Charlie Tahan, Atticus Shaffer, and Robert Capron Discuss Tim Burton and the Making of Frankenweenie

You might expect that the infamous director/producer who’s most noteworthy films include stories about a bio-exorcist, a man with scissors for hands, and the convergence of Halloween and Christmas, might be perceived as dark…or at the very least odd. However, according to tween actor Charlie Tahan (voice of Victor Frankenstein), Tim Burton (director/producer of Frankenweenie) is “surprisingly normal.”

I had a chance to sit down with the young actor (known best for his role in the film Charlie St. Cloud and television series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) and two of his co-stars (Robert Capron and Atticus Shaffer) to talk about Tim Burton’s latest release. “Tim has always been one of my favorite directors…since before I started acting when I was like three or four,” Tahan proceeded. Frankenweenie is a very personal creative venture for Burton, who was inspired by the loss of his own dog as a child.

For Shaffer (Edgar ‘E’ Gore), it was Burton’s creativity that drew him to the project. “He doesn’t want to follow the crowd or be a part of the big machine [and] being a part of his mindset, his world, was just phenomenal for me.”

If the film (or simply just the title) seems familiar, it is because Tim Burton originally created a short which today’s feature length film is based on. A little known fact about Frankenweenie is that initially, Tim Burton’s idea for the film was rejected. “The original short was definitely like an outline of [the film] and I find that really cool, because thanks to stop motion animation, Tim was able to expand on everything in the short” (Robert Capron, voice of Bob).  As the first black and white, stop motion-animated film to be released in 3D, the hope is that “it will inspire a new generation of kids who want to see the old classic films and where the ideas originated from” (Shaffer).

Despite the film’s semblance to the 1931 horror film, Frankenweenie is permeated with the heart of Disney.  The simple story about a boy’s love for his dog is deeply moving. During filming, Shaffer recalls losing his dog of six years.  “And so I became even closer to the film and I definitely knew how Victor must have felt.”  It is through that loss that Shaffer began to understand and relate to that feeling of wanting to  “go to whatever extent possible to either honor them in memory, or to bring them back.”

Frankenweenie is in theaters nationwide.