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Calgary Flames. Czech Q. View details Got it. Download the app educalingo. Meaning of "yummier" in the English dictionary. Synonyms and antonyms of yummier in the English dictionary of synonyms. Examples of use in the English literature, quotes and news about yummier.
Rona Lewis. Rona Lewis, No part of. Copyrighted Material Carlene Duda, They're yummier that way. Much, much yummier.
His plump arms squeezed tight around my neck. I was tremendously fond of Willy. He'd just learned how to take his Kenneth Oppel, Marlena Spieler, Bread broccolini It looks Bread — Got a freezer full of icy bread? There are yummier ways to go.
Rosemary Cadden, Jane Willcox, Updated Edition. Burbank is the essence of American middle-class suburbia and also home to many of the major lm studios, the combination of which had a huge effect on Burton.
At school his academic record was unremarkable although he did win a poster competition for litter prevention. Young Burton found it difcult to relate to the conformist community in which he lived and turned to lms as a means of escape. His imagination was inspired by pulp and exploitation lms, movies deemed to be lowbrow, cheesy or devoid of artistic merit. He watched horror, science ction and anything that featured Godzilla or his favourite actor Vincent Price. Price was a veteran of many horror icks, but was particularly known for the series of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations made by low-budget supremo Roger Corman in the s.
Films such as The Pit and the Pendulum an inuence on Sleepy Hollow , Tomb of Ligeia and The Masque of the Red Death were a combination of colourful widescreen spectacle and morbid obsession with death and decay. This contrast of colour and darkness, art and pulp would fuel Burtons own body of work. Whilst still at school Burton experimented with lming using a Super-8 camera.
Like Steven Spielberg and John Carpenter these juvenilia were predominantly science ction lms, monster movies of the sort that sparked his imagination. He also experimented with stop-motion animation in the manner of the great Ray Harryhausen, whose wonderful effects techniques would inspire the look of the Martians in Mars Attacks!.
Burton would take his animation further. At the age of 18 he won a scholarship place at the California Institute of the Arts. CalArts was founded by Disney as a means of helping young animators and directors learn their trade. It was a two-way thing. The students would get the education they needed and Disney could pick from the cream of the crop.
Burton was recognised as a talent and taken out of CalArts prematurely to work for Disney. At that time Disney was in turmoil. The death of studio founder Walt Disney had led to a number of ill-founded decisions and a relentless spate of insipid lms.
But this state of confusion in the Mouse House would ultimately prove benecial for Burton. His rst assignment was on the animated feature The Fox and the Hound , a rather bland buddy ick. He was ill-suited for the project because his skills as an artist were not in tune with its inherent cuteness his own attempts looked like, in his own words, roadkills. Realising that he was not getting on well with the Disney ethos he was given a job as a conceptual artist, designing characters and ideas for use in future projects.
One of these was The Black Cauldron released On the surface this seemed like an ideal avenue to channel Burtons more outr talents, being concerned with magic, strange creatures and bizarre contraptions, but it was not to be.
Burtons drawings from this period are bursting with ideas. The scratchy, fevered sketches, as though from an ancient bestiary, are quirky and macabre, but strangely endearing. Despite the obvious talent behind the ideas, it was again decided that Burtons concepts were at odds with the lm, so ultimately none of the sketches were used for the Teaming up with fellow CalArts colleague Rick Heinrichs he used a blend of model and cel animation to realise his vision.
But this life is far too normal and Vincent prefers to play in his fantasy world, where he reads Edgar Allan Poe and paints. He dreams about dipping his aunt in wax, creates a horrible zombie from his dog and digs his mothers ower bed up searching for his buried wife, you understand. His mother is particularly perturbed by his peculiarly plaintive perspective and insists that he go out and play in the sun. But Vincent doesnt want to.
Hed rather mooch about the house in a melancholy morbid mood. Comment: Originally intended as a childrens story and a tribute to Burtons hero, Vincent came about as a result of Disneys generosity, when his superiors Julie Hickson and Tom Wilhite realised that young Burton needed to nd a creative direction. This delightful six-minute short employs an unusual combination of cel animation and stop-motion model work.
Shot in black and white, the lm contains a number of unusual stylistic embellishments, many of which would nd their way into Burtons later feature lm work. It is impossible not to compare Vincent with Burton himself the quiet, shy boy with masses of unruly hair, who is only truly comfortable inside his fertile imagination.
