Not since Mel Brooks has a director so cleverly referenced the climactic mob scene in 1931 Frankenstein. "He's killed the little girl!" Bob's Mom exclaims when Sparky, the titular revivified canine, appears carrying Elsa's pony-tailed wig (part of her Dutch Day costume) in his jaws. Such hasty blaming recalls the denouncement of Frankenstein's Monster as a murderer when the drowned body of the peasant girl is found. The parallels between the Tim Burton and James Whale films are extended when Mayor Burgemeister in Frankenweenie promptly urges his torch-sporting constituents: "After him! Kill the monster!"
Then the chase is on, with Sparky actually leading the mob to the windmill where Elsa is located (menaced inside by the mutated Mr. Whiskers). The oblivious Burgemeister, confronting Sparky and demanding to know where his niece Elsa is, accidentally ignites the windmill with his lofted torch (the burning windmill seems to be another Burton motif--cf. Sleepy Hollow). Frankenweenie's satiric twists grow more evident as the mob (in contrast to the unruly bunch in Frankenstein, who deliberately raze the windmill) is reduced to a group of stupefied bystanders, passive observers of the chaotic scene.
Burton's oeuvre is filled with angry villager scenes, but this 2012 instance represents the macabre maestro's best-orchestrated
Frankenstein riff to date.
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