Williams-Tim Burton in a Bucket

    I wrote a lot. I delved deeper into movies than I really wanted to. I discovered the World of Tim Burton, and I enjoyed it.

    I have never written so much for a class, except my creative writing class, than this one. Trying to come up with original ideas and thoughts once week was a struggle and most times a failure. I mean it was nice being able to sit down once a week to watch a movie, but it was a true struggle to analyze a movie like I would analyze a book. In all honesty, I hated it. Movies are not really my genre, but I will admit that I love Burton, which is why I took the class, I guess. I, however never expected for it to be so taxing. On the other hand, I learned that my writing skills need some expanding and that my thinking needs to be a little more critical, which I guess is the point of this class. I enjoyed trying something new, though I will probably avoid film classes from now on.
     So I wish we took more time in class to talk about cannibalism in Sweeney Todd. I know, it is strange but it has always been an interesting topic for me. I mean of all the ways to commit murder, to make people feel less than themselves, to subserve the upperclass society why did Lovett choose grinding theM up into meat pies and why did Todd agreed with it?
    Alright, so what I pretty much learned from Tim Burton is that world sucks and there is not much you can do about it. It is a depressing and cynical way to view life, but Burton show the harsh reality the world that most people try to ignore. I disagree with somethings, like the boring synchronization of suburbs seeing as I am from one, but others like about how people treat outsiders and strange ones are kind of on point. I was intrigued that man as strange as his movie characters can be so loved in this type of society. Yes, people call Burton strange, but they love him for it. Burton's characters are hated, but excepted by other outfits that they use to create a family. Burton uses his actors to create a family that truly accepts him, which is why think many of Burton's movies are so touching.
     I never realized how poor my memory was until I took this class. I would set out to start do my blog, I would proceed to open my computer and everything. I would then gracefully fall into a deep slumber and wake to a blank screen and past due date. My memory would proceed to get worse. I would point blank forget to the statements at all. My roommate got so irritated at me waking in the morning at 2am screaming Tim Burton that she started to write Tim Burton on my mirror and my walls and text it to my phone. It was sweet, but I still forgot to do it. 
     Overall I really enjoyed this class. Would I take it again, I doubt it, but I would recommend it to anyone and everyone. I think it is a class worth experiencing and I am glad I got the chance to do it. 

Williams-It's Man Eats Man World

     Sweeney Todd effectively makes the viewer stop and think about the logistics of cannibalism and forces the viewer to feel agree with Lovett's and Todd's choice of revenge. I feel like Burton helps the audience overcome people's moral disgust by giving Todd a truly tragic back story. His wife and daughter was stolen from him and he falsely accused and sent to prison for 16 years. He is justified to want revenge.
      London is the perfect example of the industrial revolution during the victorian era, and how people moved from the country to the city to get a better a living. In the end, a reverse situation happens. The city becomes overpopulated and the country becomes a sign of wealth and leisure. The city is overwrought with men and women trying to climb their way to the top no matter the cost to others or themselves. London has become as Sweeney states "a hole in the world like a great black pit and the vermin of the world inhabit it, and its morals aren't worth what a pin can spit." It seems like all the bad and the ugly of the world has congregated in London, and it would be fair if Todd and Lovett got rid of them. They take it upon themselves to rid the broken even if themselves are mentally deranged.          
    However as the movie goes along, it is not until the end most viewers feel the need to morally wrong with Todd's approach for cleansing London. I mean,"it's man devouring man,and who are [they] to deny it in" their shop?. There logic is technically valid. People tear others down, they cheat, they lie, and they kill. Why is it so bad that they give what the people actually do in the streets into their meat pies. This is why this musical is so effective. Burton makes you questions your morals in the case of justice and vengeance. 

