, and so you don’t realize that these things are also taken into consideration when you think about the death penalty or should we quickly put someone in jail, that there is a whole back story explaining that it’s the state’s money and how that actually comes into play when they make all these decisions [about what should happen to convicted criminals] as well.

AX: Do you have any other projects that we should know about?

GIOVANNI: I’m actually in pre-production right now, or I was right before I left [New York} City, for BIG FISH, which Susan Strohman is doing, which is [based on the Tim Burton-directed] movie [based on Daniel Wallace’s novel] that’s transferring to Broadway. So we’re creating the groundwork for that to be moved to Broadway in the fall.

AX: A lot of actors who are from stage talk about the fast pace of television, but you’ve done soap, which a lot of actors say is the most intense thing you can do as an actor.

GIOVANNI: Yeah. Broadway is definitely fast-paced, but we do the same show every night. Soaps – I do remember, I had just come back from maternity leave and I had sixty-two scenes in three days. So nothing can be that intense [laughs]. This [MAJOR CRIMES] is nice and smooth sailing for me. I love it.

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Related: Interview with MAJOR CRIMES and THE CLOSER producer Michael M. Robin

Related: Exclusive Interview with MAJOR CRIMES and THE CLOSER star Tony Denison

Related: Exclusive Interview with MAJOR CRIMES and THE CLOSER star G.W. Bailey

Related: Exclusive Interview with MAJOR CRIMES and THE CLOSER creator James Duff

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Rating: PG
Stars (voices): Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short, Martin Landau, Charlie Tahan, Atticus Shaffer, Winona Ryder, Robert Capron, James Hiroyuki Lao, Conchata Ferrell, Tom Kenny
Screenplay: John August, based on a screenplay by Leon Ripps, based on an original idea by Tim Burton
Director: Tim Burton
Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures
Release Date: October 5, 2012

In 1984, Tim Burton made FRANKENWEENIE as a short film (directed by Burton from Lenny Ripps’ script, based on Burton’s original idea) that essentially launched his career. It’s taken the filmmaker almost thirty years, but he’s finally made FRANKENWEENIE into a full-length animated feature film. There’s a lot to love here, but for people who aren’t Burton fans, there are also some narrative lulls and sometimes glibness where heart might accomplish more.

Then again, FRANKENWEENIE induces real tears early on. Elementary school student Victor Frankenstein (voiced by Charlie Tahan) lives in the small town ofNew Holland, where he lives with his loving parents (voiced by Catherine O’Hara and Martin Short) and delights in making backyard eight-millimeter films starring his dog Sparky. When Sparky is hit by a car, Victor mourns and the audience mourns right along with him. We haven’t known Sparky long, but he’s wonderfully conceived as a happy, loyal affectionate canine and anybody who has lost a pet can empathize with Victor’s sadness and loneliness.

Thanks to a school science demonstration on the power of electricity, Victor figures out how to resurrect Sparky. FRANKENWEENIE gets more playful and creative here, finding ways to satirize any number of horror classics from GODZILLA to GREMLINS, but it also loses sight of its initial central concept, the love between a boy and his dog. Sure, this gets occasional lip service, but the action gets so spread out and frenetic that there isn’t time (or even evident enthusiasm) for showing us much of Victor and Sparky. Victor spends a lot of time hiding Sparky, but not much time simply hanging out with him – this isn’t a plot point, just the way things work out as our protagonist rushes around, trying to clean up other people’s follies.

There are a lot of splendid comedic notions in FRANKENWEENIE, starting with our first sight of Victor’s homemade monster movies and carrying through the array of homemade monsters that crop up in the film’s latter portions. A special delight is the character of Mr. Rzykruski, who looks like Vincent Price, speaks in the Eastern European accent adopted by Martin Landau for the occasion, and happily tells a bunch of complacent people what they deserve (if not want) to hear. It’s a lovely tribute to the late Price and a generally memorable figure.

Tahan is sincere and intelligent-sounding as Victor, and Atticus Shaffer scores strongly as Edgar, a creepy schoolmate who at once hero-worships and envies Victor.

