We reported over the weekend about a slip by a Disney employee suggesting an upcoming stop-motion animation picture. The project would team Disney with one of the most influential stop-motion animators in the last decade, but that’s all the information we got. Who that animator could be was left unsaid, leaving many, including me, to speculate they are referring to Tim Burton.
Well, AICN, who carried the initial story, has supplemented the rumor with a new suggestion. According to an anonymous source, the suggestion is that Disney’s new stop-motion project will be a full length, completely stop-motion adaptation of Burton’s early picture, Frankenweenie.
Burton fans can see the original short on Disney’s special edition of The Nightmare Before Christmas. Ironically, the short picture about a boy who brings his dog back to life Frankenstein style, was part of what led to Burton and Disney parting ways. The notion that they might now be financing and distributing a full length version of the same story is just too funny to ignore.
At the same time, many people keep mentioning Harry Selick, who actually directed The Nightmare Before Christmas (Burton provided the ideas and produced). While I’m not counting that out, I don’t think Selick is as likely, especially since so many consider Nightmare to be Burton’s film even if he didn’t direct it. I think even a typically non-Disney partnership with someone like Nick Park (Wallace and Gromit) is more likely than Selick.
The initial report suggested Disney will be releasing details in the near future. Until then, a full version of Frankenweenie seems just as likely as anything else.
