1. INTRODUCTION

Transcription

1. INTRODUCTION

1. INTRODUCTION
Our project is about the director, producer and writer Tim Burton. He is a singular and unique
person and he has become one of the best film directors around the world. We thought it would be a
good idea to do the research project on such a controversial artist. His personal style and the themes
he chooses make him an interesting aim of study.
We realized that Tim Burton’s cinema has some characteristic items which appear all over
his films. After that, we asked ourselves some questions: Does Tim Burton talk about himself
through the characters and situations depicted in his films? Is his work only a mirror image of
himself?
The purpose of this paper will be to prove that Tim Burton's personality and life is spread all
over his cinema. We soon became aware that the project would be a constant comparison between
Tim Burton and his films. We agreed that we had to focus on the most relevant ones, those in which
he had been the director and/or the producer. We have chosen a few outstanding characters and
analyzed their environment. Vincent (1982), a short film which Burton made when he was starting,
was obviously a major reference. It tells the story of a seven-year-old boy called Vincent Malloy.
This character is a peculiar, lonely boy who is obsessed with actor Vincent Price. We think that his
feelings, dreams and problems represent Tim Burton's own personality.
With the help of our adviser, we decided the second title would be “Through the looking
glass”. We took it from the sequel of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. This title
summarizes the whole project in one single sentence: Tim Burton and his characters are one and the
same.
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2. BIOGRAPHY
Tim Burton was born on August 25, 1958, to Jean Burton and Bill Burton in the city of Burbank
(California). His mother was the owner of a cat-themed gift shop, while his father, a former minor
league baseball player, worked for the Burbank Park and Recreation Department.
He attained his preliminary education from Burbank High School. An average student, he
did not have much interest in the regular curriculum and instead had an affinity towards painting,
drawing and watching films.
A prodigious child, he took to film-making since his pre-teen years. He often indulged in
shooting short films using the stop motion animation techniques. His oldest surviving film is The
Island of Doctor Agnor (1971), which was made when he was 13.
Finishing his education from Burbank High School, he enrolled at the California Institute of
Arts to take up a course in character animation. It was while studying here that he made films like,
Stalk of the celery Monster (1979) and King and Octopus (1979). He graduated from the institute in
1979.
He started off his career by working as an apprentice animator at the Walt Disney Studios.
However, his stay at the studio was short lived due to the creative differences that he had.
During his time at Disney, he embarked on his solo career and made a short film, Vincent, which
was showcased at the Chicago Film Festival. The film met with huge positive response and fetched
him an award too.
He felt decidedly out of place working on cartoons like The Fox and the Hound (1981), later
saying "I was just not Disney material. I could just not draw cute foxes for the life of me." For their
part, the Disney higher-ups weren't interested in any of 's independent ideas, and refused to release
his 1984 short Frankenweenie (2012) on the grounds that it was "unsuitable" for children. His first
animated short, Vincent – a 1982 tribute to his idol Vincent Price, who also narrated the film – met
with a similarly cool reception from Disney executives.
After leaving Disney, Burton found both greater creative freedom and commercial success
thanks in part to actor/comedian Paul Reubens, who was looking for someone to helm a film about
his alter-ego, Pee-Wee-Herman. Reubens had watched Frankenweenie (2012); impressed with what
he saw, he helped to get Burton hired on as the director of Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (1985). Burton
wisely treated the whole project like a live-action Looney Tune, and the film, originally intended for
limited release as a kid's picture, became one of Warner Bros.' biggest hits of the early '80s. PeeWee's Big Adventure (1985) led to the director's next project, Beetlejuice (1988), a comic twist on
all the Shock Theatre (1948) pictures that had kept him up late as a child. The success of the film
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led to a job directing the 1989 big-budget version of Batman (1989); a darkly lavish, Gothic
production, the film proved to be a huge hit, securing Burton a place on the roster of A-list
directors.
His next film, 1990's Edward's Scissorhands (1990) was the tongue-in-cheek Gothic tale of an
artificial boy put together by a benign scientist, who dies before he can complete the boy; as a
result, the fabricated youth has hedge clipper-like scissors for hands. Alternately frightening, funny,
and touching, Edward's Scissorhands (1990) proved that Burton could inject humanity and audience
empathy into an otherwise unbelievable yarn. By this point Burton was able to write his own
Hollywood ticket, which resulted in a stop-motion animated cartoon about the King of Halloween
kidnapping Santa Claus. The film came to fruition as 1993's The Nightmare Before Christmas
(1993) – an immediate cult hit.
Burton also produced the somewhat disappointing Cabin Boy, a 1994 film vehicle for Chris
Elliott which Burton co-produced. But in 1994, Burton again rode high in film-critic circles thanks
to his long-awaited Ed Wood (1994), the biopic of another visionary film-maker, Edward D. Wood
Jr., widely celebrated as the worst director in movie history. Burton well understood how it feels to
be unappreciated for one's enthusiasms, and Ed Wood (1994), deliberately filmed to emulate Wood's
seedy visual style, has emerged as one of the most affectionate film biographies ever made.
After producing the 1995 Batman sequel, Batman Forever, Burton returned returned to the
animation style of Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) with a 1996 adaptation of Roald Dahl's
classic James and the Giant Peach (1996). Later that year, he had great fun using an all-star cast in
his spoof/homage to 1950s horror movies, Mars Attack! (1996), but the film proved disappointing at
the box office – though with its uneven blend of humour and sci-fiction horror, it was the sort of
film that might have made Ed Wood (1994) proud. In 1999, Burton returned to the director's chair
with Sleepy Hollow (1999), an unlikely hit at the box office despite its chilly atmosphere, followed
by an attempt at reviving another dormant franchise, The Planet of the Apes in 2001. Promising a
"re-imagination" of the ape planet concept rather than a straight remake, the film was not a critical
or audience hit, but Burton was soon back on his feet, telling a more personal story with the warm
and fantastical Big Fish (2003).
Burton would find continued success with his dark take on children's material, earning box
office approval with Corpse Bride (2005), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), and Alice in
Wonderland. He would also continue to adapt and remake existing material with his signature style,
such as with Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) and Dark Shadows (2012) – a
spoof/homage based on the 60's soap opera. Burton remade his 1984 short film Frankenweenie as a
feature in 2012, and followed up with Big Eyes in 2014.
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2.2. PERSONAL LIFE
Burton was married to Lena Gieseke, a German-born artist with whom he broke up in 1991 after
four years. He went to live with the model and actress Lisa Marie; she acted in the films he made
during their relationship from 1992 to 2001, most notably in Ed Wood and Mars Attack!.
Burton developed a romantic relationship with English actress Helena Bonham Carter, who
he met while he was filming Planet of the Apes. Burton and Bonham Carter have two children: a
son, Billy Raymond, named after his and Bonham Carter's fathers, born in 2003; and a daughter,
Nell, born in 2007. But on 2014 they broke up and now the are divorced.
Close friend Johnny Depp is a godfather of both of Burton's children. In Depp's introduction to
Burton on Burton, he writes, "What more can I say about him? He is a brother, a friend, my
godson's father. He is a unique and brave soul, someone that I would go to the ends of the earth for,
and I know, full and well, he would do the same for me.
Burton was the President of the Jury for the 63rd annual Cannes Film Festival, held from May 12 to
24, 2010 in Cannes, France.
On March 15, 2010, Burton received the insignia of Chevalier of Arts and Letters from thenMinister of Culture Frédéric Mitterrand
Burton has stated that his favorite films are Dracula A.D. (Alan Gibson, 1972), The Wicker Man
(Neil Labute, 1973), The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (Gordon Hessler, 1973), The War of the
Gargantuas (Ishiro Honda, 1966) and The Omega Man (Boris Sagal, 1971).
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3. FILMOGRAPHY
This is the Tim Burton's film list. There are all in a chronological order and showing the roles that
plays Tim Burton in each film. The selected films are the ones we studied in all over this project.
CINEMA
YEAR
NAME
ROLES
1978
The Lord of the rings
artist
1979
The Muppet movie
actor
1981
The fox and the Hound
animator
1982
Tron
animator
1985
The black cauldron
artist
1985
Pee-wee’s big adventure
director and actor
1988
Beetlejuice
director
1989
Batman
director
1990
Edward Scissorhands
director, producer and writer
1992
Batman returns
director and producer
1992
Singles
actor
1992
Hoffa
actor
1993
The nighmare before christmas
1994
Cabin boy
producer
1994
Ed wood
1995
Batman forever
producer
1996
Mars Attacks
1996
James and the giant peach
producer
1999
Sleepy Hollow
director
2001
Planet of the Apes
director
2003
Big fish
director
producer, writer and
production designer
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2005
Charlie and the chocolate factory
director
2005
Corpse Bride
2007
Sweeney Tood
director
2009
Walking sleeping beauty
participant
2009
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producer
2010
Alice in Wonderland
director
2012
Dark Shadows
director
2012
Abraham Lincon: Vampire Hunter
producer
2012
Frankenweenie
director, producer and writer
2012
Men in Black 3
actor
2014
Big eyes
2016
Alice Through the looking Glass
producer
2016
Miss Peregrine’s Home for peculiar children
director
SHORT FILMS
1971
The Island of doctor Agor
director, writer and actor
1979
Doctor of doom
director and writer
1979
Stalk of the celery monster
1982
Vincent
1982
Luau
1983
Hansel and Gretel
1984
Frankenweenie
director and writer
2000
Stainboy
director and writer
director, producer, writer and
animator
director, writer and producer
designer
director, producer, writer and
actor
director, writer and producer
designer
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TELEVISION
Faerie tale theatre: Aladdin and his wonderful
1984
lamp (season 5, episode 1)
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The jar (season 1,
1986
episode 20)
director
director
Amazing stories: The family dog (season 2, producer and animation
1987
episode 16)
designer
1989-1991
Beetlejuice
producer and writer
1993
Family dog
producer and design
consultant
MUSIC VIDEOS
2006
Bones by The killers
director
2012
Here with me by The killers
director
ADVERTISEMENTS
1998
Spot TV Hollywood Gum
director
2000
Cloks Timex
director
3.1. BURTON'S TOPICS
There are some recurring elements in Tim Burton’s movies and illustrations. His characters are
always pale, skinny, tall and with sunken eyes.