The black-and-white 3D photography by Peter Sorg is beautiful and the production design by Rick Heinrichs is thoroughly in keeping with Burton’s ethos – we’re in a color-deprived animated version of the suburbia of EDWARD SCISSORHANDS.

The results are clever and entertaining, but we tend to feel less emotion rather than more as the film goes on. Events feel scattershot, rather than building up tension. We recognize the references to older movies and enjoy the flair and affection with which they’re executed, but we lose sight of the core relationship between Victor and Sparky. We’re still invested by the climax, but not as much as we were earlier on in the story.

FRANKENWEENIE is inventive and fun. Burton fans will likely love it. Others will take pleasure from specific qualities and moments within the production, but not have much feel for the film as a whole.

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Tim Burton at the World Premiere of DARK SHADOWS | ©2012 Sue Schneider

It’s rare a filmmaker gets to revisit something they did when they were starting out, but most filmmakers aren’t Tim Burton. And with FRANKENWEENIE, he’s tackling a feature film incarnation of his 1984 live action short film he did for Disney.

The original didn’t go over well, but now he’s bringing it to life in black and white, stop-motion and 3D and we says it was a thrill to go back into that world.

“It’s a project that always meant something to me, so it was great to have the opportunity to do it stop-motion, black and white and expand on the story with other kids and monsters,” says Burton. “It seemed like the right medium for the project even though it’s revisiting something I did a long time ago, but it still feels new and special.”

The other great part for Burton was getting back to basic with working with the puppets on the movie – perhaps the most lo-tech way of doing modern movies.

“The technology is still the same and it goes back to the beginning of cinema,” admits Burton. “The technique is still basically moving a puppet at 24 frames per second. That why we all love it. As much as technology can do anything, it’s great to go back to the simplicity of something like this. And there’s that excitement when you see it come to life. It’s very magical and it’s a form we keep coming back to for that reason.”

FRANKENWEENIE opens October 5, 2012

Related: Comic-Con News: Director Tim Burton looks back on his BATMAN movie compared to newer, brooding superhero movies

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DARK SHADOWS | ©2012 Warner Bros.

Of all the great, Gothic love affairs that have been artistically going on in the cinema, easily the most enjoyable, and enduring partnership belongs to composer Danny Elfman and filmmaker Tim Burton. Birds of a bizarre feather from Elfman’s joyously demonic rock band Oingo Boingo to Burton’s twisted scribblings for a Disney, it was fate that these kindred, oddball spirits would immediately hit it off from the clown hell that tormented Pee Wee Herman’s BIG ADVENTURE in 1985.

The Burton / Elfman a circus of audio-visual horrors that would mostly grow increasingly frenetic through the likes of BEETLEJUICE, BATMAN RETURNS, MARS ATTACKS, SLEEPY HOLLOW and THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS. With nearly every genre collaboration over the last 27 years going further and further into the deep end, it comes as the biggest shock as to just how drolly restrained (relatively speaking) that their newest macabre jaunt is for DARK SHADOWS. It’s a film of many surprisingly genteel pleasures, at least until its finally goes haywire- not that Elfman himself gets dragged down into an abyss of bad storytelling and overt effects that leaps out of nowhere to prevent this from being one of the most breezily pleasurable Burton films since BEETLEJUICE.

Inspired by the cult TV soap opera that no doubt played a major part in twisting Burton’s young imagination, the original DARK SHADOWS wasn’t so much about horror as romance, a gauche love affair with the uncanny that would truly become popular when it embodied its uncannily florid yearning into the sympathetically undead vampire Barnabas Collins. Now given a production of several zillion dollars and Johnny Depp-led star appeal that the technically plagued original could only dream of, Tim Burton further undermines this bigscreen adaptation’s potential hamminess (especially the screwball comedy promised by the somewhat misleading trailer) by playing it straight, if not underplaying the premise. But that certainly doesn’t mean there aren’t many subtly goofy pleasures to be had here, especially in Danny Elfman’s subtly eye-winking score, a relatively uncomplicated treat in the composer’s rhythmically intensive cannon of musical ghoulishness.

