In Tim Burton’s 1984 short film Frankenweenie, Sparky is a dog.
The black-and-white short follows Victor Frankenstein, a young boy who uses electricity to revive his beloved pet after the dog is killed by a car. The story deliberately adapts Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein into a suburban family tale, with Victor taking the role of the scientist and Sparky taking the place of Frankenstein’s creation.
Burton made Frankenweenie while working at Walt Disney Productions. Its macabre subject matter and unusual visual style caused concern at the studio, which considered the film too frightening for children. Burton was dismissed from Disney soon afterward, although the short later became an important part of his filmmaking reputation.
Burton revisited the story as a feature-length stop-motion film in 2012. That later version kept Sparky as Victor’s resurrected dog but expanded the cast, setting, and monster-movie references.