He usually uses those topics:
Black: The main Tim Burton colour that we can see in all his films. He pretends to move us
to his world where everything is dark.
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Stripes: Burton loves stripes. Almost every character wears something striped sooner or
later, and some of them are deeply characterized by them. An example is in Beetle Juice with his
white and black striped pants, or Jack Skellington with his pinstripe elegant suit in The Nightmare
before Christmas.
Clothes and Accessories: Black clothes, striped t-shirts, dark colours. But the most
important thing is the silhouette. Skinny jeans, big shoes like boots or platforms. Old jackets, add a
Victorian touch here and there. White distressed shirts with long sleeves and black fingerless
gloves.
Hair: Burton himself has quite messy hair, and many of his characters has it too. It’s the
way to make a careless look. Most of his characters have dark hair like Alice from Alice in
Wonderland, or Angelique from Dark Shadows.
Make-up: Burton normally use pale colours for make-up. Just watching Johnny Deep in
Alice in Wonderland, is an example.
GERMAN EXPRESSIONS
The director described the famous German art movement in the book “Burton on Burton” (1995) as
like “the inside of somebody’s head, like an internalized state externalized.” It’s not just chiaroscuro
lighting effects, but also in the production design and the wildly exaggerated sets and decoration.
Just think of the inventor’s castle in Edward Scissorhands or the whole of Gotham City in Batman
Returns.
FEELINGS
Tim Burton films have a strong release of personal obsessions. Burton uses his characters as an alter
ego, and uses these as blank screens, which shapes projecting their individual fixations, its various
phobias, the tendency to withdraw into artificial paradises, imaginary environments, diluting the
awareness of the social, that society often become an inexhaustible source of threats.
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CHILDHOOD AND IMAGINATIVE ESCAPE
Burton’s early experiences shaped his characters and narratives, which often represent the
wellmeaning “outsider,” the misunderstood, the lonely, and the rejected – all reflections of his
childhood experiences. “Those feelings never really leave you,” says Burton, “It’s just part of your
DNA. I always felt like Frankenstein and my neighbours were all the angry villagers.” To combat
the alienation and loneliness that he felt as a child, Burton found joy at the Cornell Theater in
Burbank, where he watched old monster movies starring Vincent Price and Christopher Lee. He
also occupied his time by watching TV, drawing, and playing in the local cemetery.
Burton’s misfit character is fully represented in Edward Scissorhands, the lead character in
the 1990 film of the same name. Like his other early films, notably Beetlejuice and Batman,
Edward Scissorhands is a “dark story of conflict between good and evil emerging from a swamp of
adolescent suburban conformity.” Scissorhands personifies the isolation of feeling disconnected
from the world at large and the search for true identity of the main character.
HORROR AND HUMOUR
Burton believes there is a fundamental link between horror and humour, born from his fascination
with monster movies. “Ever since I was three years old, I can remember I loved monster movies
and dark, expressionist kinds of things. Being a fairly quiet sort of non verbal child, you look
inward to explore your feelings and communicate through drawings.” While growing up in
Burbank, movies were his preferred source of visual culture. Althugh, through his love of drawing
and his preferred motifs, he finds common ground with artists from many other times and places.
Since the early Renaissance, drawings have been considered to be especially revealing of the artist’s
individual genius and style.
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4. INFLUENCES
Edgar Allan Poe was a poet, author, editor and literary critic of
the Romanticism period in the United States. He was born on January 19th, 1809; he was the second child of the actress Elisabeth
Arnold Hopkins Poe and the actor David Poe and he had a brother
and a sister. In 1810 his father abandoned them and his mother
died a year after, due to illness. Poe was adopted by Frances and
John Allan (they gave Edgar the surname Allan) his sister stayed
with their neighbours, and his brother lived with their grandparents. Went he was 17 years old, his stepfather gave him a third of
the money that he needed to go to university. The problem was that Poe started to drink heavily and
quickly he was in debt. For this reason John Allan shunned him. For a period of time, Edgar Allan
joined the U.S.Army.
Years later, after a very poor situation, and John Allan not helping him and passing away, he got a
job as an editor of a newspaper. He got this job because he won a contest with his story, The
Manuscrips Found in a Bottle. He left the newspaper and was the editor of another newspaper, but
he quit the job it again. Finally Poe funded a newspaper called The Strylus, but it failed.
His story The Gold Bug made Poe win some money, but he couldn’t support his family.
He married his cousin Virginia, who was 13 years old. When in 1847 she died, Poe collapsed from
stress and didn’t returned to health until after a year. Poe married again, this time with Sara Royster.
In 1849 he wanted to go to New York, but finished in a public house in Baltimore, where he was
found and was taken to the hospital. On Sunday, Octuber 7, 1849, Edgar Allan Poe died, and no one
knew what had happened during this supposed trip to New York.
Vincent Price was born on May 27, 1911, in St. Louis, Missouri. He was the youngest of four children.
Vincent Price was and American actor, famous for his characteristic voice and for the horror films, where he appeared. Also he was
also an art collector and consultant with a degree in art history. He
was the founder of the Vincent Price Art Museum in California and
he wrote several books about art. In 1935, Price performs as Prince
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Albert in a London production of Victoria Regina. One of his most early roles was in the film Laura
(1944).
Vincent Price suffered from emphysema, as a result of being a smoker, and Parkinson’s disease, that
was especially severe during the filming of Edward
Scissorhands (film directed by Tim Burton, Price
was the inventor), that he couldn’t finish. This contributed to his retirement. He died of a lung cancer
on October 25, in 1993, when he was 82 years old.
He had three wives, a son call Vincent and a daughter, Victoria, who wrote a biography of her father
and said in an interview that her father was “a
Vincent Price in Edward Scissorhands
like the inventor
lovely and a sweet man”, not a villain like he seemed like in his films.
Theodor Seuss Geisel was and American writer and illustrator, well-known for his children’s books
under the name Dr. Seuss.
Seuss was born on March 2, 1904, in Springfield, Massachusetts. His
father, Theodor Robert, managed the family brewery, and when it
closed because of prohibition, he was appointed to supervise Springfield’s public park system by mayor John A. Denison.
His first children’s book was And to think that I saw it on Mulberry
Street (it is a real street of his town). It was published by Vanguard
Press in 1937.
Seuss was accepted into Dartmouth College, where he wrote for the Dartmouth humour magazine,
Jack-o-Lantern. It was there where he discovered his passion of designing books with pictures and
words.
In 1925, his father sent Geisel to England for three years, after he graduated in Dartmouth College.
During this stay, Seuss met his wife, Helen Palmer. Geisel and Helen Palmer returned to England
and moved to New York, where he worked in magazines and advertisements. His “Quick, Henry,
The flit!” campaign was legendary. Geisel’s first work signed “Dr. Seuss” was published in Judge, a
humour magazine in 1927.
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During the second world war, he drew political cartoons that denounced Hitler and Mussolini. His
cartoons also were strongly supportive of president Roosevelt’s handling of the war. In 1943 he
joined the army and was commander of the animation department of the First motion picture unit of
the United States Army air forces. After the war, he moved to California, where he wrote many children books and he won numerous awards.
In his books he expressed his views and they had a moral, because he thought that children “can see
a moral coming a mile off”.
On September 24, 1991, Theodor Seuss died from oral cancer, at the age of 87.
Roald Dahl was born in 13 September, 1916, in Llandaff (Wales). He was a British novelist, poet,
short story writer, screenwriter and fighter pilot.
His parents were from Norway. His father died when he
was three years old. Dahl went to The Cathedral School,
where corporal punishment was common and he was victim of it, because he didn’t have a very exemplary behaviour. After his father died he transferred to the school Saint
Peters and in 1929 he went to Repton School in Derbyshire. In this last school is were when for first
time a teacher recognised Dahl’s writing talent.
His inspiration for Charlie and the chocolate factory (1963) was because the chocolate company
Cadbury sent to him boxes of chocolate to taste. He was usually inspired by the people that he met
and his own life.
In 1934 he started working at the Shell Petroleum Company. Years before he lived a very luxurious
life in Kenya.
After serving in the Second World War (where he served in the Air Force), he married Patricia Neal
in 1953. They had five children and after 13 years of marriage they get divorced. He lost a son and a
daughter in an accident. After his divorce Dahl married Felicity Crosland.
Roald Dahl books have fantasy and humour too. His first book for children was The Gremlins and his most loved book for children is Charlie
and the Chocolate Factory. Also he’s famous too for Matilda and many
other books.
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James and the Giant Peach which wrote in 1961, was another of his famous books for children. It
have a film version produced by Tim Burton and Denise Di Novi in 1996.
He died on 23 November, 1990, in Oxford.
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5. RECURRENT ACTORS
Most notable actors are Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham-Carter and Christopher Lee, who all
appeared in eight, seven and five films, respectively. Of course there are more, but those are the
most important, perhaps with a lot of relationship with the director.
JOHNNY DEPP
Johnny Depp and Tim Burton have made eight very successful films together. The actor and the
director formed a richly rewarding working relationship. There is no doubt that when Depp is on
screen playing an array of weird and wonderful characters.
