Frankenweenie is the title of Tim Burton’s 1984 short film about a boy who revives his dead dog.
The story follows Victor Frankenstein, a young boy who uses electricity to bring his beloved dog Sparky back to life after a fatal accident. The premise reworks Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as a suburban family story, combining horror imagery with affectionate comedy.
The live-action short starred Barret Oliver as Victor and Shelley Duvall as Victor’s mother. Sparky’s resurrection causes increasingly chaotic consequences as other children learn what Victor has done and attempt similar experiments with their own pets.
Burton’s short was produced by Walt Disney Productions but was considered too dark for a general children’s release at the time. Burton later expanded the concept into a feature-length stop-motion film, also titled Frankenweenie, released in 2012. The two films share the core characters and premise but are separate productions.