A good deal of Elfman’s devilish, trademarked suspects are assembled in DARK SHADOWS to be sure- a dramatically swirling orchestra, organ and chorus among them. And while the “Prologue” gets things off to a tempestuous bang, the kind of raging orchestrations that Elfman’s given to headless horseman, supervillain circuses, or cemetary-dwelling freaks doesn’t really hit until the uncertain climax demands it. Instead, Elfman’s work here is mostly about filling up the vast, centuries-old halls of Collinwood manor in a way not that dissimilar from what Robert Colbert did on ABC daytime, conjuring a fog of strings, cheesy electronics and haunting melodies that are a whole lot more playfully self-conscious this time around. “Deadly Handshake” and “Barnabas Comes Home” are marvels of eerie atmosphere with mock-menacing strings, echoing motifs and tubular bell percussion, a spider-web of musical effects that go bump in the night amidst Rick Heinrich’s impeccable set design, while deliciously conjuring something far more cheaper, the Theremin-like pulsations of “Hypno Music” positively threatening to crumble a set that might as well be made out of plaster of Paris. Like this cue, there’s a charming kitsch quality to much of DARK SHADOWS musical miasmas that essentially make this into the score for ED WOOD that Elfman never got to do.

Johnny Depp in DARK SHADOWS | ©2012 Warner Bros.

What remains completely heartfelt about the score, and a big reason for its success is Elfman’s innate feeling for the lethal outcast. Whether it’s Edward Scissorhands or Hellboy, there’s a melodic tenderness to Elfman’s horror scoring that always makes us sympathize with the freakish, while never letting us forget that the personable “monster” could puncture our throats at any moment. Barnabas Collins is particularly fine company for the composer in that regard, a blood-sucking fish out of water whose biggest distaste is for his own cursed actions.

Elfman is as lovestruck for him as Bella is for Edward, the composer giving passionate, if foreboding attraction to a figure whose white-face makeup and flowery dialogue would be completely absurd outside of any other actor, or director’s domain. And when DARK SHADOWS tries to play it for as much real emotion as it will ever carry with “Roger Departs,” Elfman’s theme for Barnabas as father figure is downright noble. This guy is no Dracula, yet all the serious appeal of the vampire myth that he embodies (and was arguably made popular again in the original form of Jonathan Frid) can be found within Elfman’s score between the gently satirical lines.

If Barnabas feels positively old at being serenaded by Alice Cooper, Elfman compounds the musical anachronisms way beyond B-movie / soap opera electronics. Even if “Shadows- Reprise” bursts out with a hilarious retro scream before jamming with electric propulsiveness that’s far more BATMAN BEGINS than BATMAN. When the kitchen sink special effects arrive to dispel the Baroque drollness that really makes most of DARK SHADOWS work beyond your wildest hopes, Elfman still remains on keel from “The Angry Mob” onward by mixing the throwback keyboards with swells of synth modernism. Much like the Wolfman he scored with far more seriousness, Elfman rips apart his elegant clothes and reverts to raging orchestral form for the overly big finale as he’s called upon to deliver the thundering goods, which he does in thematically operatic style for a potpourri of angry ghosts, animated wooden figures and a witch-bitch’s fiery vengeance. You might be gasping as to what the hell’s happening on screen. Yet Elfman’s thunderous, but still-romantic music maintains fine storytelling form as its throttling momentum turns Barnabas from silent observer to the absurd visuals into super-heroic do-gooder, racing to the rescue with choral and symphonic aplomb for “Widow’s Hill- Finale” and “The End?” – a true Batman, in deed and music.

But while DARK SHADOWS might tragically falter from becoming a Tim Burton classic to ending up an admirable miss, Danny Elfman’s score shines as another subversive gem, added to a treasure chest that helped make him into the gonzo Prince of musical darkness. It’s work that’s all the more admirable when the spooky-ooky ride gets bumpy, let alone for turning a project’s inherent goofiness from the get-out into a thing of true endearment and supernatural power.