•
Edward Scissorhands (1990)
•
Ed Wood (1994)
•
Sleepy Hollow (1999)
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•
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
•
Corpse Bride – voice (2005)
•
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
•
Alice in the Wonderland (2010)
•
Dark Shadows (2012)
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•
Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016)
HELENA BONHAM-CARTER
Helena Bonham-Carter had a long-term relationship with director Tim Burton, also making frequent
appearances in several of his other films. They have two children together. But after 13 years
together they split up in 2014.
•
Planet of the Apes (2001)
•
Big Fish (2003)
•
•
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•
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
•
•
Dark Shadows (2012)
•
Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016)
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CHRISTOPHER LEE
Tim Burton, who reminisced with Entertainment Weekly about Lee’s abundant six-decade career,
saying “The parts he played in my movies weren’t huge, but I just loved being around him.”
He really became famous for played Dracula in the film Dracula (1958).
•
Sleepy Hollow (1999)
•
•
•
•
Dark Shadows (2012)
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6. VINCENT
6.1. PLOT
Vincent is stop-motion short horror film written,
designed and directed by Tim Burton, and produced by
Rick Heinrichs. It was filmed 1982 and it runs
approximately 6 minutes.
The film is narrated by the actor Vincent Price,
idol and inspiration for Tim Burton. Based on a poem
that Tim Burton composed himself, Vincent tells the
story of a little 7 year’s old boy who only wants to be
just like Vincent Price. Everybody see him like a nice
Old Vincent reading an Edgar Allan
Poe's book.
boy, polite, obedient and a little bit introverted. But the truth is that his imagination change his
reality and his personality. His mind does not distinguish between the real world and his fantasies,
because he lives in his world where he plays the characters of his admired actor, specially these of
the writer Edgar Allan Poe. When he reads he has and feels the same feelings which has the
character and believes, he is a tortured artist. All of this makes him a dark and strange conception of
his life and becomes a lonely and marginal person, and brings him to believes he is dead.
6.2. POEM
VINCENT MALLOY
Vincent Malloy is seven years old
He’s always polite and does what he’s told
For a boy his age, he’s considerate and nice
But he wants to be just like Vincent Price
He doesn’t mind living with his sister, dog and cats
Though he’d rather share a home with spiders and bats
There he could reflect on the horrors he’s invented
And wander dark hallways, alone and tormented
Vincent is nice when his aunt comes to see him
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But imagines dipping her in wax for his wax museum
He likes to experiment on his dog Abercrombie
In the hopes of creating a horrible zombie
So he and his horrible zombie dog
Could go searching for victims in the London fog
His thoughts, though, aren’t only of ghoulish crimes
He likes to paint and read to pass some of the times
While other kids read books like Go, Jane, Go!
Vincent’s favorite author is Edgar Allen Poe
One night, while reading a gruesome tale
He read a passage that made him turn pale
Such horrible news he could not survive
For his beautiful wife had been buried alive!
He dug out her grave to make sure she was dead
Unaware that her grave was his mother’s flower bed
His mother sent Vincent off to his room
He knew he’d been banished to the tower of doom
Where he was sentenced to spend the rest of his life
Alone with the portrait of his beautiful wife
While alone and insane encased in his tomb
Vincent’s mother burst suddenly into the room
She said: “If you want to, you can go out and play
It’s sunny outside, and a beautiful day”
Vincent tried to talk, but he just couldn’t speak
The years of isolation had made him quite weak
So he took out some paper and scrawled with a pen:
“I am possessed by this house, and can never leave it again”
His mother said: “You’re not possessed, and you’re not almost dead
These games that you play are all in your head
You’re not Vincent Price, you’re Vincent Malloy
You’re not tormented or insane, you’re just a young boy
You’re seven years old and you are my son
I want you to get outside and have some real fun.
”Her anger now spent, she walked out through the hall
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And while Vincent backed slowly against the wall
The room started to swell, to shiver and creak
His horrid insanity had reached its peak
He saw Abercrombie, his zombie slave
And heard his wife call from beyond the grave
She spoke from her coffin and made ghoulish demands
While, through cracking walls, reached skeleton hands
Every horror in his life that had crept through his dreams
Swept his mad laughter to terrified screams!
To escape the madness, he reached for the door
But fell limp and lifeless down on the floor
His voice was soft and very slow
As he quoted The Raven from Edgar Allen Poe:
“and my soul from out that shadow
that lies floating on the floor
shall be lifted?
Nevermore…”
6.3. ADJECTIVES
For make these analysis, we make a list of Vincent’s adjectives, these which describe Vincent and
which we will work on it.
Adjectives:
•
polite
•
considerate
•
nice
•
solitary
•
tormented
•
quite weak
•
insane
•
imaginative
•
possessed
•
he act like a dead
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•
strange
He likes:
•
to experiment
•
darkness
•
dreadful and repugnant things
•
think about ghoulish crimes
•
painting
•
reading
•
a beautiful girl of a painting
6.4. ANALYSIS
From the first minute of the short film Vincent till the last it
sees Tim Burton reflected in.
The first thing it realizes at the beginning, is the music
and the setting. The music, the sound of a flute with the view of
a garden, where all is dark. It appears the first adjective,
darkness, an adjective which Tim Burton uses a lot, and gives
strange feeling, which is what the director want.
Vincent and Vincent Price
reflect in the wall
The moment appears the protagonist it brings loneliness, showing an empty room with a boy
playing the flute. Later appears the adjectives polite, considerate, nice, kind, a boy who does what
you say him, but this is only appearance because he is very different and he just wants to be like he
is idol Vincent Price. Who also is Tim Burton’s idol. He changes physically like his dreams.
Imagine macabre things like convert his dog in a horrible creature or transform his aunt in a wax
statue. He prefers living around spiders and bats, things which people is scared and run away. He
likes painting strange things, reading, but he reads another types books which children usually read,
he loves Edgar Allen Poe. And at the same age Tim Burton also read Edgar Allen Poe, and created
his stories like it does Vincent.
All he reads about his favourite characters, believe it like it happens to him so that he is
called crazy, obsessed, possessed. His mother, the antagonist, who sees him like mad and compares
him with the children, because she thinks his son does not do normal things. And this makes him
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suffer and imagine horrible voices and pictures where his love appears, actually is character’s love,
who torment the boy. And finally, there is a moment when he does not recognize the imaginative
world and the real, and the double-personality become one. He is not any more Vincent Malloy he
is Vincent Price, and he dies in the floor around the darkness, reading aloud through the narrator, the
poem The Raven of Egdar Allen Poe.
Is evident the similarity in many ways Tim Burton between Vincent. The director admits, he is an
introverted person, tend to be strange and alone since the childhood. He used to grow with unusual
hobbies for a boy of this age and he liked terror and science-fiction, which made him invented an
imagine world and isolated, like does Vincent. It can interprets the importance for the director of the
unusual personalities and considerate strange for the society, just because he lived and has been
victim.
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7. CONVENTIONAL FILMS
7.1. EDWARD SCISSORHANDS
7.1.1. PLOT
The film starts with an old lady who tells to her granddaughter the story
about Edward Scissorhands, a young man who has scissors instead of
hands, the creation of an old inventor who died before he could put real
hands to Edward.
One day an Avon saleswoman, Peg Boggs, visits the mansion where
Edward lives. There she finds Edward alone and she decides to take him
to her home. Edward falls in love with Peg Boggs daughter, Kim,
immediately after seeing a photo of her.
At first Edward was appreciated by every one, especially by the
housewives of the Boggs neighbourhood. Edward’s expert skills in hedge-trimming and haircutting, that he does with his scissors.
But after Kim and her friends persuade Edward to break into Kim’s boyfriend house, to get money
to buy a van, Edward is arrested by the police. Kim’s friends had abandoned him in the house,
because the alarm went off. In this moment he lost his reputation. This situation gets worse when
Edward is creating an angel ice sculpture and Kim dances under the “snow”; that makes the ice of
the sculpture and Kim’s boyfriend calls Kim, distracting her, and Edward accidentally cuts Kim’s
hand. Her boyfriend lies and says that Edward injured Kim on purpose, for this reason Edward has
to scape from the police. After he saves Kim’s brother to be rushed, but Edward accidentally hurts
Kim’s brother and the situation gets worse. All this facts makes Edward return to his mansion where
he fights with Kim’s ex-boyfriend, and finally Edward kills him to protect himself. At the end Kim
confesses her love to Edward and to help him, she tells to the neighbours that he had died.
The movie ends when the old lady confesses to his granddaughter that she is this young girl
who fell in love with the man who had scissors instead of hands and she had never seen him again,
but she feels that he is alive.
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7.1.2. MAIN CHARACTERS
Edward Scissorhands is the main character of the film. He has many
qualities like Vincent, these are:
He is a very polite man. His creator taught him to have the principles
of the people of the period of time this movie is based on (it seems the
50’s, for the shape of the houses and the clothes that the characters
wear).
He is considerate, tender and nice, He is grateful for having known
Boggs family, and he is concerned about every thing that involves his
new family and tries to help them. And with the neighbours too, he
helps them with every thing that they ask him. Always without complaints and doing it in the best
way that he can do it.
He is solitary at the beginning of the film. He lives alone in a mansion away from the town,
in a dark mountain (you can see the big difference between the town, that is full of colors, and the
mountain that is very dark) and he never had gone to the town, because he was afraid of the reaction
that the neighbours have, for this reason when Peg Boggs enters to her house and sees him, he says
“please don’t leave”, he wants to live with the other people, but he can’t. He starts like he end’s,
alone (At the end he will be alone to protect the people that he loves, Boggs family, especially
Kim).