What is so striking about the lm is that it deals with themes that crop up time and again within Burtons oeuvre: the young boys rejection of the environment in which he lives, grotesque fantasies about doing evil things to his relations and the mad young scientist in his laboratory.
Vincent himself has such style he smokes cigarettes through a holder with panache and experiments feverishly in his bedroom lab wearing large black gloves and a white coat. It is only when elements of normality enter his world that he becomes a disconsolate ordinary little boy. Indeed every transition from Vincent Malloy to Vincent Price is wonderfully executed, the scale within his world reecting his current state of mind. Everything is lmed from a seven-year-olds viewpoint adults are identiable by their legs and furniture is scaled appropriately.
When Vincent sits at his desk to write, his tiny head and hands are dwarfed by the enormous quill in the foreground. Burtons use of perspective is remarkable. The lm reects Burtons love of horror lms and literature and is lled to the brim with references Fall of the House of Usher, House of Wax, Frankenstein and Nosferatu.
Also remarkable was the involvement of Vincent Price himself the studio sent the storyboards to Price who was immediately impressed with the charm of the story and agreed to provide the voice-over.
The opportunity to work with his Unfortunately, Disney were unimpressed with Burtons rst lm. They could not understand the concept of a little boy who was genuinely morbid and not redeemed by the lms close. They wanted an upbeat ending, where Vincent becomes just like every other little boy. They missed the point.
Vincent is a wonderful short lm which was not released by Disney at the time, and had to wait for Burton to become famous. The wandering twosome come across a residence of a far more edible nature than their old home: time to tuck into the masonry. But things are not always as they seem, as the owner of the sugary cottage is a witch with a taste for plump little kiddies. Yum, yum.
Comment: After Vincent, Burton was conscious that he needed to work with actors. With this in mind he pitched the concept of Hansel and Gretel to Disney as a show for their new cable service The Disney Channel.
Naturally though, he was keen to add a twist to proceedings and introduce some elements that interested him, particularly his love of Japanese lms. The remit was to create Hansel and Gretel with an all Japanese cast their fathers toyshop is lled to the brim with Transformer toys cool! Again, Rick Heinrichs utilised a myriad of different techniques to realise Burtons quirky drawings: the skewed candy-covered witchs house, some stop-frame work, front projections and a gingerbread puppet whose powers of persuasion are tested to the max, forcing Hansel to eat him.
The design for this puppet is similar to the Red Circus Gang Clowns in Batman Returns with wide, dead eyes and a face-splitting grin. Burton emphasises the scary elements of faerie tales by including creatures gyrating out of cauldrons and a cross-dressing witch. Unfortunately, though this aspect has been a strong part of Disneys best work Snow White or the Night on Bald Mountain sequence from Fantasia , it is not something that has really survived the companys more wholesome output.
Thats a shame, as its the confrontational and mythical aspects of faerie tales that gives them their power. Hansel and Gretel was shown on its intended channel. Late at night. Then Disney locked it away. Where it remains today. Still, Burton learned how to deal with actors and proved he could lm to specication which ultimately led to the greenlighting of his next project. Cardiacs Plot: Introducing Sparky, part-time canine thespian, fulltime loving companion to schoolboy Victor Frankenstein.
And now, sadly, barking along with the choir invisible following a nasty incident involving a rubber ball and a fast moving vehicle. For most young boys this would be a time for grieving but, following an inspirational science lesson, Victor has a purpose. Digging up his deceased dog,Victor is determined to add credence to Sparkys name by hot-wiring him into the mains of Mother Nature and resurrecting the hound.
Reunited, the pair couldnt be happier. Sparky is coming to terms with his neck bolts, Mrs Frankenstein is renewing her sewing skills on the dogs wounds and Victor is his old perky self once more.
Such scenes of domestic bliss cannot last forever and, sure enough, the neighbourhood are not impressed by a pooch from beyond the grave. The neighbours are revolting and have Sparky in their sights, hounding him to almost certain death in a aming windmill, determined to bring new meaning to the term hot dog Comment: Despite Burtons assertion that given more time Frankenweenie could have been extended into a full-length movie, its hard to see how additional material could have improved the piece it remains a perfectly formed short that never outlives its welcome.
