Comparison Of Edward Scissorhands, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory

Director Tim Burton is widely known for his grotesque, unique, and often outlandish style. A style in which, most notably, encompasses the use of extreme makeup and costuming. Burton employs the use of makeup and costuming to help the audience what a character represents and to help the audience understand a character’s personality. Throughout the movies “Big Fish,” “Edward Scissorhands,” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” Burton used makeup and costuming to help form characters and communicate with the audience. Out of all three of these Burton films, “Edward Scissorhands” most strongly engages the use of makeup and costuming to convey its message to the audience and to aid in the depiction of characters. For example, when Peg first brings Edward home, his wardrobe changes dramatically from that of an all black leather, button down suit in which suggests that his character is dangerous and evil to a more docile and societally acceptable white shirt with black pants. This outfit represents Edward's attempts to conform to the uniform structure of the town he’s abruptly been made a part of. However, the fact that Edward’s still wearing black foreshadows that his is still an outsider. Also, as the story continues, Edward’s costume gradually

For example, in “Big Fish,” Burton dressed the giant in a shredded looking cloak made out of branches and dirt. Dressing the giant this way made him look much more intimidating and aggressive towards other characters who were already half his size. Also, in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” the costuming of Augustus Gloop helped to make him appear larger and greedier. Dressed in a striped shirt, Augustus looked even fatter than he really was and helped the audience to foreshadow what his character would do once they entered the famous chocolate