He is quite weak. The fact that he has scissors instead of hands makes him weaker than the
other people. At the same time he is weaker, because for him is more difficult to do something like
eating and to get dressed, but he is stronger than the others because with his scissor can cut and hurt
everything.
He is imaginative, with his scissors he cuts the shrubs with many original forms, he cuts the
woman’s hair with a different and special form for every one, and he cuts the dogs hair very
stylishly. This ability gives him social recognition.
He acts or is like a dead person, because Edward is extremely pale and he walks like a robot
or a dying man. He can’t change this characteristics, although Peg tries to repair him with makeup,
but it doesn’t work.
He is strange for the people because: he is pale, he had scissors instead hands, he looks like
a machine (because we can’t see his skin), he lives in the phantasmagorical mansion in dark
mountain, he is always alone and never had gone to the town (before he meets the mother of the
25
Boggs family) and because his is too shy.
He falls in love with a girl that ,in the beginning, he thinks that he never can be corresponded. Edward falls in love with Kim, the daughter of Boggs family, who has a boyfriend and at
the beginning she is embarrassed to have Edward at home. But while the film progresses she starts
to feel the same that Edward feels about her, at the end she confess her love to him, but they are
destined to live separated, now one will accept them after all.
7.2. BATMAN RETURNS
7.2.1. PLOT
Batman returns is a 1992 motion picture based on the superhero Batman. It is the second Batman
film and the last who was directed by Tim Burton.
The story begins 33 years ago at Christmas, in a mansion in
Gotham. Tucker and Esther Cobblepot, an aristocratic couple, throw
their deformed child in a river, feeling that Gotham City's high society
would not accept their son. However, some penguins were living in an
abandoned zoo, which was connected to the sewers, rescued and took
care of him.
33 years later, the child becomes The Penguin and the leader of
the Red Triangle Circus Gang, who appear in Gotham City during the
annual Christmas tree-lighting ceremony and cause a riot. Businessman named Max Shreck is
abducted in the riot by The Penguin, who desires to be accept in the city like he is. Max Shreck
accepts help him under Penguin’s threatening, who will expose evidence of Max’s corporate
crimes. Meanwhile, Shreck's secretary, Selina Kyle accidentally finds out that the power plant
which her boss wants to build. When Shreck sees her, he pushes her out of a window but some cats
revive her by licking her wounds. Selina returns home, suffers a mental breakdown, and becomes
Catwoman. Meanwhile Batman like Bruce Wayne and the mayor do not accept Sherck’s the power
plant and the businessman makes. The penguin the new mayor. From here starts the chaos and the
vandalism by the Penguin, who wants to be accept and find his parents, and Shreck’s until Batman
and Catwoman stops it.
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In this film the main character is the penguin, a secondary character. Physically it is not too much
pleasant character. He is big, wears like a penguin, has a long nose, brings an umbrella and a hat.
Plays the bad character, but with a tragic story behind him which made him like he is. His
parents left him in the river, because he was different of the
children and in his social class had bad image. This river flow
in sewer which was next to the zoo. This baby appeared in the
penguins aquarium and he grew up around penguins, so that
he is physically like a penguin. Now he wants to know who
are his parents and forgives them, but when he and his criminal group get out of the zoo, nobody
wants and does not accept them. And this makes him gets angry with the society and revenge. But
inside he carries sadness because from the first time nobody has understood him.
7.2.3. SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
Most important character who influences penguin is Max
Shreck, it is a powerful and malignant man who accepts to
help the penguin to be accept at the society, after to fall in a
sewer which finish in the zoo and meet him.
7.2.4. RELATIONSHIP WITH TIM BURTON
The penguin is a different type of character but has similarity with Vincent.
Like Vincent he had problems with his parents, because they did not accept him like it is,
and this makes him isolated. His physically characterize a strange and peculiar person and a lot of
people do not believe in him.
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7.3. THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS
While Burton was working as an animator at Disney, on productions like
The Fox and the Hound and The Black Cauldron, he began toying with
cartoon projects by his own. This led to animated shorts like Vincent, as
well as the poem called The Nightmare Before Christmas. A kind of
parody of Clement Clarke Moore's: A Visit from St. Nicholas, known as
The Night Before Christmas
POEM
'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds;
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap,
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tim Burton looking his characters
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow,
Gave a lustre of midday to objects below,
When what to my wondering eyes did appear,
But a miniature sleigh and eight tiny rein-deer,
With a little old driver so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment he must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name:
"Now, Dasher! Now, Dancer! Now Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! On, Cupid! On, Donner and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
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Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"
As leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;
So up to the housetop the coursers they flew
With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too—
And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a pedler just opening his pack.
His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples, how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard on his chin was as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke, it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face and a little round belly
That shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight-“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”
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7.3.1. PLOT
When the king of Halloween Town, Jack Skellington, gets
bored of his job preparing for Halloween every year, he
discovers Christmas Town and is inspired to take control of
Christmas season for a change. Unfortunately his macabre
subjects have difficulty getting the festive holiday quite right.
Meanwhile, Sally, a pretty maid who takes care of her creator,
Dr. Finklestein, is trying to escape from her confines. She worries for Jack and foresees his plans
will end in ruin.
Jack is very much an undead gentleman, graceful and patient in equal measures and can usually be
counted on to do what is in everyone's best interest.
Jack never loses his temper and never raises his voice, but Jack was not able to contain his
contempt for Oogie Boogie.
Jack enjoys things that are new to him. He quickly
became surprised for Christmas and felt excited to
celebrate it in his town.
He is also highly optimistic, as he was sure that
everything will go perfect. Even when in despair after
ruining Christmas, he is able to animated himself up by realizing he didn't mean to do what he did
and that nobody really understood.
He is also polite enough to admit that he can fail, so then he was disposed to return the
control of Christmas to Snata.
Sally is a beautiful cloth doll creature, with detachable arms and legs with
fall leaves.
She is sensible, honest, and incredibly clever, she was created by Dr.
Finkelstein, the mad scientist. Their relationship is tense, as Finklestein
insists on keeping Sally under locked door, under the pretext of protecting
her from the outside world. However, Sally is in it, she is an intrigued person
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and wants to discover what was outside.
It is this restlessness or this ambition for something better in her life, that takes her to Jack
Skellington. In the beginning of the movie, she adores and admires him like any of the other female
members of Halloween Town. However, she quickly discovers that they are connected by the wish
for something more in their lives, and her feelings for him were getting higher.
Nightmare Before Christmas represents the culmination of the imagination of Tim Burton.
Burbank develops in this film a Christmas story where an imaginary dark Halloween town wants
the happiness like the people of the Christmas' world.
But Burton explains that in his childhood that California was not marked by seasonal changes, so
holiday decorations were an especially important factor in the year's progression. When it came to
fall and winter, there was a connection between Halloween and Christmas in stores keen it on to
make the most of both shopping seasons. This, he claimed, planted the seed for his tale of the king
of Halloween intruding on Christmas.
Burton says that Oogie Boogie was loosely inspired by Cab Calloway's 1932 appearance in a Betty
Boop cartoon.
7.4. ED WOOD
7.4.1. PLOT
Ed Wood is a 1994 American period comedy-drama directed and
produced by Tim Burton, and starring Johnny Depp. The film
tells the life of Edward D. Wood Jr, the director of
science/horror films and he is consider the worst director of all
time.
From the beginning, we see Ed Wood as a dreamer who lives for directing films, but has an
incapacity for artistry. His dream seems dead, until he accept to direct a project which talks about
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sex-change. Then, one day, he runs into the legend Bela Lugosi of Dracula fame, who drives him
over to his house. Their friendship become as business. Lugosi will be Ed Wood’s film Glen or
Glenda (1953), testimonial about his own secret obsession with wearing women’s clothing. Wood is
rise in the industry becomes a story of one artistic compromise after another, casting those he does
not want to cast and fighting intrusive producers who want to cut the shots. In the end, he convinces
a group of Baptist ministers to finance his effort, Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959), Lugosi’s final
screen appearance.
He is a character who has a dream, become famous directing films in
Hollywood. But he does not have it. Although he is criticized and he is
not successful he does not lose hope, he thinks he will find the right
project. He has an amazing imagination which he uses to write the plot of
his films.
Then, it discovers he likes wearing women’s clothes, but nobody
knows his secret till he accepts a project which talks about sex-change.
By chance he meets his idol Bela Lugosi who plays Dracula and others terror films, which he loves
them. Through the film he opens up his reality and accepts he likes wearing women’s clothes, and
writes the film about himself.
It tells story of a guy who likes wearing women’s clothes, he is comfortable wearing it, but
he is in love with his girlfriend. But the bad luck does not change, nobody believes him and laughs
thinking he is joking. It will find out that Lugosi has heroin problems and he will die. At last, it
realizes he is pathetic, crazy and miserable life, without academic training but he has done what he
could for the reason of his life, the cinema, which he has unconditional love. And he finds the way
to be remembered, like the worst of all time.
In this film there are some character which influence the protagonist.
Firstly, his girlfriend (Dolores), who at first does not believe he likes wearing women’s
clothes and he did not tell her. But finally she accepts it. Then is Bela Lugosi, who is a very good
32
friend and accepts Ed like he is. Also knowing the troubles of Ed for make films. For Ed will be too
important because is his idol and he want be like him. When Bela will have problems, Ed will be
there for help him. Dolores breaks up with Ed, because she does not understand his lifestyle, she
leaves him. Finally, he finds a girl who accepts him and his lifestyle. Apart, an employee realizes he
likes wearing women’s clothes and he searches without embarrassment.
Firstly, the setting it is similar Vincent, in Black and white. He likes terror and science-fiction films
like Vincent and Tim Burton. He has an idol, who is from the world of terror films, and he wants to
be like him. it is the same situation in Vincent with Vincent Price and also Tim Burton. Ed has the
same imagination as Vincent, but both has the same trouble, nobody listens them. He become an
obsessed person just like Vincent, where the society does not care about it and make them strange.