Frankenweenie looks primarily to James Whales Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein , with the twist that it all happens through a childs eyes. Instead of Frankensteins conventional cemetery, Frankenweenie has a pet one with tombstones for the dearly The electric buzzing thing so popular in mad scientist lms has been cobbled together from an old blender. The lightning-capturing kite is replaced by a helium balloon and the university downgraded to a junior school.
Even the windmill climax has been suitably scaled. The nal reward for a good dog is a mate, which is just what lucky old Sparky gets at the lms close a black poodle with an Elsa Lanchester white stripe in her fur! Its not only Universal lms that get a look in when it is revealed that Sparky is having problems with his stitches, Victors mum comes to the rescue with a needle and thread, biting off the excess twine with her teeth rather like Peter Cushing in an altogether more visceral scene from Terence Fishers Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell Victors experiments resurrecting his dead pet continue the mad scientist theme that started in Vincent his experimenting on the long-suffering Abercrombie and continues in much of Burtons work.
Victors laboratory may look like his namesakes but is furnished with more mundane items, such as toasters or blenders, and kick-started using an upsidedown bike although what Pee-wee would make of such sacrilege is anyones guess. Victor himself is another Burton extension a boy with a fascination for the macabre that society does not understand. His neighbours, like those in Edward Scissorhands are reactionary and conservative. Like both Vincent and Edward,Victor has a sympathetic mother gure who, despite being thoroughly domestic, tries to accommodate his peculiarities.
Frankenweenie is impossible not to like it is light, funny Disney were surprisingly impressed with the nished result and wanted to give the lm a wide distribution alongside the reissue of Pinocchio as a showcase of Disney old and new. Wanted to, but didnt. Unfortunately Frankenweenie was slapped with a PG rating by the Motion Picture Association of America, which effectively prevented its distribution with the lower G-rated lm.
But again its qualities were recognised by people who counted, one of whom was Shelley Duvall. Duvall had long encouraged the works of up-and-coming directors and had set up a well regarded television series Faerie Tale Theatre.
She gave Burton another directing opportunity. Of course not he was an evil Moroccan magician. Plot: Aladdin, lazy devil, bit of a prankster, sees the prospect of a life of prosperity in the shape of his hitherto unacquainted rich uncle. The y in this ointment is that uncle is not an estranged relation but a scheming Moroccan mage with designs on purloining an ancient lamp with prodigious supernatural properties a task he assigns to the eager young lad, However, at the climax of Aladdins underground lching escapade, the boy realises the sorcerers sham and retains the illuminating prize at the inconvenient cost of subterranean incarceration.
Aladdin is resourceful and, on his escape, chances upon the reason for the lamps high esteem it contains a genie capable of granting his bidding. A simple life of luxury is assured but when Aladdin catches sight of Princess Sabrina, the fair daughter of the Sultan, he is besotted, raising his expectations to those of regal nuptials and he wins her hand.
Pleasant espousal in sumptuous magical palace surroundings beckons, but there is a cloud on the horizon the mightily miffed Moroccan Magician is determined to claim the magical lamp for his own, undoubtedly dubious, purposes and has a cunning plan. New lamps for old, anyone? Comment: Shelley Duvalls Faerie Tale Theatre note the exemplary spelling was a showcase for new talent that gave many up-and-coming people their rst shot at working in the lm and TV industry.
Using a combination of wellrespected actors and newcomers, the show retold childrens faerie tales in a way that was innovative and non-patronising.
To this end it was highly successful but its market was limited primarily to the very young. Unfortunately, while innovation was encouraged, the productions were shot on videotape, which does little to endear them on an aesthetic level. Also, shooting schedules in television are very tight, especially considering that Aladdin is, by its very nature, an effectsheavy story ying carpets, magical transportations, a mystical palace transported like a rocket ship.
In order to realise the project Burton brought along Rick Heinrichs to help construct the sets. There are many Burton touches in these backdrops impossibly colourful skies, swirls on the sets and lines that are anything but straight.
It is easy to criticise the overall result but there is much to enjoy if you accept the limitations of the medium. The most remarkable scene occurs when Aladdin seeks to retrieve the lamp from an underground lair. Ordered not to touch the walls he crawls down a disjointed and ever-diminishing expressionist corridor lined with skulls.
