Tim Burton: Introduction, "Vincent," and "Frankenweenie"

Note: In honor of Alice in Wonderland, which is to be released March 2010, I have decided to do an overview of Tim Burton's work to date beginning with his early career with Disney. Enjoy!

"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."

This opening narration from Tim Burton's 1982 "Vincent" could just as easily be used to describe Burton himself as it could the over imaginative slight morbid main character in the short. His long time love affair with early horror films, especially those of famed director Vincent Price and the exploitative, sensational films of the 1950s, is prominently displayed throughout his work lending his films a unique, distinctive visual style that is both instantly recognizable and highly imaginative. Additionally, his quirky personality and difficult home and school life have led to scripts centered around a lonely, misunderstood outsider with whom audiences both instantly sympathize and relate. This winning combination of style and story has quickly propelled Burton to one of the most popular directors in Hollywood.

Burton started his career as an animator for Disney who recruited him right out of college based on his hand drawn short "The Stalk of the Celery Monster." After being removed from The Fox and the Hound due to his roadkill-like concept art, he was reassigned to The Black Cauldron. He often relates this work to having a piece of his brain cut out and preferred to work on his own, more macabre shorts.

The first of these is "Vincent," a six minute animated short about a young boy who imagines that his life is like a movie by his hero Vincent Price, who actually narrates the short. The piece is set to a poem that Burton originally intended to turn into a children's book. It features black and white animation with stark lighting and harsh, distorted shadows creating an eerie, Gothic feel that would soon become a trademark. It also introduces his preferred heroic archetype of misunderstood outsider while at the same time, making fun of it to give it a lighter, more kid-friendly tone. It went on to screen at several film festivals and to win the Audience Award at Ottawa International Film Festival, but Disney didn't know what to do with it, so after giving Burton a pat on the back they put it to the side and all but forgot about it.

Burton's second short made under Disney is "Frankenweenie," a half hour, live-action short about a child Frankenstein who brings his dog Sparky back to life after he is hit by a car. Shot in the same black and white, Gothic style as "Vincent," this short takes a slightly more serious tone, developing strong family relationships as well as the love between a boy and his dog while managing to both spoof and homage his favorite classic horror films. Although this film is imaginative and charming, Disney deemed it to be too frightening for children and fired Burton for wasting company resources. Of course, this did not stop them from later releasing both shorts on their DVD release of The Nightmare Before Christmas once Tim Burton had become a name in the film industry.

Now free of Disney's restrictions, Tim Burton was free to pursue the promising artistic direction he had established in his early shorts.