As I mentioned in an earlier post, there are many reasons a scene might be cut from a film. In this case it was just playing way too long. Originally, we spent a lot of time on Victor's growth as a science nerd, attempting to answer the question "how does he know how to bring Sparky back to life?". Then it occurred to us that maybe no one will ask this question, and even if they do, there can be no answer- no one can bring the dead back to life. The audience will take that leap with us if we put them in an emotionally dark place, and then answer that question with something hopeful shortly after Sparky's death. The decision was then made to simplify the scene way down, and I think it was absolutely the right call.
In the original script, Victor's knowledge of reanimation was answered by a dying pot-plant that he experimented on (I boarded that version too, but it made absolutely no sense whatsoever), so I dug in to elementary school science education (Faraday cages, Ben Franklin and the key- that sort of thing), and came up with this. The only thing I regret is that I think I did a nice job of showing the growing conflicts and relationships in the film. The wonderful Dean Roberts did another version of this scene, and some of his panels are included here- look for those red dots!
