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A look at the work of Rustam Hasanov, Cartoon Brew’s Artist of the Day.

Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie debuted weakly last weekend in fifth place with $11.4 million. The opening is significantly lower than Burton’s last stop motion feature, The Corpse Bride, which debuted with $19.1M in 2005.

The opening of Frankenweenie concludes this year’s great stop motion experiment. It was the third major stop motion feature this year, following Aardman’s The Pirates!: Band of Misfits and Laika’s ParaNorman. None of the three films were able to crack a $15 million opening. In fact, no stop motion feature has ever had an opening north of $20 million. It begs the question, Are stop motion films simply incapable of grossing as much as CG or has no one ever made a stop motion film with mass audience appeal? In a year with more stop motion features than usual, it’s a question worth considering.

Meanwhile, Genndy Tartakovsky’s Hotel Transylvania is on its way to becoming one of Sony’s biggest animated hits. The film dipped a modest 36% in its second weekend, grossing $27.1M and pushing its U.S. total to $76.7M.

I’ll be seeing Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie on Saturday afternoon with my Asifa-Hollywood peeps at a screening on the Disney lot. Looking forward to it – especailly as Betsy Sharkey in The Los Angeles Times says “the artistry reaches absolute perfection… and Burton has never done it better” (though she notes, “it’s the story that poses some problems”). A.O. Scott in The New York Times simply calls it “a sweet and creepy homage to classic monster movies”.

It’s out today and you can see it yourself. How does it compare to The Corpse Bride or Nightmare Before Christmas? Where does it stack on the list next to ParaNorman and Hotel Transyvania? Give your opinions here (and, as usual, this discussion is only open to those who have actually seen the film).

A newer trailer with footage we haven’t seen before for Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie. Between ParaNorman, Hotel Transylvania and this, it’s monsters, monsters, monsters… (and I mean that in a good way):

Cartoon Brew | Permalink | 2 comments | Post tags: Frankenweenie, Tim Burton

Dr. Seuss’ ‘The Lorax’ nabbed the top spot at the box office this weekend (garnering $70.7 million — the best opening of the year so far — and becoming the best debut ever for a non-sequel animated film! Although the movie didn’t... Read the rest of this post

“Sparky” lives – Tim Burton’s stop-mo feature will open October 5th, 2012. Here’s our first look at the animation:

Cartoon Brew: Leading the Animation Conversation | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Frankenweenie, Tim Burton