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Warner Bros. Pictures in association with Village Roadshow Pictures, an Infinitum Nihil/GK Films/Zanuck Company production, a Tim Burton film held the Los Angeles Premiere for DARK SHADOWS on May 7^th at the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

In 1966 DARK SHADOWS aired on television with Jonathan Frid, who passed away on April 13, 2012 as Barnabas Collins, and the story continued in 1991 with Ben Cross as Barnabas. Now Johnny Depp takes on the role. Brought to the movie-going audience by Tim Burton you can expect something spectacular in the Tim Burton way!

Walking the black carpet were the stars of the film, which included: Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Eva Green, Bella Heathcote, Jackie Earle Haley, Jonny Lee Miller, Chloe Grace Moretz, Alice Cooper, Tim Burton (Director), Danny Elfman (Composer), David Kennedy and Richard D. Zanuck (Producers). From the 1966 DARK SHADOWS Lara Parker, David Selby and Kathryn Leigh Scott.

Joining them were guests, which included: Rona Pfeiffer, James Russo, David E Kelly, Peter Fonda, Cloris Leachman, Alison Lohman, Steven Tyler, Robert Rodriguez, Alexa Vega and Jerry Bruckheimer.

DARK SHADOWS is now playing nationwide.

Related Link: Movie Review – DARK SHADOWS

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Rating: PG-13
Stars: Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter, Eva Green, Jackie Earle Haley, Jonny Lee Miller, Bella Heathcote, Chloe Grace Moretz, Gully McGrath
Writer: Seth Grahame-Smith, story by John August and Seth Grahame-Smith, based on characters created by Dan Curtis
Director: Tim Burton
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Release Date: May 11, 2012

DARK SHADOWS, the supernatural soap opera created by Dan Curtis that ran on ABC from 1966 to 1971 (it also spawned two feature films and a short-lived 1991 TV remake). Part of the show’s charm was that, in its day, there was nothing like it in terms of mixing soap opera romance and jealousy with vampires, werewolves and witches. The other part of its charm (for some) was the show’s never-say-die, one-take-wonder production ethos. If a door wouldn’t close, by golly, an arm would shoot out into the frame and pull it shut; if flies were buzzing around the set and landing on the actors’ faces, they gamely plowed on with their lines.

Doing DARK SHADOWS now presents a formidable challenge for any filmmaker. For one thing, there are now plenty of projects combining vampires, werewolves and witches – everything from BUFFY to BEING HUMAN to TRUE BLOOD to THE VAMPIRE DIARIES to TWILIGHT has a different take on the mixture.

If it needs saying, director Tim Burton isn’t one to rip off other filmmakers – which may be part of the problem here for him and screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith, working from a story by Grahame-Smith and John August. Jokes and notions that seem new to the filmmakers are staples in fantasy (though not necessarily horror) film and television, so the audience is familiar with most of the humor here.

What elevates DARK SHADOWS – and some of its more oft-seen concepts – is the absolute commitment of leading man Johnny Depp, who does know when he’s ribbing us, but still takes the whole business of being a romantic vampire hero very seriously.

Depp plays Barnabas Collins, a member of the founding family of Collinsport, Maine. When Barnabas is still a young man in the 1700s, he spurns the affections of housemaid Angelique (Eva Green). Unfortunately for Barnabas and everyone around him, Angelique is not only extremely hurt and angry, she’s also a witch. End result – Barnabas’ parents die, his true love Josette (Bella Heathcote) commits suicide and Barnabas is turned into a vampire and buried for two hundred years.

