Review: Vincent (1982)

Directed by: Tim Burton | 6 minutes | animation, family, short film, fantasy | Original voice cast: Vincent Price

Tim Burton was hired as a conceptional artist by Disney in 1979 to work on “The Black Cauldron” (“Taran and the Cauldron”). Fortunately he was not with that; although he thought it was fantastic that he was given complete freedom and there was hardly anyone paying attention to the eccentric draftsman. Burton frequently confesses to having fallen asleep at times when he was supposed to be drawing. “Vincent” was made during that period. Disney executive and Burton’s girlfriend at the time Julie Hickson and Tom Wilwhite, Head of Creative Development, recognized that Burton was very talented, although his style did not fit Disney. Wilhite gave the young draftsman $ 60,000 under the guise of “we are going to try out a stop-motion movie” for developing the concept of “Vincent”, which Burton originally wrote for a children’s book.

“Vincent” is the tale-in-rhyme of the seven-year-old boy Vincent Malloy, who dreams of being his idol Vincent Price and is completely immersed in this fantasy. Burton himself is a fan of the actor who died in 1993 with the well-known deep voice, and was therefore very surprised that the horror icon immediately cooperated. Price reads the poem written by Burton: his voice fits perfectly with the images and gives the short film shot in black and white an extra dimension. The poem is in the style of Dr. Seuss (“The Grinch” and “The Cat in the Hat”), another source of inspiration for Burton. The images are humorous, such as when Vincent baptizes his aunt in the laundry in front of his wax museum. It is easy to recognize Tim Burton himself in the main character, but the video leaves a lot of room for interpretation. Precious short film, which appeared in 2008 as an extra on the 2-disc collector’s edition of “Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas”. Must-see for the fans of this talented filmmaker!