[HorrorScience] Frankenstein (1981)

Toei Animation is one of the best-known studios in Japan, among its most famous series we find Mazinger Z, Doctor Slump, Sailor Moon, One Piece either Dragon Ball.

In the early 80s Toei made a dracula movie and the following year he continued the tradition with a special television film using the book as inspiration Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley.

The original title of the film is Kyōfu Densetsu Kaiki! Frankenstein, in Spanish-speaking countries it was renamed as Frankenstein either The legend of Frankenstein, although it is popularly known by its English names Monster of Frankenstein either Frankenstein Legend of Terror.

During a horrible storm, Dr. Frankenstein and his assistant (Zuckel) bring to life a huge being created from pieces of corpses. The monster's first instinct is to go towards its creators, who, realizing the mistake they have made, flee from it. Seeing himself pursued by the monster, Dr. Frankenstein orders his assistant to get rid of him and leaves him alone before the creature, which seriously wounds him in the face, although he fails to kill him as he ends up falling off a cliff.

Some time later, the doctor still bears his guilt of having created the monster and Zuckel tries to take economic advantage of the situation, making him believe that the monster is alive and stalking his family. Curiously, this theory will turn out to be true, since the monster did not die and is now wandering around the area in search of food, which causes terror among the population, who notify the police.

Zuckel will discover the existence of the monster by chance, becoming a victim of it. Inspector Bellbeau will investigate the events and will soon suspect Frankenstein, who refuses to collaborate with the police officer.

The creation of the monster and the regret of carrying that secret causes Dr. Frankenstein to distance himself from his family, after which his daughter Emily ends up at her grandfather's house (who warned Frankenstein of the dangers of his research). Coincidentally, the monster ends up finding the grandfather's house, who, far from being scared, treats him kindly, thus causing a peaceful and loving reaction in the monster. Unfortunately, their happiness will be short-lived, since both Frankenstein, the townspeople and the police head towards the mountains to kill the creature.

I didn't know about this movie until a few months ago, so it was a pleasant surprise, since everything good about old anime is here. There are realistic designs (without completely abandoning the manga style), the animation is typical of the 80s, which is a good sign, since at that time, Japan had great animators.

The target of the film is an adult audience or at most a teenager and that is why it does not hold back too much when it comes to showing violent and bloody scenes, to the point that this film can be cruder than many of the live-action versions of Frankenstein that I have seen.

Another positive point is that it focuses on Frankenstein's guilt for his experiment and how the monster discovers the good and bad in life. Those two concepts are the most important thing in Mary Shelley's original story, so it's a pleasure to see that for once they have tried to resemble the original work in something so important.

However, there are things that I didn't really like and I think they negatively affect the film.

The film does not decide to have a specific tone, It starts off being serious, dark, dramatic, then it becomes tremendously absurd and comical and finally takes on a somewhat exaggerated tragic tone.

I can understand the change in tone in the film considering that the first part focuses on Dr. Frankenstein (who regrets having created the monster and carries the guilt of having gone too far with his experiments) the second focuses on the monster and how he manages to make friends (we will see him cooking, playing...) and the final part is the clash of both. The monster cannot bear to be unhappy and the doctor can no longer bear the guilt of having created this creature that is responsible for so many deaths.

So, although the change in tone makes sense, it seems so exaggerated to me that I can't help but think that if they had forced the drama and humor less, the final result would have been much better.

Another negative point are some important characters who don't really contribute much and steal many minutes. The first is the police inspector, who despite being the one who narrates the story and leads the investigation of the case, contributes absolutely nothing to the film and only serves to make some silly jokes. At first I thought that this character would be as interesting as the police inspector of Frankenstein's son (1939), but unfortunately it was not like that.

The second important character that I consider does not contribute anything is Zuckel, Dr. Frankenstein's assistant. Initially, this character tries to bring sanity to the doctor, but later he dedicates himself to deceiving, threatening and extorting Frankenstein as if he were a common local gangster. I can understand that the character is angry with the doctor and tries to obtain financial benefit as revenge, but I consider that it is an excessive change and really, it does not contribute much to the story, except for helping Frankenstein become paranoid thinking that the monster will come for him (something that could have happened equally without Zuckel's intervention).

Finally we have that the film, despite not being too long, it gets quite heavy. Its development is slow, many scenes are unnecessary and others could have been done differently. The pace of the film suffers quite a bit and gives the impression that it is much longer than it really is.

So overall we have a pretty good animated film, in the classic style of Toei Animation from the 80s, with an adult approach and relatively faithful to Shelley's work, but with a slow pace, exaggerated changes in tone and some forgettable characters.

Some curiosities:

• Aunque la película está narrada por el jefe de policía, es imposible que ese personaje sepa la mayoría de sucesos que vemos en la película, pues no está ahí y nunca son explicados por el resto de personajes.
• Cuando el doctor Frankenstein tiene la pesadilla donde se ve al monstruo, este aparece con su ropa actual, pese a que el doctor nunca lo ha visto vestido, ya que lo abandonó cuando solo le cubrían vendajes.
• La película iba a ser una adaptación de los cómics de Marvel protagonizados por el monstruo de Frankenstein, pero el resultado final no tiene nada que ver con los mismos.
• Pese a ser un especial de televisión, a España y otros países latinoamericanos llegó directamente en vídeo. Tal y como solía ser habitual en aquella época, al tratarse de una película de dibujos animados se consideró que era para niños pese a su contenido adulto.