A topic which it can sees in the all Tim Burton’s films is he creates antiheroes, heroes with unusual
troubles. One day the authentic Ed Wood said “If you want know me, watch Glen or Glenda. This is
me”, we can apply this in Vincent.
7.5. CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY
7.5.1. PLOT
Willy Wonka decided to open the doors of his factory to five
children with one companion. To decide who will enter to his
factory, he puts five gold tickets in the wrappers of his chocolate
bars. These children were: Augustus Gloop, Veruca Salt, Violet
Beauregarde, Mike Teavee and the other main character, Charlie
Bucket.
During the factory visit Willy Wonka put tests to see
which of the five children will be the best suited to be his
successor. The first child to lose the test was Augustus Gloop,
who fell into the hot chocolate river while he was trying to drink it and he was sucked up by a pipe.
The second child to lose was Violet Beauregarde, because she ate an experimental gum, although
33
Willy Wonka advised her, and she was turned in to a giant blueberry. The next was Veruca Salt who
wanted to have one of the squirrels that were in one of the factory room’s, these squirrels
determined Veruca like a bad nut and threw her with the trash. Finally Mike Teavee shrinked
himself into tiny size.
Charlie was “the winner” and he became Wonka’s successor, if he wants, but he will have to
live in the factory and without his family. With these conditions Charlie refused the offer, unless he
could live with his family and if Willy Wonka will go to see his father, Wonka accepted.
First we have Willy Wonka, who has many qualities like Vincent, these are:
He is polite. Willy Wonka is polite with the children and with the companion, but always
saying the whole truth. Indirectly with the tests that he puts to the five children, he says what he
thinks about everyone, with the Oompa-Loompas’ help (short humans who live and work in the
Wonka’s factory. They love cocoa beans), every time that one of the children lose, Oompa-Loompas
sing a song about how these children are.
He is solitary. He lives almost alone a very big chocolate factory with a short men that work
for him. During the years he had closed the factory ,because he had had a bad experience with
humans, they wanted to steal his chocolate secrets, and for him, they are his life. As well as he was
abandoned his father when he was young, because he didn’t allow him to eat chocolate and sweets.
He is shy because he hides his face behind sun glasses (Tim Burton wears a black pair of sun
glasses like Willy Wonka)
He is quite tormented, because his father is obsessed with dental hygiene, for this reason he forces
Willy Wonka to wear a dental device and he forbids his son to eat chocolate and sweets. Also
34
because he is afraid that humans can steal his recipes.
He is quite weak because of his concerns. This will be related with the fact that he is solitary,
he protects himself from the world, from the humans. For this reason he has become a weak person,
because he doesn’t know how to be in contact with someone, he prefers to be alone where no one
can hurt him (at first he don’t want Charlie’s family, because he had a bad experience with his
father, but at the end he accepted them and goes to visit his father).
He is imaginative and likes to experiment. He invented a lot of creative sweets, for example:
ice creams that it don’t melt, sweets that don’t lose their flavour… In his factory he mixes a lot of
different things to obtain a new and unique product. He’s also imaginative because his factory is a
“magic” world where all the sweet dreams come true.
He is strange. Willy Wonka usually wears sun glasses and he dresses in a peculiar style,
different from the common style of the period of time that this movie is based on.
Second we have Charlie the other main character hi is quite similar to Vincent (Willy Wonka is
more similar to Vincent, Charlie has the good part):
He is polite, considerate and nice. He is a boy from a poor family and he lives with his
parents and grandparents, all together in a very small house in very bad conditions. He always
attends every thing that every one needs, specially
with his family. He is willing to sell his gold ticket to
get money for his family, although he loves Wonka’s
chocolate and he wants to visit the factory. He will
be the successor of Willy Wonka, because he doesn’t
fall in any trap that Willy Wonka puts, he is an
exemplary boy.
He is imaginative. At the end of the movie you see that he lives with his family in the
factory, near the chocolate river and it’s snowing (impossible inside a building). Also is imaginative
because he will be the successor of Willy Wonka, he will invent new peculiar sweets.
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The other children have bad qualities that Wonka doesn’t what for his successor:
Augustus Goop is gluttonous, although his mother and Willy Wonka tell him to stop or that he can’t
eat more, he continues.
Violet Beauregarde is disobedient. She loves gums and when she sees in the factory a test of a gum,
she eats it although Willy Wonka advises her that it can have secondary effects.
Veruca Salt is capricious and spoiled. She wants a squirrel and his father tries to get one, but Willy
Wonka doesn’t want to sell any squirrel and Veruca goes to get one without permission.
Mike Teavee is addicted to the TV and video games, specially with violent games.
7.6. CORPSE BRIDE
7.6.1. PLOT
Victor Van Dort is the son of recently wealthy aristocrats, and he is
being forced to marry Victoria, the daughter of even wealthier
aristocrats. The marriage is one of a mutually beneficial nature for
both families. Victor's family will see a rise in social class, and
Victoria's family will also see a slight increase in their fortune as well.
However, Victor is nervous about marrying someone he doesn't even
know, but upon meeting Victoria the two quickly fall in love.
During the wedding rehearsal Victor keeps on flubbing his lines, and
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is punished by the priest, so he runs out of the church to regain his senses and practice his lines.
Upon spotting a twig sticking out of the ground Victor practices his lines and putting the ring on his
bride to be's finger, and wouldn't you know he nails it.
Unfortunately, that wasn't a twig it was the finger of an undead bride, called Emily, and she
takes Victor's hand in marriage. Now it is up to Victor to convince his new bride the whole incident
was a mistake, and he must find a way to get back to his bride to be.
(Based on a russian popular tale in an atmosphere where the death is the main feature.)
Victor is very shy, and easily startled. Victor stuttered when he first meets Victoria and stumbling
when he tries to say his vows at the wedding rehearsal. His
nervousness leads him to ruin the wedding rehearsal and makes both
his parents and Victoria's parents very upset with him.
Victor's first reaction when confronted with Emily is to act
like a fool when he run away from her for no reason. Victor repeats
this later in the Land of the Dead.
Victor does this three times in the Land of the Dead. Victor
does this one last time when they return to the woods.
He's never very sure of himself and tends to speak stammeling over his words. However, he can be
very brave when he has to be.
Victor doesn't lose his temper easily and is very kind to everyone he meets. Even though he
is a bit confused and upset with his sudden 'marriage' to Emily, he still tries to be kind to her and
goes back to apologize after offending her.
Even Victor also has good intentions and a kind heart he was not in love with Emily.
Emily has a lively personality. She's often seen smiling and laughing, and she enjoys dancing and
playing the piano. She is also extremely kind-hearted and sweet. However, she has a bit of temper
and gets jealous easily, as seen when she finds Victor talking to Victoria Everglot.
Her moods tend toward extremes, when she's happy, she's extremely joyful; when she's sad,
she is in the depths of despair. Emily is a good person and forgives easily as she did in the film with
37
Victor came for apologized.
Then Victoria disappear for Emily's jealousy because she sees her as a rival. In the church she
realizes that the chance to have married has come and gone.
The one person who she doesn't forgive easily is Lord Barkis, with good
reason. At the end, she shows off her protective side by helping Victoria
to get hurt with the pew of the church. Also she helps Victor from
Barkis who was going to hurt him with a sword.
So, she is the kind of girl with a black pass behind, and wants an other
opportunity.
Victoria is for the most part shy with a gentle voice. She's a bit romantic, wanting to marry for love
and falling in love with Victor practically at first sight. She's quiet and responsible.
Even when she's feeling miserable, she doesn't speak up. However, when the times call for
it,
Victoria
shows
her
part
of
bravery
and
rebelliousness. She defies her parents by walking in
silence to the Everglot mansion to try and find help for
Victor.
Victoria doesn't laugh or smile as much as
Emily because there isn't much to smile or laugh about
in her life. Her parents are strict with her and people around her, in that case, Victor, the suppose
future husband.
But on the inside she is quite sassy and smart.
She is not so much scared of Emily and the other dead people, but more scared of what
happens in real life.
For example, when things doesn't go as to her plans, she is seen looking scared and
miserable, and shows happiness in a different and more calm way than Emily.
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Victor's parents and Victoria's parents, seems to be really different.
Victor's parents are a happy family who want for Victor the best and. They look like the
aristocratic family who doesn’t mind what the future Victor's wife looks like or the different manner
of doing.
But then, Victoria's parents are the contrary, above all, her mother. She is the typical rich
mother who wants the most responsible, smart husband for her, with good manners.
7.5. SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET
7.7.1. PLOT
Sweeney Todd: The demon Barber of Fleet Street is a musical thriller
and the film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s
musical with the same name. Which tells the Victorian tale of Sweeney
Todd, an English barber and serial killer who murders his costumers. It
was released in United States on December 2007.
A barber named Benjamin Barker arrives in London, with a
sailor named Anthony. Fifteen years ago, he had been sentenced to
prison from London by the corrupt Judge Turpin, who abducted
Benjamin's wife and daughter. Benjamin becomes Sweeney Todd and returns to his old Fleet Street
shop, situated above Mrs. Lovett's meat pie shop. From here, he learns that Turpin raped Lucy, who
then poisoned herself. Benjamin’s daughter, Johanna, is now under Turpin's ward. Sweeney reopens his barber shop and Anthony falls in love with Johanna. Sweeney stars killing his customers
while waiting to kill Turpin and Mrs. Lovett bakes his victims and does meat cakes.
