Burtonesque: Moving Beyond the Style

To begin to define Burton's films, we must decide if the codes/signs are similar or vastly different from the conventional genre. Beetlejuice represents a hybrid of comedy and horror. It varies from its counterpart, High Spirits in that it takes a more gruesome approach to the hijinks of the ghost and adds crude humor, despite Jordan's attempt with the farting, wart-covered, jealous husband. Burton also brought in techniques from German Expressionism that showed the off-kilter reality the Maitlands had been thrown into prematurely and is a stark contrast to their farm home when they were alive.

While Jordan may have been pressured by the studios, Burton worked well and cut corners where he could. Instead of computer effects, such as the Maitlands changing into their scary faces, Burton hired his stop-motion friends to create a unique look to their transformation giving the film a feeling of a live-action cartoon. Burton continues this light tactic when conquering the horror genre.

During the finale, Beetlejuice combines humor with suspense when he haunts the Dezzels and tries to marry their daughter to gain admission to the world of the living, similar to the rules of gaining a green card. Even when the Maitlands are introduced to Beetlejuice, they expect a quick meeting, but instead are put into Adam's model and have to dig up Beetlejuice's body. When Jordan attempts this brand of humor, it falls flat. Burton sense of humor is seen again in what should be the fast-paced action sequences of Batman.

Batman most resembles The Rocketeer in that both are based on graphic novels and comic strips. While Joe Johnston's characters seem stereotyped, the young hero, the evil millionaire, Burton's characters seem rounder, the psychotic gangster, whose face is mutilated by acid. Burton returns to the Expressionistic settings. This time the setting is dark like the classic monster films and a complete contrast to the primary colors of Beetlejuice and The Rocketeer, but it maintains the cartoon-feel of Beetlejuice.

Despite the look of the film, the plot remains true to the genre. Batman is constantly put in impossible situations with only his butler, Alfred, by his side. Despite it all, he saves Gotham City from the Joker and gets the girl in the end.

Edward Scissorhands, however, is a more complicated film. In this film, Burton seems to mix fantasy and family with comedy. Edward Scissorhands uses the magic from the first two films, in that, it is cartoon in feel, but not set completely at the child's level, like Aladdin. In this film, Burton uses inspiration from the classic monster movies to create the feeling of fear the suburban ladies have about Edward. The finale is frequently compared to the finale of Frankenstein, when the townspeople come to kill the monster.

The fantasy/family elements come from the opening sequence of the Grandmother telling her granddaughter a bedtime story, setting up the mythical structure of the film. The comedic tone of the film is set by Edward coming down to Suburbia and experiencing things for the first time, and fumbling with his scissorhands. The fantasy continues with the sequences of Edward trimming peoples hedges and then cutting the ladies hair.

To see these films from a semoticians point of view the elements of connotation and denotation are within the use of the "outsider" character. Unlike the mainstream films, where the characters fit into a group, Burton's characters never make friends quickly. Following these characters, sequences show their loneliness. For example, when Edward is running from the Police, he sits on the curb and a dog sits next to him. The brief encounter of Edward cutting the dogs hair shows how he does not belong and that the town has nothing to fear from him. This example, and the similar sequences in the other films, are not common to all films.

But, unfortunately, all his differences do not make Tim Burton's films a new genre.

Tim Burton's films are not a new genre, because his sign system is not known to a mass audience, which as we've discussed is the determining factor in genres. Since the audience is not familiar with how Burton "speaks," they leave the theater entertained, but do not understand the message. I figured it out when I went to see his new film Sleepy Hollow. A friend, who is not a Tim Burton fan, I went to see the film with came out of the theather saying how "cheesy" the movie was and that the ending was not very good.

If Tim Burton was a genre, the first word in the definition would be cheesy. This proves that just because a director has the backing of a studio and has made twenty or more films it doesn't make him/her a genre. The audience has to have a well-developed knowledge of the work to understand what the message is. But this does not mean that Tim Burton couldn't be a genre one day. There's still hope.