Cut to 1972 and a dig site in Collinsport. A construction crew finds the coffin and opens it – at the cost of their lives. Barnabas then heads back to the family mansion Collinwood, where he meets the remains of his family. Matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer) runs things, while her brother Roger (Jonny Lee Miller) is a wastrel.Elizabeth’s teenaged daughter Carolyn (Chloe Grace Moretz) is a sulky teen, while Roger’s son David (Gully McGrath) is a lonely little boy who sees ghosts. Also in the household are psychiatrist Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter), a booze-soaked wreck who wishes she looked younger, and governess Victoria Winters (Heathcote again), who bears an uncanny resemblance to Josette. Barnabas, delighted to find he still has family, vows to reverse their fortunes, revealing his true nature to Elizabeth at the same time he shows her a treasure trove in a hidden room. Barnabas also shyly begins courting Victoria. Alas, Angelique is still around, having reinvented herself every few decades so that she can expand her business interests while crushing the Collins’ fishing fleet. Angelique wants Barnabas back, Barnabas doesn’t want Angelique back – well, maybe a little, but not enough to get her over that whole “Hell hath no fury” business.

There are a lot of interwoven elements here – Depp’s Barnabas looks like a combination of Nosferatu and an Edward Gorey drawing, while Burton’s concept of Angelique’s true nature is lyrical and melancholy. There are touches of a haunted mansion tale, a dark fairytale and of course comedy, though not the rib-in-the-guts style suggested by some of the DARK SHADOWS trailers. Depp makes a lot of the gags work because he is so invested in them, but parodies of the Seventies as an era need a lot more point and inspiration than is found here to make them produce laughs. Likewise, there are now so many stories of people from the past winding up in the present that time travel qualifies as a fantasy subgenre – Barnabas arriving in the present is a set-up, but it’s not an ongoing gag that yields as much mileage as the film tries to get out of it.

Then there’s a question of tone. Barnabas is agonized over being a “monster,” but he seems to kill arbitrarily and with no direct remorse. Is this meant to be a darkly comedic aspect of his persona – that he’s only superficially upset about taking life – or do the filmmakers feel like they are giving the issue its due? It’s hard to tell from the end result. Likewise, a fair amount of time is given over to set pieces, like a montage of Barnabas trying out different sleeping places, that don’t advance the plot and have a few too many beats.

Then there’s the issue of romance. We’re a little bit on Angelique’s side here. This is partly because Green gives a wonderfully flexible performance – no tell-tale evil here, this Angelique is the heroine in her own mind – but also because Victoria, after a promising introductory scene, remains underdeveloped. We get back story on her, but we just don’t see enough of her in the present to feel one way or the other about Barnabas’ longing for her.

It seems something of a shame that Robert Cobert’s iconic DARK SHADOWS theme music is never used (a bit of his original work is incorporated into Danny Elfman’s score, but not that). However, it seems fitting that there’s a group cameo by original DARK SHADOWS stars Kathryn Leigh Scott, David Selby, Lara Parker and the late Jonathan Frid.

DARK SHADOWS is an oddity. Neither scary nor campy, it’s another of Burton’s tall tales, full of visual beauty and whimsy, with some unexpected emotional notes, but ultimately more style than substance.

Related Link: Exclusive Photos from the DARK SHADOWS  premiere

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Geoff Stults and Michael Clarke Duncan in THE FINDER - Season 1 - "The Boy with the Bucket" | ©2012 Fox/Jennifer Clasen

On Fox’s THE FINDER, which has its series finale tonight at 8 PM, Geoff Stults plays Walter Sherman, an Iraq war veteran who has survived a traumatic brain injury and is able to find anything or anyone.

Developed from Richard Greener’s THE LOCATOR series of novels by Hart Hanson, who also brought BONES to television, THE FINDER was introduced on BONES as a backdoor pilot, with Walter as an old frenemy of the older show’s Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz).

In THE FINDER, Walter’s best friend/lawyer/protector is Florida bar owner Leo Knox, who is played by Michael Clarke Duncan. Duncan, who hails from Chicago, had a number of film and TV gigs, including Michael Bay’s ARMAGEDDON, before he shot to fame as a supernaturally-gifted death row inmate in 1999’s THE GREEN MILE.

Duncan was nominated for a Supporting Actor Oscar for the performance. Since then, he hasn’t stopped working – some of his bigger film credits include Tim Burton’s PLANET OF THE APES, DAREDEVIL, SIN CITY, THE ISLAND and GREEN LANTERN – but THE FINDER is Duncan’s first series regular role.