The establishing shot initially indicates that this is forced perspective, but the subsequent side-on shot reveals that the perspective is real its a true Burton moment. Likewise, when he reaches the chamber that contains the lamp, the walls are replete with Burton silhouettes including a spiky precursor to Family Dog , rather like the phantasmagorical spooks from the childs lamp in Sleepy Hollow.
On taking the lamp, the pedestal becomes an animated mouth and the walls come alive with glowing red eyes. When he nally realises the Mages treachery Aladdin mopes around, trapped in the cave, chin on hands like a depressed Rodins Thinker gazing upon a similarly-posed skeleton.
Another Burton theme comes through the Sultans love of gadgetry. When challenged to come up with the best gadget ever, in return for his daughters hand, the resourceful genie-aided hero devises the inspired solution of a small box that acts like a window on the world.
Even in a fantastical mythical past Burton has managed to include a television a gadget that later proves a handy cell for the deviant Moroccan, doomed to be forever prodded with red forks by devils for the Sultans entertainment. Nimoy is great as the long-bearded, wizened baddy. Joseph Mahers Sultan is marvellously vacant and content with being regularly massaged by four green arms protruding from his throne , but the real star is James Earl Jones as the twin genies of Ring and Lamp.
Always appearing in a billow of blue glitter and smoke, the pointy-eared blue Genie of the Lamp alternates often mid-sentence between horrible threats of violence and ingratiating smarm an Arabian Nights version of Betelgeuse with a bellowing laugh of sheer insanity. The younger performers cannot match these fanciful characters but the nature of the hero and heroine requires them to be more bland than their larger-than-life counterparts.
Tim Burton for pre-teens get em hooked while theyre young , Aladdin is at best a minor work, but is entertaining and sows plenty of seeds for future projects. With a couple of ne shorts and some TV work behind him, Burton had clearly shown his unusual talent to the world, but was still awaiting his rst foray into the fabulous world of feature lms.
It came about quite by chance. Pee-wee Herman was a character created by Paul Reubens, a member of the Groundlings troupe of comedians. Pee-wee had become a surprise hit on a TV special and Warner Bros. So he went to a party as you do and asked if anyone knew of someone available. One guest mentioned Frankenweenie and recommended it to Reubens. Shelley Duvall, a friend, also enthused about it and arranged for Reubens to see a screening the next day.
He knew instantly that Burton was the man for the job, but was told that he probably wouldnt be interested. Still he sent Burton the script, and the pair hit it off almost immediately. Pee-wees Playhouse Plot: Pee-wee Herman, a child in a mans body, lives in his house in the heart of suburban America. Packed with all the latest lifestyle-enhancing gadgets, things are idyllic in Peewees world.
His companion Speck has his own interior doghouse with his name emblazoned in neon letters above the entrance. And Pee-wee possesses the bestest toy a boy could have, hidden in the heavily secured secret garage in his garden.
Its red and white. Its sleek. Its got gadgets. It is Peewees super-duper bike quite possibly the fabbest thing in the whole wide world and coveted by rich-kid rival Francis. The icing on the cake is that Pee-wees long suffering admirer, the aptly named Dottie, conveniently works in Chucks Bike-O-Rama, so that Pee-wee can get the latest gizmos the millisecond they become available. However, a disaster of cataclysmic proportions strikes.
His bike is stolen. Running the whole gamut of emotions from anguish to despair, seething rage to melancholia, he tries everything to nd it. He re-enacts the crime, runs a poster campaign and even confronts his rotund nemesis, currently engaged in bath time Godzilla dramatics. Finally, he seeks the help of Madame Ruby, a fortune-teller who reveals that his precious pedalling pushbike is to be found in the basement of the Alamo.
In fact, the bike had been bought by devious Francis, who employed a local thug to purloin it for his own nefarious purposes, but shied away from the stolen goods when the It is now on a journey of its own Pee-wee decides to hitch-hike to Texas in double-quick time, meeting a variety of strange and fascinating people along the way.
Imagine the pain and desperation when Peewee realises that the Alamo has no basement! He then gets into trouble, riling some Hells Angels by accidentally trashing their bikes. Fortunately, a combination of gutsy dancing skills and a description of his own bike woes endears him to them and they loan him a motorbike.
