Edward Scissorhands: A Short Film Analysis

Everyone has that one friend who is a complete goofball: the one who is just different from the rest and can be a little abstract. The misfit may be easy to spot in a crowd and be judged; however, Tim Burton accepts the oddball and takes the concept of character dramatization one step further. Through his movies, Edward Scissorhands and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the outcast tries to break through the social barrier by reaching out to the community and trying to fit in. With Burton’s imaginative characters, Burton shows how being an outcast gives a person the potential for success.

Lighting and color choice is utilized in the two films to indicate the isolation of Wonka, from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Edward from Edward Scissorhands from the rest of the towns they live in. In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Wonka lives in the illuminant chocolate factory

In Edward Scissorhands, the cars from the citizens are shown coming in and out of town at the same time in two separate shots. These scenes come before Edward is brought to the character lineup so the viewer has a sense of uniformity between the neighbors. As Edward gets introduced to the town, the uniformity is broken and Edward is singled out because he is separated from the rest. Despite the neighbors liking him at first, the spotlight from his isolation makes a big impact on the whole town. Furthermore, in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the opening view of the film is a long shot which pans over the town showing the residential houses along with the stores. However, the chocolate factory is red in a sea of black and white. All the houses in the small town Charlie lives in are very similar and have the same structure. As the scene shifts toward the factory, the thought of imbalance runs across the mind so Willy Wonka from the beginning of the movie is set as an outcast who lives his life in