Vincent
1982 · 6m · USA
Directed by Tim Burton
Genres: animation, family, horror
Tones: contemplative, dark, whimsical
Seven-year-old Vincent Malloy fantasizes about being Vincent Price, losing himself in macabre Edgar Allan Poe-inspired daydreams that blur the line between his suburban reality and gothic horror imagination.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Six minutes of stop-motion narrated in rhyming verse by Vincent Price about a kid who wants to be Vincent Price — Burton's whole sensibility compressed into a perfect little package. Real.
Burton's stop-motion verse-poem narrated by Vincent Price compresses an entire aesthetic genealogy into six minutes; this is the rare debut that requires no apology or contextualization. Indispensable to its director's myth.
Vincent Price narrating Burton's rhyming verse over stop-motion expressionism — the casting is the script, and Price reads it like he means it. Six minutes of Burton's whole future aesthetic in concentrate.
Reviews
Beneath the macabre humour lies a tender reflection on childhood imagination, loneliness, and the struggle to find acceptance in a conformist world.
Burton's most powerful, shortest, and maybe best movie ever — a brilliant use of stop-motion animation, atmospheric black-and-white cinematography and a very memorable poem.
Festivals
- Chicago International Film Festival 1982, Two awards
- Annecy International Animation Film Festival 1982, Critics' Prize
- London Film Festival 1982
- Seattle International Film Festival 1982