It finds sick character who is dark, torment and mad. But
behind him, there is a tragic story and a lost person called
Benjamin Baker. He had an amazing wife and a beautiful
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baby, but a judge abducted them and now he is back to London completely mad for revenge, after
have been in prison.
He let the anger and fury killing people’s necks. When he does, he is cold and he only feels
snub and hate. All around him is dark. He is extravagant, possessed and always is losing the control
because the revenge kills him. He has created himself a trouble person, because the appearance is
the mad person and also personality but in essence he is a good person, who loves his family and
does not make these things.
It can says that Benjamin Baker is a different person as Sweeney Todd. Benjamin it is a good
person, who is still leaving inside Sweeney and reminds him his family and goodness.
Mrs.Lovett is the baker of Fleet Street and accomplice of Sweeney, she makes meat cakes with the
bodies and she sells it. She is who tells the truth story of Sweeney’s family and she understands the
anger of Sweeney.
Judge Turpin plays the bad character, who does not care about what he does and sees Sweeney
strange.
In this film is more difficult to find an exactly Vincent in. But there is some topic they have in
common with this character.
Like Vincent, Sweeney is blind about his passion and has feelings out of control. They are
too exaggerated and without sense, because both are sick and torment for something inside them.
Some moments the madness becomes uncontrollable and brings them to a loneliness. Physically
both are dark, around misery and in a world dishonest. Sweeney Todd is another Tim Buston’s
antihero.
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7.8. ALICE IN WONDERLAND
7.8.1. PLOT
Alice Kingsleigh goes to Lord Ascot’s party. During the party she
sees a rabbit and when Hamish Ascot asks Alice to marry him (it’s an
unwanted marriage proposal), she says that she needs a moment and
starts to follow the rabbit, suddenly she falls into a rabbit hole. At the
end of the hole there is a door which leads to a very peculiar forest
where she finds the White Rabbit, the Dormouse, the Dodo, the Talking Flowers, and Tweedledee and Tweedledum. After an argument about if she is the “right Alice”.
All the characters that Alice finds are kidnapped by the soldiers of the Red Queen, Alice escapes
from them (she is in her nightmare). The Knace,a soldier of the Red queen, informs the Queen that
Alice is threatening her reign and she orders their soldiers to find Alice.
Alice finds the Hatter (the Cheshire cat guided Alice to him), who helps her to avoid her
capture, but finally the Hatter is captured and Alice is found by Bayard the Bloodhound. They go to
the Red Queen’s palace to help the Hatter. She doesn’t reveal her true identity and the queen welcomes her as a guest. During her stay, the Knave tries to seduce Alice and when Red Queen discovers it, she orders Alice behead. In this moment Alice obtains the sword and befriends with Bandersnatch (who guards the sword) by returning its eye (the first time that the soldiers of Red Queen try
to capture the white rabbit… they have take his eye), then she escapes on the back of the Bander snatch, and she goes to the White Queen’s palace. The Cheshire cat saves the hatter from the executioner.
After these facts both Queens are preparing the battle. The appointed day the two Queens
gather their armies on a chessboard like a battlefield, where Alice will fight with the Jabberwocky.
Finally Alice beheads the Jabberwocky and the White Queen recovers her throne and sends the Red
Queen and the Knave into exile. They celebrate a party and the White Queen gives Ale a gift: a vial
of the Jabberwocky’s purple blood, which will take Alice home.
When she returns to the Lord Ascot party, Hamish Ascot takes Alice as his apprentice with
the idea to establish an oceanic trade routes to China. The film ends when Alice is preparing to set
off on a trading ship.
41
Alice Kingsleigh is the main character of the film. She has some qualities like Vincent, these are:
She is considerate and nice. She is worried about all the characters, for example she decided
to rescue the Hatter before going to the White
Queen’s palace, she puts herself in danger to help
the others. She doesn’t think only about her mission, beheading the Jabberwocky.
She is solitary. She doesn’t want to get married at the age of 20 and getting married with a boy
that she doesn’t love. Also she prefers being alone to being in social events.
She is tormented. She has had the same nightmare since she was young. This makes that some days,
when she has it, she isn’t very happy or relaxed. At the
beginning she doesn’t understand why she always had
this nightmare.
She seems quite weak and she physically looks like a dead person, because she is very slim and
very pale.
She is insane and strange in the society she lives in. She isn’t like the other girls: she doesn’t
want to get married at the moment, she doesn’t dress conventionally (she hate tights and corsets)
and she is always thinking about things that in the society she lives in, women don’t think about.
42
She likes to experiment. When she falls in
to the rabbit hole, she isn’t afraid to eat the concoctions or
the small cakes.
Some other qualities not related directly with Vincent:
She is very brave: During all the film she isn’t afraid to
walk in a world that she only has been in her dreams, she
likes to investigate about the unknown and discover new things, in the film she starts following a
White rabbit and seeing in a rabbit hole where she falls, she is brave too during all the trip in Wonderland, at the end of the movie when she beheads the Jabberwocky and because when she returns
to her home she will travel to China, to discover a trade route.
She would have to be very polite, because she had learnt all of the rules of a young ladies
etiquette because she had a wealthy family. But sometimes she “looses” the modals.
We have 3 other character who are completely different:
The Red Queen is bad, has dictatorship of fear. She is quite insane and drastic
(every one who doesn’t like or “disturbs” her, it would be behead). During her
reign, there were many places deserted and destroyed.
The White Queen is the opposite of the Red Queen, she is nice, considerate and
polite with every one. Her reign is based by peace and a good coexistence.
During her reign the wonderland was full of colours and
gorgeous.
The Hatter is insane, but in a good way. He had suffered a lot when the Red
Queen takes the White Queens reign, for this reason he loses his job and
lives like an insane person, but he is there for the important occasions, killing
the Jabberwocky to recover the reign of the White Queen.
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7.9. FRANKENWEENIE
7.9.1 PLOT
After unexpectedly losing his beloved dog Sparky, young Victor
harnesses the power of science to bring his best friend back to life –
with just a few minor adjustments. He tries to hide his home-sewn
creation, but when Sparky gets out, Victor’s fellow students, teachers
and the entire town all learn that getting a new “leash on life” can be
monstrous.
Victor Frankenstein is a clever and hard-working 11-year old boy who is inspired by science.
He is shy, introverted, brilliantly creative and
exceptionally smart.
He spends most of his time with his dog or in the
attic where he works on his science experiments.
44
In the ending, he shows a heroic side that hadn't shown before due to his shyness.
Victor appears to harbor a crush on his neighbor, Elsa Van Helsing, a serious yet soulful girl
whose uncle is the mayor of New Holland. Their dogs Sparky and Persephone, however, are another
story entirely.
Elsa is a 10-year-old soulful and serious classmate of Victor Frankenstein. She lives next door to
him with her uncle.
Elsa also has a pet, her poodle Persephone, and truly empathizes with Victor when he loses
Sparky. She is the object of Victor's affections. Her appearance looks like a female counterpart to
Victor. Although she and Victor may not show it, but the two neighbors appear to harbor romantic
affections towards each other.
Edgar “E” is a 10-year-old poor misfit who doesn’t have friends but is desperate to be Victor’s
partner for the science fair. In his attempts to be accepted ‘E’ tends to mess things up and often fails
to think before he speaks. Even though ‘E’ promises not to tell Victor’s secret, he accidentally spills
the beans.
But at first Victor doesn't want Edgar as his friend, but why not? If Edgar Allan Poe is Tim
Burton's favorite writer, why he had named one character with that name?
45
In his latest film, Frankenweenie, he once more removes the grave for inspiration while, at the same
time, serving up a strangely autobiographical tale, using memories of his own parents, childhood
dog, school classroom and teachers.
"Mr and Mrs Frankenstein of the film are the
optimistic versions of my parents, although in some
ways I had a slightly more troubled relationship with
my parents (than that in the film). And Frankenweenie
was based on my own childhood dog, Peppi. If I could
have brought him back to life, I would (have). I did it in
film instead,"
Frankenweenie comes to life, so to speak, as the result of a school science fair, something
Burton, now 54, remembers fondly: "I recall being one of those kids where every day was a science
fair, you know what I mean? It's like well, 'here, let's mix this up and see if it blows up'.
7.10. BIG EYES
7.10.1 PLOT
Margaret leaves her husband and takes her daughter, Jane, to
San Francisco. There she meets Walter Keane, in an art market. They become friends and finally they get married.
One day they go to a jazz club and Walter talks with
the club’s owner, Erico Banducci, and asks him to put up their
paintings (he paints street scene and Margaret paints children
with big eyes) on the walls of his club. The clients don’t see
their paintings, because they where in the walls next to the
toilet. But one day a women is touched by one of the Margaret’s paintings and she buys it. Later Walter fights with
Erico Banducci, because Walter is angry about having their paintings near the toilet and that no one
can see them in good conditions. Finally they end up on the front page of the newspaper. This
46
makes the club and the paintings to be more important and Dick Nolan (the film’s narrator), a very
famous columnist, wants to know more about Walter’s art, in particular Margaret’s paintings, but
Walter doesn’t say that the paintings aren’t his. Walter shows Margaret all the money that they have
won and he persuades her to stay at home painting and he will sell the paintings.
Years after they open their own gallery, but no one knows that Margaret paints the paintings
(her daughter and her friend Jane don’t know about who is the real artist, for this reason Margaret is
unhappier everyday). Walter achieves prestige and sells every thing about the children with big eyes
(posters, paintings, postals…). With all the money that they have won, they buy a mansion. After
years in the mansion Margaret discovers that the street scenes that her husband paints aren’t his,
they change the name of the real artist for his name. She tells him what she discover and Walter
tries to lie but ends confessing that he wants to be an artist but he has not talent.
