Frankenweenie is not your typical kid's Halloween special (or at least I classify it as distinctly Halloween because of the Frankenstein elements.) The run time is only It's about a young boy named Victor who is an aspiring filmmaker, and his usual actor is his dog, Sparky. Very early on (considering how the movie is a 30 minute short) while Victor is playing with Sparky, the dog is hit by a car and dies. Naturally, Victor is heartbroken and brings Sparky back to life a la . Then Victor and his parents have to re-introduce Sparky to the neighbors so they aren't scared, but naturally they are. Sparky eventually wins the trust back of the neighbors by performing a heroic act.
The behind the scenes story of the original short is sort of interesting. Tim Burton directed this film while he worked for Disney (he actually worked on the Fox and the Hound, the Black Cauldron, and Tron.) While he was there he also created a short called Vincent (about a little boy who wants to be just like Vincent Price.)
The film was originally planned to be released with a re-release of Pinocchio. When Disney test screened Burton's film, children were upset and the MPAA gave the movie a PG rating. (Which is obvious why, it's very dark considering how the dog dies in the first 5 minutes!) Soon afterwards, Burton was fired and the movie was shelved. It would not see the light of day until Burton became famous in the early 90s for other films (including Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Batman and Beetlejuice) and Nightmare Before Christmas was released on VHS, albeit a censored version. The uncensored version finally was released on the DVD version of Nightmare Before Christmas in 1993, where it has been available on every re-release of the DVD (and the release of the stop motion animation version of Frankenweenie.)
2015 Edit: This is yet another movie that has been removed due to copyright violations. So instead here's the trailer!
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