Review: Tim Burton revisits roots in Frankenweenie

(AP) - Tim Burton reminds us of why we love Tim Burton with Frankenweenie, a feature-length version of the 1984 short that revealed early glimmers of the veteran director's darkly humorous style.

Beautifully detailed and painstakingly rendered in 3-D, black-and-white, stop-motion animation, Frankenweenie is a visual and thematic return to the best Burton has offered in his earliest films, such as Edward Scissorhands and Beetlejuice.

And it is a welcome return, given the reheated, unfocused nature of some of his more recent films like Dark Shadows.

Burton has said he'd always intended for Frankenweenie to be a full-length, stop-motion-animation feature, but he didn't have the means; instead, he made a 30-minute, live-action short featuring Shelley Duvall, Daniel Stern and a young Sofia Coppola (credited as Domino).