Frankenweenie (2012)

Inciting Event: Victor’s dog Sparky is killed while Victor is at baseball practice.

First Plot Point: Victor learns at school that electricity can cause frog muscles to move even when the frog is dead. He uses electricity to bring Sparky back to life.

First Pinch Point: Victor’s teacher and mentor is fired for inspiring the children to attempt unsafe experiments in their efforts to win the science fair.

Midpoint: Victor’s parents discover that Sparky is alive.

Second Pinch Point: Each of the science fair kids resurrects their favorite pet, but they become uncontrollable monsters.

Third Plot Point: Victor realizes all the monstrous pets came about because of what he did to Sparky, so it’s his responsibility to solve the problems. He heads to the Dutch Day festivities to stop the monsters.

Climax: The neighbors chase Sparky to the windmill and accidentally set it on fire. Victor helps Elsa escape, but he’s caught in the middle of the battle between Sparky and the vampire cat.

Climactic Moment: Sparky rescues Victor from the burning windmill but is captured by the vampire cat. Both the cat and Sparky die in the fire and collapse of the windmill.

Resolution: The neighbors accept Victor’s skill at re-animation and help him bring Sparky back to life.

(Submitted by Will King.)

Notes (from K.M. Weiland): This story offers a great example of how the Inciting Event (halfway through the First Act) can be a monumental, life-changing event (Sparky’s death), which at first glance might seem to be First Plot Point material. But when we look closer, we see that, big as it is, it’s just set-up for the real point of the story, which is introduced at the First Plot Point (Sparky’s resurrection).

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