Williams- One fish, two fish, small fish, Big Fish

      I was originally under the impression that Big Fish would be a horrible movie. The people who told me that couldn't be much farther from the truth. Big Fish was as great as it was refreshing. I am honestly still shocked that it was Tim Burton film. It seemed to light and cheery to really be Burton's usual grotesque gothics. However, when the movie is further examined, Burtonesque elements make themselves known. The movie has a very subtle solemn and dreary tone. Honestly, I thought of Edward as Forrest from Forrest Gump. Not in wit particularly but in personality. Just like Forrest, Edward is a cheery man in a world of tragedy. Not much gets either of them down, they are brave to the point of stupidity, greet everyone with a smile, and are never ones to judge. They are picturesque examples of the cliche southern all-American boy. Edward is easy to like because he is good at everything, he helps everyone, but he is always humble. He is like a small town hero for his hometown. Someone that people can tell praising stories to their neighbors.
       I think Edward likes people because he like the odd and the strange. As the viewer can see, his mind is more often in the clouds than actually grounded in reality. When he meets odd people, he meets people who won't question him for believing in the impossible and dreaming past the stars. They except him for who he is and in return he excepts them for who they are. For example the giant Steve? Everyone else in the town is terrified of him. They shun him and goes as far as to want to cause bodily harm to him. In reality he is just a scared man who is hungry and really not sure what to do with his life, which oddly enough can be said about college students. Anyways, when Edward sees what a sweetheart Steve? is he takes him under his wings and Steve? gives Edward his loyalty. Another example would be the people of Spector. They are creepy. Quaint, but mainly just creepy. In the scene in which the poet, the mayor, and Edward are all rocking in the chairs while eating pie shows that even though he thinks they are bat shit crazy, he respects them for living their lives the way they want to, which is why when the city is dying Edward makes the effort to turn it back to its creepy glory.

Williams- Planet of the Apes, Planet of the Humans. Why can't we all just get along?

        In Tim Burton's movie Planet of the Apes he definitely sparks up a conversation on the duality of civil liberties and slavery and which species gets to be the master. In the beginning of the movie, the audiences see Captain Davidson trying to train a chimpanzee how to maneuver a flight simulator. He teases the chimp but over all he kind. One could compare him to a kind master. He is not cruel, but he is strict and not one to confuse the chimp as a person with emotions. The whole purpose of training the chimps is because to humans they are considered sentimental beings. In other words their life is not of equal value as it is to a human. Which brings up the first question. Who has the right to put a value on someone's or something's worth? Since man has the weapons and supposedly can have intellectual thought, they consider themselves superior.

        When Captain Davidson is taken to a new dimension in which apes are the superior and humans are considered lower than dirt. The positions of master and slave are switched. Davidson does a good job describing what humans do to apes when he tries to explain his world to Ari. Chimps belong in cages in the zoo. Humans have nearly killed the few remaining apes in the wild. Their land is is torn and they hunted just like the earlier scene in the movie when the apes try to capture the humans out of the jungles tie them up and put them in cages. They are like poachers. This brings up the second question of who should feel pity for. On the movie most humans say they feel sympathy for the humans. After all most humans don't believe they belong in a cage or forced out of their homes and treated like a slave. This then relates to two controversial topics. Men taking other men from their homes and treating them like slaves as in American history or humans taking animals from their home and putting them into zoos as means for entertainment. This is leads us to the third question of whether or not it is ethically alright to treat animals in a way no human would want to be treated? the struggle for dominance is harsh and often time immoral which is what I think Tim Burton is trying to portray. He may not be actually talking about animals rights and more subtly talking about the injustices we do to our fellow men, but either way, the message is still powerful. 

Williams-Not Even Spirits Sleep in Sleepy Hollow

Tim Burton uses Irving's original story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow to tell a tale of vengeance and greed.  I don't necessarily believe that Burton is using the same take as Irving in his movie. The addition of characters and the change in plot makes the movie a horrible representation of the story. I am not saying that Burton's Sleepy Hollow is not entertaining or enjoyable, it was just a different medium that was being represented and sometimes things need to be changed to keep an audience interested. 

First the two Ichabods were hardly similar. Whereas the Ichabod Crane in Irving's story is an ugly sleazy coward, Burton uses the attractive Johnny Depp to portray an odd man who actually has a little bit of charm. Irving's was a schoolteacher and choirmaster and Burton's was a constable. On the other hand what Burton did keep similar with Ichabod was his very superstitious nature. 

