TIm BUrton
Although the typical layman would immediately label him an oddball, those who are a little bit more familiar with Tim Burton would say that he's a beautiful mess. Burton was born August 25, 1958 in Burbank, California. He lived in typical suburbia, along with his brother and parents, although he never felt very attached to them. He felt much closer to the films of Vincent Price and the writings of Edgar Allan Poe. While his parents wanted him to go play outside and be "normal," he would rather soak into a 1950's horror movie, or just withdraw into his own mind, into his own world. When asked about his childhood, he responded, "I guess if there was a flavor [of childhood], I guess childhood was a kind of surreal, bright, depression," (Breskin 38). Aside from watching horror movies, Burton spent most of his adolescence drawing. He went on to win a scholarship to the California Institute of the Arts, awarded to him by Disney. After being unsuccessful working in the Disney atmosphere, where the animation was too cheery and uniformed for him, he went on to make distinctive box office hits. Those who have interviewed Burton can easily see what a mess he is. The language of English seems second to the visual process with which he t
Just as the creation of a visual world is elementary to Burton, the contrast of that to a completely different world is apparent in all of his films as well. Pee Wee's bright world is contrasted by the nightmares he has about the whereabouts of his beloved bike. The primary, happy colors of his life stand out to the dark sequence of Large Marge's truck, the evil clowns who "operate" on his bicycle, and the Devil himself who plans to melt the bike. In Beetlejuice the world of the Maitland ghosts (Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis) is a warm country home complete with lots of wood. The new inhabitants, the Deetze's, intrude Gothic styling onto this warm atmosphere. The snakeskin stair rails, the dark colors of furniture, and the horrid sculptures that are on display further distance the Deetze's from commonplace. A gift that Burton has is to draw the audience into the worlds that he creates. For example, in Beetlejuice, the "weird" world of ghosts is seemly much more normal than the "normal" world of the living. For his Batman movies, Tim Burton mainly expresses the dual worlds as in split personalities of Bruce Wayne and Batman, of Selina Kyle and Catwoman, and of Oswald Cobbelpot and the Penguin. The alter ego's are just outlets for the revenge that the characters must vent. In the first Batman, the main visual contrast is of the City of Gotham and the newsroom. The brighter, and almost modern newspaper headquarters serves as a contrast and emphasizer of the Gothic structures outside. In the sequel, the sharp contrast between the Penguin's (Danny DeVito) campaign office and his home immediately upstairs (as well as the rest of the film) provide impressive contrasts. The castle in Edward Scissorhands is sharply contrasted to the bright and pastel suburbia below it. Dark and eerie, the castle lays in fog and darkness while bright suburbia always looks happy. The Nightmare Before Christmas provides Burton's most extreme difference between visual styles. The home of Jack Skellington, Hallo'ween Land, is a uncanny world that is capable of giving nightmares to viewers. Christmastown, however, is just the opposite. Layered on bright, soft, happy snow, "Sandy Claws" and other inhabitants are equally amicable. The main contrast of worlds in Ed Wood are mental. Ed Wood and Bela Ligosi see their films as masterpieces while Hollywood and the rest of the world cannot bear to view their movies. Visually, Ed Wood dresses up as a woman to escape his normal world. The Gothic scenery followed Burton in the film between his Batman's, Edward Scissorhands. The castle of Edward, Johnny Depp, dominates the skyline of suburbia below it. The castle is even more gloomy than the original City of Gotham because it has sharper Gothic angles, a barren lawn, and is always covered in a dense fog. This is a reflection of Burton's newfound power in Hollywood to express his freedom. Edward himself, dressed in a black leather bodysuit with silver hinges, white skin, long black hair, and of course his long scissors, is a personification of Gothic. One of Edward's talents with his scissor-hands is topiary. The dinosaurs and bears he creates on the lawns of the townspeople provide striking imagery. By this time in Burton's career, he created a series of films that were distinctive to all the rest. Disney capitalized on this by titling his next movie Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas. Burton returned to stop-motion animation to produce a movie that is set in Hallo'ween land. The film received much criticism because many people believed that the motion picture was too dark and shadowy for children. But it allowed Burton to
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2437
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)
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