Now that it’s officially awards season, Disney has given me their blessing to post the screenplay for Frankenweenie. You can find it in the Library, along with many of my other scripts.
There are actually two Frankenweenie scripts available to read.
The first is my December 2010 draft, which got the greenlight. It’s probably my second or third draft, but the story didn’t really change that much from the very beginning.
The second script is conformed from animatic, and incorporates all the changes made during storyboarding, production and editing.
The first one probably reads better — because it was written to be read. The second one more accurately reflects the final movie. If you’re curious about the process of animation, you’ll probably want to look at both. I especially like the trimming and tightening that happened in the third act during storyboarding. It takes a village to make a movie, and I’m indebted to the all the pencil-wielding citizens of Three Mills Studios who worked to make those story beats happen.
This morning, as I was writing up this post, Frankenweenie got five Annie Award nominations, including Best Animated Feature and Writing in an Animated Feature. We were also named Best Animated Film by the New York Film Critics Circle. It’s great to see the film getting such a warm reception.