In the movie the ending is completely different from the story. Brum did not die, technically there was not Headless Horseman or an evil witch controlling it, and Katrina did not live happily ever after with Ichabod. In reality she did not even like him in the story. Burton took liberties to get Brum out the picture to leave an open path from Ichabod to Katrina. The story was more of a thriller mystery with a dash of romance, which is more than I believe Irving intended when he created the story.

         The addition of the evil stepmother added Burtonish tone to the story, making it more of a dark fairytale.  I like the plot twist of the movie, and it did show an example of how greed and wicked soul can corrupt a person, but it still was not part of the story Irving wrote.

Burton really just took the name of the Irving’ story and though he kept some of the characters and their traits, it was not an accurate rendition of the story. It was brilliant in Burton’s own way but realistically Tim Burton made a horror movie out of the Headless Huntsman instead of leaving it as a joke or a superstition like Irving.  

Williams-Ed Wood

Ed Wood, often acknowledges as one of the worst film directors of all time, had the heart of an artist but had the funds of a pauper. Technically, Ed Wood is not that horrible of director. What he lacks in talent he makes up in ten fold in passion. Although his films were not as glamorous as Orson Welles, his love of film made his somewhat horrible films bearable to watch.

Tim Burton is drawn to Ed Wood, and I think that his movie Ed Wood positively pay homage to Wood. First, Wood is known for his dedication to his films and never giving up, especially when the odds are never in his favor. His inability to gain funds greatly hindered most of his productions; however, Wood still persevered and took what he had, whether it be gluing paper plates together to make space ships or stealing an fake octopus, and made a movie. To pay homage to Wood’s low budget film, Burton makes his biopic a low budget film in respect to the struggle Wood had to go through just to get his ideas on film.

Another homage Burton pays to Wood is taking a direct scene from his movie Glenn or Glenda.  Glenn or Glenda is obviously a very important movie for Wood since it was based on his own life and his confusion of being a transvestite. By choosing to incorporate this scene shows how Burton accepts Wood’s oddities and respects him enough to add a very important aspect of his life into the biopic.

Tim Burton is strange and eccentric person. The same could be said about Ed Wood. I believe this is what draws Burton to Wood. Burton respects Wood for being able to collect the strange and unusually and brings them together as family through his films. This shared aspect makes a is a true homage to Wood because Burton understands how it feels to be a outcast and using well chosen outcast for cast members to make a family. It is also what makes Wood a respectable director although his films are horrible. Even though he is not capable of directing one Hollywood success, he succeeded in creating a family that would love him flaws and all.

Williams- Robot Boy

"Robot Boy" perfectly describes Tim Burton's neuroses about abandonment, loss, and outsiderness. Robot Boy was never loved by his parents, he was abandoned young, and he is outsider towards everyone else to the point that people think he is a trash can. This kind of describes how Tim Burton felt about his childhood. He felt that he was the black sheep of the family. He was alone until he was sent to live with his grandmother. I think the way Burton depicts the family shows how he holds the opinion that children ruin families. They are the reasons families break apart and secrets are revealed. The readers feel pity and sympathy for Robot Boy. Even though he is not a normal child, the reader sees that he is a victim of the parent’s corruptness. Mr. and Mrs. Smith, a cliché normal family, are happy that they are having a baby. However, Burton corrupts the experience. Burton turns what should have been a happy normal birth and transforms it into an appalling experience.  Not only is the baby a robot, he is also a bastard child. Although his mother is human, his father is a blender. He causes distress in the happy family, and the Smith’s hate each other. His parents are disgusted with their child. Even though he looks strange and odd, he still needs love just like any other child.

Robot Boy also fits the collective unconscious that Jung ideology promotes is the part of the unconscious that all human participate in and belief that the self, or conscious psyche, seeking individuation, or wholeness. He believed that there were “archetypes of transformation” on the path towards wholeness. The reader sees this when it states that Robot Boy is in between life and death but he still ages into a grown man. However, even though the world treats him as a garbage can, life goes on. In addition, the Smith’s fit the evil stepmother archetype. They project the neglect and loss of a true mother in the child. Robot boy was nurtured as a child just like Tim Burton. 