Walter wants to have his most important paintings for the New York World’s Fair and persuades Margaret to paint it. It receives a bad review and it can’t be presented to New York World ’s
Fair. This makes Walter become more insane and he is obsessed that it’s Margaret’s fault, that “his”
last painting doesn’t have prestige. For this reason he tries to kill Margaret and her daughter. She
leaves the mansion with Jane and they go to Hawaii. Walter finds them and says that if Margaret
wants the divorce she will have to send 100 paintings more of children with big eyes. Margaret accepts but later two jehovah’s witnesses visit her and convince Margaret that honestly is very important. The next time that she sends paintings to Walter they are signed with her name.
Margaret decides to explain, in the Hawaiian radio show, the truth about her paintings: they
are hers not Walter’s paintings. The news expands around the world and Walter makes the columnist Dick Nolan write that Margaret is insane and is lying, in order to protect himself. Margaret reports Walter. In the trial Walter loses his lawyer and has to defend himself. It is like a play, because
Walter gets more insane. Finally the judge decided that to know the truth they have to paint a chil dren with big eyes. In this moment Walter exposes himself, because he can’t paint anything. Margaret wins the trial and is well-know for her paintings with big eyes.
47
Margaret is the main character of this film and she has many qualities like Vincent, these are:
She is polite, considerate and nice. During all the
film she is always polite with every one around her, we
never see her lose control. An example of nice and considerate behaviour is at the beginning of the film, she is in an
art market and she paints painting for 2 dollars and a man
says that he will pay one dollar, and she accepts to do it.
And during all the film she tries to make her daughter and
Walter Keane and Margaret
her husband happy. Especially, she tries to understand and be considerate with her husband who is
insane all the time and obssesed with being an artist even if it meant killing his family.
She is solitary. In the movie she is usually alone: painting in her studio (it’s supposed to be
Walter’s studio, and she can’t tell it to her daughter), in the Keane Gallery (all the people are seeing
the “Walter paintings” and talking with him. She is alone in a corner and she doesn’t talk with anyone during the parties and events.), She has divorced and lives a period of time alone with her
daughter.
She is tormented. Margaret has to carry: the responsibility of her daughter, her conscience
and for the paintings which she suffers to hide the truth about who is the real artist of the paintings,
of children with big eyes. During all the film she is tormented about her decisions, because she sacrificing herself for everything, especially for the future of her daughter and earning a living.
She is strong, brave and quite weak. She is strong because is fighting every day for her
daughter and her children (her paintings with big eyes). Also because Margaret deals with her bad
conscience and the mental blackmail that her husband does to her. She is able to deal with it with
her paintings (panting big eyes), where she transmits all her feelings, she says that “the eyes are the
mirror of the soul”.
But at the same time she is quite weak, because she isn’t brave enough to tell the truth from
the first moment. She allows to be control for his husband and her concerns.
She is strong, not like Vincent, but she is weak, like Vincent.
She lives in a lie, subdues in the imagination of her husband who wants to be a very famous
artist, he uses Margaret to get to his dreams. At the end he isn’t aware of what’s true and what not,
he is insane.
48
The qualities of insane and imaginative that Vincent has, are like Margaret’s husband’s.
She likes to paint, she is an artist. Her job and her passion are painting, especially children
with big eyes, cats or dogs and the children look sad in her paintings, they are melancholies.
There are other qualities that there aren’t like Vincent:
She transmits sadness at the beginning and at the end of the film: when she leaves her first
husband, when she has to lie about her paintings, when her husband threatens her, during the parties
and when she leaves her second husband.
She’s only happy when she gets married the second time, when she goes to Hawaii (the first
time with Walter and her daughter and the second time, when she goes to live with her daughter, at
the end of the film) and when she wins the trial.
She is elegant. During the whole film, she is always radiant (always with her beautiful
dresses, her well brushed hair…). As well as she is blonde and has blue eyes.
49
8. CONCLUSIONS
As we have tried to prove throughout this paper, Tim Burton always creates a character based on
himself: with the same troubles, personality and feelings. Our hypothesis is, therefore, confirmed.
Through the selected films, and Vincent (1982) as a special reference, we have detected that
Edward Scissorhands (1990) and Ed Wood (1994) symbolize the periods of his early life: his youth
and early adult time. Charlie and the chocolate factory (2005), with those two, are specially
connected with Vincent (1982).
Edward, Ed and Willie Wonka are people who nobody understands and they are looked
down on by other characters in their stories. This takes them away from their society and they are
treated as odd people. Moreover, their physical appearance and their feelings make them feel sad,
lonely, tormented, obsessed, insane, fragile… However, they are imaginative, considerate, polite...
Other characters like the Penguin (Batman Returns - 1992), Jack (The Nightmare Before Christmas1993), Victor Van Dort (Corpse Bride - 2005), Alice (Alice in Wonderland- 2010), Sweeney
(Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street - 2007), Victor (Frankenweenie - 2012) and
Margaret (Big Eyes- 2014) are also depicted as peculiar characters and most of those adjectives
could be addressed to them.
Throughout the analysis, we have seen that all of Tim Burton's films have a common message,
which, after searching for information about Burton's personal life, is no surprise at all to us. The
way that society treats each of these peculiar characters has a negative influence on their
psychological development and their relationship with their environment. Tim Burton himself
suffered similar injustice from the society that he grew up in. We can state that Burton builds
characters and stories that make us feel connected to the injustice and prejudice he experienced as a
child and that way we connect with him and also with our own individual peculiarities.
This is our modest opinion. At the beginning of this paper, we described Burton as a weird director.
Now we see his films from another complex perspective in which weird is only one of the many
faces on the polyhedron.
Watching his films, we have learnt not to simply accept the diversity of our individualities, but
rather to celebrate it as a source of richness in our dehumanized world.
So, we encourage you to ask yourselves a question. Who is the weird one: the world or yourselves?
Before you judge someone, you should look at yourself in the mirror.
50
9. WEBGRAPHY & BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://www.bricovo.com/ (Films)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Burton (Tim Burton: biography)
http://www.nytimes.com/movies/person/83666/Tim-Burton/biography (Tim Burton: biography)
http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/tim-burton-4168.php (Tim Burton: biography)
http://www.timburton.es/ (Tim Burton: films, videos, interviews…)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Burton_filmography (Tim Burton: filmography)
http://timburton.wikia.com/wiki/Tim_Burton_Wiki (Tim Burton: filmography)
http://timburton.wikia.com/wiki/Tim_Burton_Wiki (Tim Burton: filmography)
http://www.timburton.es/videos/ (Tim Burton: videos)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Price (Vincent Price: biography)
http://www.biography.com/people/vincent-price-9446990#film-career (Vincent Price: biography)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Allan_Poe (Edgar Allan Poe: biography)
http://poestories.com/biography.php (Edgar Allan Poe: biography)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Seuss (Dr. Seuss: biography)
https://www.earlymoments.com/dr-seuss/the-life-and-times-of-dr-seuss/ (Dr. Seuss: biography)
http://fama2.us.es/fco/frame/frame3/estudios/1.1.pdf (German Exprrssions)
http://www.openculture.com/2015/06/how-german-expressionism-influenced-tim-burton-a-videoessay.html (German Expressions)
http://culturacolectiva.com/12-elementos-que-caracterizan-una-pelicula-de-tim-burton/ (Important
characteristics)
https://animationbegins.wordpress.com/2012/01/29/the-influences-and-the-gothic-style-of-timburton/ (Ghotic Style)
http://enchantedserenityperiodfilms.blogspot.com.es/2010/02/alice-in-wonderland-character.html
(Alice in Wonderland)
http://www.estrenosdecine.net/especiales/alicia-en-el-pais-de-las-maravillas/gato.php (Alice in
Wonderland)
Diario de un soñador, David G. Panadero and Miguel A.Parra (Spanish book)
Editorial: JAGUAR
Language: SPANISH
ISBN: 9788496423206
51
10. ANNEXES
BIOGRAPHY
His childhood memories are less than rosy: "When I was younger, I had these two windows in my
room, nice windows that looked out onto the lawn, and for some reason my parents walled them up
and gave me this little slit-window that I had to climb up on a desk to see out of. I never did ask
them why.
ANIMATED FILMS CONCLUSIONS
Whereas in the animated films there are different conclusions.
The male characters of the three films and their pets are very similar, but something has changed in
them: the evolution of Jack and Zero, Scraps and Victor and finally Victor and Sparky.
One theory is that the small Victor of Frankenweenie revives his dog Sparky, so years later it
becomes Scraps of Corpse Bride. After death, Victor becomes Jack to Nightmare Before Christmas,
though the film is not directed by Burton, was the creator of the characters- and adopts Scraps (the
ghostly Zero), who becomes his constant companion.
But we think that it can't be true because those films were recorded with another order. The first
film was The Nightmare Before Christmas, so the first dog it couldn't be Sparky.
So, in our opinion we thought that what Tim Burton wants was revive his dog on his films
by reviving the dog. First as a ghost, Zero; then as skeleton, Scraps and finally as a normal dog who
dies again, Sparky.
The reason that Tim Burton has used this dog in several of his films is a personal matter. He had this
strong connection with his dog called Peppi. It was a good connection. The dog wasn't destined to
live long because of an illness he had.
Frankenweenie and Corpse Bride the main character has the same name, Victor. In the first
film he is young and later he grew up and he is going to has married. So there's a relation between
both films about his evolution in life.
JOHNNY DEPP
Long-time collaborator and producer Scott Rudin has a theory that in all of Burton’s films, Depp is
playing the character of Tim Burton. Burton doesn’t agree, but Depp does. Edward Scissorhands
was about Burton’s inability to communicate as a teenager, Depp has said.
