Frankenstein in Kids' Media: Far Out Fairy Tales: Rapunzel vs. Frankenstein by Martin Powell and Omar Lozano (2019)
Frankenstein and the Monster Themselves Or A Parody Of Them: This Dr. Frankenstein is named Ernest instead of Victor and has a monster made out of clay.
Is the Monster Called Frankenstein: The Monster is called Clay.
Is there an Igor/Fritz: Frankenstein has a pet cat named She-Gore. There is a villager called Fritz, but he’s part of a mob against Frankenstein.
Premise: Rapunzel comes to Dr. Frankenstein hoping for something to help her cold, but when Frankenstein brings to life his clay monster, Rapunzel’s hair comes in contact with his life-giving formula, giving it a mind of its own.
Connections to the Frankenstein Novel And/Or Adaptations: Several things in common with Universal’s movies, including a nearby village having a “Mayor Burgo”, referencing the Burgomasters and the Monster coming to life during a storm. Frankenstein using a potion to bring his creature to life calls to mind the novel’s Victor Frankenstein’s interest in alchemy and how that likely played a part in that fateful experiment. Ernest, like Victor, also initially abandons his creation upon seeing what a monster it is, and went to University – though it was the University of Transylvania and he actually graduated.
Other Notes: Plenty of these childrens’ parodies and spin-offs have made Dr. Frankenstein into more of a supervillain, and here he has probably his most stereotypical supervillain design to date, complete with monocle and goatee. Despite this, the title and the fact that Frankenstein replaces Gothel in the Rapunzel retelling, Rapunzel doesn’t really fight him and in fact, saves him from a broken dam. He is still something of a villain, refusing to cure Rapunzel’s sentient hair (which she still learns to love) and of course, locks her in a tower so he can be recognised by the scientific community, but at the end he reforms and even helps Rapunzel, Clay and the villagers in repairs after the flood. Clay is completely innocent as well, so this is another Frankenstein story similar to Del Toro’s before Del Toro’s was released.
Rapunzel is an unorthodox choice of fairy tale to combine with Frankenstein, but given Gothel was an abhorrent mother figure to Rapunzel like Victor was an abhorrent father figure to the Monster, so it’s no wonder Rapunzel and Clay become fast friends. Despite the end of the book running through the similarities and differences between this story and the original Rapunzel, this is more Frankenstein than Rapunzel, or at least the popular culture interpretation of the Frankenstein story, given that it yet again ends with the villagers storming Frankenstein’s castle.