Director Tim Burton and his partner Helena Bonham Carter were on the red carpet in Leicester Square last night for the premiere of Burton's animation Frankenweenie, which opened this year's BFI London Film Festival.
The film tells in 3D the story of a young boy who tries to use science to bring his dead dog back to life. Burton said he hoped audiences would feel the "emotion" of his film, which was inspired by the death of a beloved childhood pet.
He added that he also hoped viewers would "... see the artistry all the artists put into the movie, which is important to me".
Frankenweenie was made in London at Three Mills Studio and is a longer version of a short film Burton made in 1984.
It's a stop-motion model animation filmed in black and white and set in classic American suburbia during what could be the 1950s.
He said: "This is a more pure version. To do it in stop motion just seemed like the right medium for the right material."
Burton, 54, was joined at the opening gala by Bonham Carter, with whom he lives with in north London with their two children.
Also present were Martin Short, Martin Landau and Catherine O'Hara, who all voice characters in the film, which also features the voices of Winona Ryder and Sir Christopher Lee.
Father of the Bride star Short, who voices three characters, said working with Burton had been "wonderful", adding that it was "very creative, it's very loose and tension free".
The premiere was beamed live into cinemas around the UK as part of the 56th annual London Film Festival celebrations as well as a question and answer session that followed the screening.
It has been announced that Burton and Bonham Carter are to be honoured with a BFI Fellowship at the Festival awards later this month, while sketches, sets, props and puppets from Frankenweenie will feature in The Art of Frankenweenie Exhibition at the South Bank Centre, opening next week.
The film is released in cinemas on Wednesday October 17 2012.
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The London Film Festival runs until Sunday October 21 2012, when it will close with the gala premiere of director Mike Newell's adaptation of Dickens's classic Great Expectations, starring Helena Bonham Carter, David Walliams and Ralph Fiennes.