52
BIOGRAPHY SUMMARY
Social
Economic
Political
Burton affected the social
aspect of movie making
companies by created a
darker genre of animation.
Being middle class and
growing up in the suburbs of
California, Burton was well off
and had the chance to
broaden his education in
animation.
Burton didn’t exactly stay
inside the lines when making
his movies; many could view
this as damaging to their
State. He decided to go to the
grain and made his animation as
racy as he wanted.
Being an unsocial child. Burton
often spent time in graveyards
and read Edgar Allen Poe. He
found a lot of inspiration in the
graveyards and how
everything in life did not end
in a happily-ever-after
scheme.
Burton has produced
countless movies that had
done excellent in the box
office. His first million dollar
movie was Pee-Wee
Herman’s Big Adventure, it
brought in 33 million dollars.
At first Disney was not sure
about producing Tim Burton
Nightmare Before Christmas
because they didn’t think that
audiences except it. In the
long run they did produce the
movie and it made millions.
Burton didn’t grow up around
many friends so he found
company in the movies he
watched, where he could find
something new that spoke to
him.
The Nightmare Before
Christmas took 20 million to
make and was only a 74
minute movie. This movie
brought in much success
especially with the tag of
Disney.
Critics thought that Pee-Wee
Herman’s Big Adventure was
not appropriate for children
and many parents
complained. Ultimately the
movie was made into a
children’s television show.
Burton had a relationship with
Disney that has come full
circle. Disney allowed Burton
to get into animation with the
move The Fox and the
Hound. He came full circle by
also producing The
Nightmare Before Christmas,
with Disney.
Batman brought in 450 million
dollars worldwide. With the
merchandise and videos that
were released the total profit
for the Batman movie was
over one billion dollars.
Many movie theaters around
the world are banning the
upcoming film Alice In
Wonderland. The length of the
theatrical release compared to
the DVD release in Britain,
Italy, and Ireland.
In society he gave
filmmakers the initiative to
toy with a unique style of
their own without the fear of
being reprimanded.
Overall Burton showed
other filmmakers that it is
possible to put millions into
a movie and get even more
back. It’s worth the risk of
producing an extremely
expensive movie.
Almost all of Burton’s films are
controversial. They bring
about topics such as, “Should
Burton be banned from
making movies?” He doesn’t
care about how other perceive
him, he just continues making
movies the way he wants to,
gaining riches.
53
FAMOUS SENTENCES
TIM BURTON
“Those feelings never really leave you,” says Burton, “It’s just part of your DNA. I always felt like
Frankenstein and my neighbours were all the angry villagers.”
“I grew up surrounded by the puritanical atmosphere of American Dream, in which is assumed that
everyone should be normal and attack anyone who tries to do something...”
“Vincent Price, Edgar Allen Poe, those monster movies, those spoke to me.”
"It was weird doing things that I knew nobody was ever going to see and yet I got the opportunity to
do them."
"I was never scared of monster movies. I could happily watch a monster movie but if I had one of
my relatives come over, you'd be terrified."
TIM BURTON'S POEM (THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS)
It was late one fall in Halloweenland,
and the air had quite a chill.
Against the moon a skeleton sat,
alone upon a hill.
He was tall and thin with a bat bow tie;
Jack Skellington was his name.
He was tired and bored in Halloweenland
“I’m sick of the scaring, the terror, the fright.
I’m tired of being something that goes bump in the night.
I’m bored with leering my horrible glances,
And my feet hurt from dancing those skeleton dances.
I don’t like graveyards, and I need something new.
There must be more to life than just yelling,
‘Boo!'”
54
Then out from a grave, with a curl and a twist,
Came a whimpering, whining, spectral mist.
It was a little ghost dog, with a faint little bark,
And a jack-o’-lantern nose that glowed in the dark.
It was Jack’s dog, Zero, the best friend he had,
But Jack hardly noticed, which made Zero sad.
All that night and through the next day,
Jack wandered and walked.
He was filled with dismay.
Then deep in the forest, just before night,
Jack came upon an amazing sight.
Not twenty feet from the spot where he stood
Were three massive doorways carved in wood.
He stood before them, completely in awe,
His gaze transfixed by one special door.
Entranced and excited, with a slight sense of worry,
Jack opened the door to a white, windy flurry.
Jack didn’t know it, but he’d fallen down
In the middle of a place called Christmas Town!
Immersed in the light, Jack was no longer haunted.
He had finally found the feeling he wanted.
And so that his friends wouldn’t think him a liar,
He took the present filled stockings that hung by the fire.
He took candy and toys that were stacked on the shelves
And a picture of Santa with all of his elves.
He took lights and ornaments and the star from the tree,
And from the Christmas Town sign, he took the big letter C.
He picked up everything that sparkled or glowed.
He even picked up a handful of snow.
He grabbed it all, and without being seen,
He took it all back to Halloween.
55
Back in Halloween a group of Jack’s peers
Stared in amazement at his Christmas souvenires.
For this wondrous vision none were prepared.
Most were excited, though a few were quite scared!
For the next few days, while it lightninged and thundered,
Jack sat alone and obsessively wondered.
“Why is it they get to spread laughter and cheer
While we stalk the graveyards, spreading panic and fear?
Well, I could be Santa, and I could spread cheer!
Why does he get to do it year after year?”
Outraged by injustice, Jack thought and he thought.
Then he got an idea. “Yes. . .yes. . .why not!”
In Christmas Town, Santa was making some toys
When through the din he heard a soft noise.
He answered the door, and to his surprise,
He saw weird little creatures in strange disguise.
They were altogether ugly and rather petite.
As they opened their sacks, they yelled, “Trick or treat!”
Then a confused Santa was shoved into a sack
And taken to Halloween to see mastermind Jack.
In Halloween everyone gathered once more,
For they’d never seen a Santa before
And as they cautiously gazed at this strange old man,
Jack related to Santa his masterful plan:
“My dear Mr. Claus, I think it’s a crime
That you’ve got to be Santa all of the time!
But now I will give presents, and I will spread cheer.
We’re changing places I’m Santa this year.
It is I who will say Merry Christmas to you!
So you may lie in my coffin, creak doors, and yell, ‘Boo!’
And please, Mr. Claus, don’t think ill of my plan.
56
For I’ll do the best Santa job that I can.”
And though Jack and his friends thought they’d do a good job,
Their idea of Christmas was still quite macabre.
They were packed up and ready on Christmas Eve day
When Jack hitched his reindeer to his sleek coffin sleigh,
But on Christmas Eve as they were about to begin,
A Halloween fog slowly rolled in.
Jack said, “We can’t leave; this fog’s just too thick.
There will be no Christmas, and I can’t be St. Nick.”
Then a small glowing light pierced through the fog.
What could it be?. . .It was Zero, Jack’s dog!
Jack said, “Zero, with your nose so bright,
Won’t you guide my sleigh tonight?”
And to be so needed was Zero’s great dream,
So he joyously flew to the head of the team.
And as the skeletal sleigh started its ghostly flight,
Jack cackled, “Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”
‘Twas the nightmare before Christmas, and all though the house,
Not a creature was peaceful, not even a mouse.
The stockings all hung by the chimney with care,
When opened that morning would cause quite a scare!
The children, all nestled so snug in their beds,
Would have nightmares of monsters and skeleton heads.
The moon that hung over the new-fallen snow
Cast an eerie pall over the city below,
And Santa Claus’s laughter now sounded like groans,
And the jingling bells like chattering bones.
And what to their wondering eyes should appear,
But a coffin sleigh with skeleton deer.
And a skeletal driver so ugly and sick
They knew in a moment, this can’t be St. Nick!
57
From house to house, with a true sense of joy,
Jack happily issued each present and toy.
From rooftop to rooftop he jumped and he skipped,
Leaving presents that seemed to be straight from a crypt!
Unaware that the world was in panic and fear,
Jack merrily spread his own brand of cheer.
He visited the house of Susie and Dave;
They got a Gumby and Pokey from the grave.
Then on to the home of little Jane Neeman;
She got a baby doll possessed by a demon.
A monstrous train with tentacle tracks,
A ghoulish puppet wielding an ax,
A man eating plant disguised as a wreath,
And a vampire teddy bear with very sharp teeth.
There were screams of terror, but Jack didn’t hear it,
He was much too involved with his own Christmas spirit!
Jack finally looked down from his dark, starry frights
And saw the commotion, the noise, and the light.
“Why, they’re celebrating, it looks like such fun!
They’re thanking me for the good job that I’ve done.”
But what he thought were fireworks meant as goodwill
Were bullets and missiles intended to kill.
Then amidst the barrage of artillery fire,
Jack urged Zero to go higher and higher.
And away they all flew like the storm of a thistle,
Until they were hit by a well guided missile.
And as they fell on the cemetery, way out of sight,
Was heard, “Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good
night.”
Jack pulled himself up on a large stone cross,
And from there he reviewed his incredible loss.
“I thought I could be Santa, I had such belief”
58
Jack was confused and filled with great grief.
Not knowing where to turn, he looked toward the sky,
Then he slumped on the grave and he started to cry.
And as Zero and Jack lay crumpled on the ground,
They suddenly heard a familiar sound.
“My dear Jack,” said Santa, “I applaud your intent.
I know wreaking such havoc was not what you meant.
And so you are sad and feeling quite blue,
But taking over Christmas was the wrong thing to do.
I hope you realize Halloween’s the right place for you.
There’s a lot more, Jack, that I’d like to say,
But now I must hurry, for it’s almost Christmas day.”
Then he jumped in his sleigh, and with a wink of an eye,
He said, “Merry Christmas,” and he bid them good bye.
Back home, Jack was sad, but then, like a dream,
Santa brought Christmas to the land of Halloween.
59

1. INTRODUCTION

Transcription

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