'Frankenweenie' premieres: Austin, London

AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 23 (UPI) -- Tim Burton's "Frankenweenie," a Frankenstein parody, will have its world premiere in Austin, Texas, and its European premiere in London, officials said.

The black-and-white stop-motion animated comedy horror film -- about a boy named Victor Frankenstein who loses his dog and uses the power of science to bring it back to life -- will premiere in Austin on the opening night of Fantastic Fest Sept. 20 and in Europe at the BFI London Film Festival's opening night Oct. 10, the officials said.

Stop motion is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own.

"Tim Burton stands as a titan of modern genre cinema," Fantastic Fest co-founder and Creative Director Tim League said in a statement. "To world-premiere the feature adaptation of his early beloved short is a huge honor for me personally and for the festival in general."

The film, backed by the Walt Disney Co., is a remake of Burton's 1984 short film of the same title, although the original was not animated.

BFI head of exhibition and festival Director Clare Stewart said in a statement the "funny, dark and whimsical" film, which "playfully turns the Frankenstein story on its bolted-on head," was a "perfect choice of opener" for the London festival.

"It a film that revels in the magic of movies from one of cinema's great visionaries," she said.

The London opening night screening and red carpet events from the Odeon Leicester Square theater will also be broadcast live onscreen at Odeon's BFI London IMAX theater and on 30 other screens across Britain, the festival said Thursday.

Voices in the new film include Catherine O'Hara, Winona Ryder, Martin Landau, Martin Short, and Conchata Ferrell. Christopher Lee -- who appeared in Burton's "Dark Shadows" and became famous for his role as Count Dracula in a string of gothic horror films in the late 1950s and 1960s -- makes an uncredited cameo as Dracula in an old movie playing on TV.