Frankenweenie 2012

Young filmmaker and scientist, Victor Frankenstein lives with his parents and dog, Sparky in the suburban city of New Holland. Concerned with his son's isolation, Victor's father encourages him to take up baseball and make achievements outside of science. At his first game, Victor hits a home run, Sparky pursuing the ball and subsequently killed by a car.

Inspired by a demonstration of electricity's affects on dead frogs, a depressed Victor digs up Sparky's corpse, creates a makeshift laboratory in the attic, and successfully reanimates Sparky with lightning. Seeing a cat, Sparky escapes from the attic and explores the neighborhood, recognized first by Edgar, Victor's hunchbacked-classmate. Edgar blackmails Victor into showing him how the reanimation worked, resulting in the two reanimating a goldfish (which turns invisible). Edgar brags about the fish to their classmates, sparking their interest in reanimation.

Victor's parents discover Sparky in the attic, causing him to flee. Joined by Victor, the family search for the dog while the classmates invade the lab, discovering Victor's reanimation formula. Each classmate reanimates their own animal, resulting in Nassor's mummy hamster, Toshiaki's Gamera-like turtle, Weird Girl's vampire cat Mr. Whiskers, Edgar's were-rat, and mutant sea monkeys terrorizing the town's Dutch Day event. Although each pet is defeated, Mr. Whiskers carries off Elsa van Helsing, Victor's presumed love interest to the town's windmill. The townsfolk blame Sparky for the monsters and chase him inside the windmill, setting it ablaze. Sparky rescues both Victor and Elsa from the burning windmill to the town's approval, only to be pulled back inside by Mr. Whiskers. The cat is staked through the heart with a falling rafter just as the windmill crushes Sparky to death.

As reward for his bravery, the townsfolk gather to revive Sparky with their car batteries, reanimating him once more. Sparky awakens and reunites with his own love interest, Persephone, Elsa's Bride of Frankenstein-style poodle.

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Frankenweenie 1984

Victor Frankenstein (played by Barret Oliver) is a young boy who creates movies starring his dog, Sparky (a Bull Terrier, whose name is a joke on the use of electricity in the film). After Sparky is hit by a car, Victor learns at school about electrical impulses in muscles, and gets the idea to bring his pet back to life. He creates elaborate machines which bring down a bolt of lightning that revives the dog. While Victor is pleased, his neighbors are terrified by the animal, and when the Frankensteins decide to introduce the revitalized Sparky to them, they become angry and terrified.

Sparky runs away, with Victor in pursuit, and they find themselves at a local miniature golf course, and hide in its flagship windmill. The Frankensteins' neighbors, now an angry mob, arrive on the scene, and while using a cigarette lighter to try to see in, the windmill is accidentally lit on fire. Victor falls and is knocked out, but Sparky rescues him from the flames, in time to be crushed by the windmill. The mob realizes its error and use their cars, along with jumper cables, to "recharge" Sparky. He is revived, and all celebrate. Sparky later falls in love with a poodle whose fur bears a strong resemblance to the hairdo of the Bride of Frankenstein.