Williams-Let There Be Hands!

I am not exactly sure where I am supposed to go with the prompt.  If we are talking about morality, Edward seems to be the only character in this movie with it. Although he manipulates the meaning of right and wrong, he does it with his heart not with mal-intent. Everyone tries to portray the perfect personality, but in reality, every one is judgmental, selfish, and cruel. It is funny that the monster has more of heart than the suburban housewives combined.  On the other hand Peg has a heart, but she is too naïve to really make a difference in how the neighborhood works. She is like a doormat. People see her, use her, then move on. It is the same with Edward. He let’s everyone take advantage of him because he lives in this fairy tale world that if he nice and does good things people will love him.

Edward Scissorshands made me feel like I was in alternative universe. The nauseating pastel houses, the overly done housewives, and the overall shallowness of town, along with Danny Elfman’s score gave me a very Dr. Seuss vibe. Edward’s punk style and pale visage contrasted perfectly with the very made up and colorful people of  the neighborhood. Whereas Edward was quiet and sweet, the neighbors were loud and rude. If it was Burton’s goal, I believe he achieved having me believe that the housewives were more terrifying than Edward’s hands.  

While I enjoyed the movie, the overall fakeness of the characters was irritating. The redeeming quality, character wise, was Johnny Depp playing Edward. While he didn’t have many lines, Depp’s ability to characterize Edward’s sweet childlike innocence was brilliant and very well done. Also the ending of the movie is somewhat unsatisfying and anticlimactic. The ending seemed to come straight out of a very cheesy fairytale, which I guess in hindsight is the point. While it was cute and heartwarming, it didn’t exactly fit the tale. After a great climax to the movie, the ending made me feel like the angry mob when the officer said that Edward was gone, disappointed and confused.

So I guess in answer to the prompt, no the town is not squeaky clean. The people in are very corrupt, and it doesn’t seem that Edward made a difference when he left the town.

Williams-Cats Eat Bats for Breakfast

Catwoman is a more complex character than Vicki Vale can ever hope to be. Originally, just a secretary for Max Shreck, Selina Kyle/Catwoman adds more dimension to Batman’ character. She is an unknown variable in the conflict between Batman and the Penguin. She cannot be classified as an anti-heroine, but she is not exactly a heroine. She fights for female justice, but she still despises woman for putting themselves or finding themselves in positions inferior to men. When Shreck shoves Selina out the window, he is also shoving her out of her cage to fit social norms. A husband, a child, and a place to call home are not longer needed for her. When the cats revive her, she becomes a dangerous, manipulative, and deadly woman who doesn’t need man to make her happy. 

Vicki Vale, on the hand, is clearly on the side of the light. She fights for justice and truth. Although she is the original love interest for Batman, she is too innocent and pure to successfully maintain a relationship with Batman/Bruce Wayne. Whereas Catwoman, can often save herself, Vicki Vale often needs Batman to come save her.

 The scene in which Bruce and Selina discover who their alter egos are shows the complexity of their relationship. Selina response was to wonder, “does this mean we have to fight now?” Bruce can’t believe he fell in love with a semi-villain.  The sexual tension that has been building up between both Batman and Catwoman and Selina and Bruce comes to an awkward impasse. Batman wants to save Selina from becoming a hardcore criminal, but Selina needs her revenge against Shreck. She can’t live with herself, if she were to give up her vengeance for her love/lust for Batman/Bruce.

Another difference between Vicki Vale and Selina Kyle is that Vicki wanted to be the center of Bruce and Batman’s world. Selina, on the other hand, was okay with the secrets and being put second place to Batman. Selina likes to be a cat in the dark, and Bruce likes to be a bat. They understand each other more than Vicki Vale ever could. Also, Catwoman would be the traditional femme fatale. She falls in love with toys with Batman and betrays him. She is independent, manipulative, and cunning making her the perfect person to be in a love hate relationship with Batman.