This interview was conducted before THE FINDER was canceled by Fox.

ASSIGNMENT X: Were you looking to do a television show at this time, or did the character appeal to you, or how did you become involved with THE FINDER?

MICHAEL CLARKE DUNCAN: Well, you know, Hart Hanson got in contact with me, and Hart is one of the best executive producers I’ve ever met in Hollywood. He’s a down to Earth guy and he said this script was fantastic, he said that I could really grasp this character and take it to places that it’s never been. Once I got the script, I was all in, but really, once I met with Hart Hanson, I was all in.

AX: And your character Leo Knox is an enforcer, but he’s also very religious.

DUNCAN: Yeah. Enforcer-slash-poet-slash-bodyguard-slash-lawyer. I’m a lot of things, but I’m also [Walter’s] best friend. So I have to let him know [that sometimes he’s endangering himself], because sometimes he doesn’t think, and the ramifications of his thoughts are not always legal. So I have to let him know and keep him in line and protect him from himself.

AX: So was one of the things that attracted you to the role that Leo has so many diverse aspects to him?

DUNCAN: You know what it was, really? I wanted to do something else that I’d never done before. I’d never done television, I’ve never done an hour drama, and this was a chance for me to break out of the rut of doing just the big guy roles. Even though I am still a big guy in this one, I put a little twist on it. I’m mean when I have to be, just like in real life.

AX: Do you have a favorite aspect of Leo?

DUNCAN: I like the badass parts. I was telling Hart Hanson I was going to co channel my Jack Bauer and be like 24, but there’ll never be anything like 24 again on television. So he said, “Michael, this is not that kind of show.” And I said, “Look, give me a gun, let me shoot some people and break some people’s necks and kill them, and I’ll be fine.” [They didn’t] let it go that way [laughs].

AX: In feature films, often actors are allowed to do more of their own stunts than they typically do on network television. Are there a lot of situations on FINDER where they’re saying, “You cannot do that”?

DUNCAN: I [like to reasonably] do as much as possible. I know you don’t want somebody to get injured doing something silly. We have stunt guys for a reason and I will let them do their job.

AX: Leo is also a poet. Have you written any of the poetry that he recites?

DUNCAN: I wish. [laughs] No, all that comes from a book. Maybe I should sit down and write some poetry, because I have a lot of emotions, so maybe I’ll try it one day, but no, it’s not from me. I’ve tried it, it sounded corny to me, so I tore it up.

AX: Danny Trejo showed up in the FINDER pilot as a Catholic bishop who’s a friend of Leo’s …

DUNCAN: I think Danny Trejo’s an excellent actor – I was watching MACHETE the other night, thought it was fantastic. I love everything Danny Trejo does, and we go way back. When I was doing commercials years ago, I met Danny Trejo, so he’s a good friend of mine. He’s a good actor and the tattoos are all real.

but he was late tonight. So when you see him, you let him know.

AX: You wore prosthetics to play an evolved gorilla in Tim Burton’s 2001 PLANET OF THE APES. Did you see the 2011 RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, and if so, what did you think?

DUNCAN: Wonderful movie, excellent. I loved it.

AX: Would you have wanted to do motion-capture rather than prosthetics if it had been available at the time?

DUNCAN: I always like to work. It all depends on what the script calls for, but I love my job and I love doing and being who I am. These apes [in RISE] were a lot stronger, a lot bigger than I was [laughs]. They turned over a bus collectively, so I don’t think we could have done that. But it was fun to watch.

AX: Do you have any other projects coming up that we should know about?

DUNCAN: Taraji Henson and I have FROM THE ROUGH, and I have another movie called IN THE HIVE. It’s a Robert Townsend-directed movie and it’s really good. I’ve got a couple more things coming out.

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Article: Exclusive Interview with THE FINDER star Michael Clarke Duncan

Assignment X - The Pop Culture Entertainment Magazine for Movies, TV, DVD, Blu-ray, Video Games, Books, Comics and Technology