But then he has an accident. As luck would have it, though, while in hospital the awful truth about his beloved bike is revealed it is to be given away to a precocious child superstar on the set of his latest comedy lm. But surely Pee-wee wouldnt stoop as low as to stealing his bike back from the hands of a little boy? Of course he would, hes Pee-me-me-me-wee Herman. The question is not would he do it, but can he get away with it? Well one things for sure, its a very big adventure and would make a smashing movie.
Comment: The secret word is: aggravating. Tim Burtons rst feature is a non-stop roller-coaster comedy lled to the brim with visual ideas, action set pieces and an almost stream-of-consciousness approach to matters. By mixing slapstick with surrealism the results are exhilarating and occasionally exhausting. Whether or not you actually nd it funny lies on the shoulders of one man: Pee-wee Herman. Pee-wees comic persona is so ingrained that he is billed as himself and not as a role played by Reubens.
The combination of an ill-tting suit, pasty face make-up, lipstick and rouged cheeks gives the general countenance of a silent comedian and certainly his physical exaggerations are expressionist rather than realistic.
The difference lies in the term silent Pee-wee isnt. Whether Pee-wees irritating giggles and brat-like demeanor I know you are, but what am I? Pee-wees house may well have gestated as an extension of his Playhouse world but it is filled with resolutely Burtonesque imagery and gadgets.
When Pee-wee announces Lets have breakfast, the house whirls into action as machines prepare and serve his food. These arent boring toasters and microwaves but Heath Robinson style contraptions that are as much about being machines as having a purpose. In Edward Scissorhands, these devices would be streamlined into charming cookie-makers but here they are far more chaotic.
His toast is carried by a Pterodactyl skeleton, eggs cracked by a nodding bird, his orange juice freshly squeezed in the jaws of a tyrannosaurus as he slides down his remans pole to enjoy the food. Hello Mr Breakfast! The cutlery he uses is oversized, further emphasising that he lives in a childs world, and cleaning his teeth is just an excuse to pretend to be rabid.
Mad dog! Strangely, despite his childishness, there are no parental gures or authorities to curtail the extravagance. The only counselling he receives in the morning comes from a gadget advising that he should not leave the house today, which he promptly ignores.
Loosely this is a skewed retelling of Vittorio De Sicas classic Bicycle Thieves but treated as a comedy. Indeed, the earnestness with which Pee-wee demands the return of his bike reaches the fevered pitch of De Sicas subtle melodrama, but there is a fundamental difference: Pee-wees need of the bike is purely self-centred.
He will not starve if it never returns and remains a spoilt child wailing for his lost toy. In fact the one thing that makes Pee-wees Big Adventure such a difcult lm to watch for those that cant take to Pee-wee is precisely this: he is a That his arch-rival Francis is more loathsome does not excuse Pee-wees behaviour.
When Pee-wee discovers his bike is at the Alamo, he heads straight there. He doesnt bother to ensure that Speck is being cared for fortunately Dottie had the forethought to look after him, canine watchers and his treatment of his girlfriend is appalling. The only thing she really wants to do is go to a quiet drive-in with him but he will have none of it. Even when he declares over the phone, Ive learnt something out on the road here Dottie humility, he swiftly fakes a crackly line when she suggests going to the movies.
That she nally gets her wish is only because the lm they go to see is all about him. How telling. And yet, despite this completely self-obsessed attitude everyone around him seems to love him. Regardless of the appeal of Pee-wee himself, there is still a lot to enjoy. The road movie structure is mixed with surrealist slapstick in the mould of the absurd lm Hellzapoppin or the extended chase sequences of Buster Keaton and Keystone Cops lms.
The major set piece towards the lms close consolidates these themes it is a chase, its surreal and reects the process of making a lm.
Pee-wee has nally discovered his bike and sets about reclaiming it by donning a nuns costume on the set of the latest wholesome feel good comedy, starring child brat Kevin Morton. Seizing his opportunity, he makes his escape, but is swiftly pursued through the studio lot, picking up a bizarre entourage of extras, actors and props along the way.
He passes twin elephants one magenta, one cyan , is followed by studio golf carts, bursts onto the set of a cheesy beach movie and enters the spirit of Christmas at the North Pole. He then gets to trash Tokyo along with Godzilla and Ghidorah before improving, sorry ruining, a Twisted Sister video and leaping Tarzan-style across a lake on During this escalating sequence of mayhem he gets to show off the remarkable array of Bond-like gadgets attached to his bike.
The scene is exhilarating and seemingly endless, but the original cut was longer, even nding time to put in a Sergio Leone western! The nest moments of the lm occur whenever there are dreams because these provide the most arresting imagery.
They also link into Pee-wees mindset so that on occasion we literally see his view of the world. To get in touch with his surreal and offbeat world, the lm even begins with a dream Pee-wee winning the Tour de France, his frantic pedalling outdistancing the professionals with ease.
Later on, bikes appear in his waking dreams as he is tormented following the loss of his own. Waiting near its last known resting place, he watches despondently as, in his mind, everyone has a bike apart from him unicycles, penny farthings, tandems and even a little electric one. His nal bike dream takes this delirium to its logical conclusion. Stuck in hospital and despairing of ever seeing his bike again, he has gone from the optimism of his Tour de France dream into a deranged Bosch-like circus Hell: ambulance clowns cart away his bike, wheeling it to an operating theatre for surgery before sending the metallic wreck straight to the burning furnaces of Hell.
These sequences are lit like a stage show with some wonderful use of forced perspective chequered sets that work as prototypes for similar ones in Beetlejuice and Sleepy Hollow. Style and Score: For the music Burton turned to Danny Elfman, whose score is completely in tune with the mad circus events being portrayed and goes some way to explain why many have compared the lm to, of all things, Fellini Satyricon and !
Elfman would also be responsible for the theme music to Pee-wees Playhouse as well as the decidedly inferior sequel Big Top Pee-wee The When Pee-wee confronts Francis, the knock on his mansion door is accentuated precisely within the score. Visually the lm is bright, garish and bold. The attention lavished on Pee-wees bike when its rst revealed is similar, not only to the unveiling of the Batmobile, but also the worship of the bike shown in Kenneth Angers inuential underground lm Scorpio Rising , even down to the coloured lighting and dissection of the bikes form.
Making Of: The budget, while not minuscule, was certainly tight for the freewheeling scope of the lm. A lot of the props were actually Reubens and some Burtons, but were mainly procured from thrift shops. For the bike-riding scenes Reubens was dragged along the back of a truck but still had to maintain frantic peddling or risk injury. The episodic nature of the lm and the tight shooting schedule meant that each scene, with the exception of the studio chase, had about a days worth of set-ups.
Playground: Actor Paul Reubens developed the character Pee-wee Herman in the late s and used him in a standup comedy routine steeped in innuendo and double entendre. Some suggestive dialogue remains in the lm So is my horn ready yet? The combination of surrealism, childishness and crude gags made for cult viewing. Peewee put aside the more adult material of his shows following the surprise success of Pee-wees Big Adventure, and transferred them to childrens television in Freed of the inhibitions of being an adult, the perpetually childlike Pee-wee was wild, free and lived in a Day-Glo playhouse full of strange The show succeeded because it used childish language, full of secret codes, clubs and petty repetition but crucially Pee-wees Playhouse didnt alienate adult viewers.
The show ran for ve successful years. However, Pee-wees demise was swift due to an unfortunate incident at a cinema of dubious repute in Trivia: Who do you think is in the waving clown costume outside Marios? None other than Tim Burton. The female biker Why dont you let me have him rst? Originally there were supposed to be three coloured elephants, but the yellow one got stuck in transit on the freeway and shooting had to continue without it.
Reubens required a shoe polisher who followed him on hands and knees to ensure that his shoes stayed white and shiny for every shot. Not only did they get permission to use Godzilla in the lm they even used some of the original sound effects. Reubens had a hatred of snakes but Burton told him that I cant make it work with fake snakes, on the morning they shot the burning pet shop scene.
The resulting reaction was real. Madame Ruby Predicts: The establishing shot of the studio prior to the climactic chase features the original Batmobile. Pee-wees Big Adventure was well received but it meant that Burton was perceived as a guy who made quirky low-key comedies.
He wanted to direct another feature, but none of Noel is determined not to let fame creep up on him posthumously, but is not having much success. That is until he comes across a jar whose contents fascinate anyone who gazes upon it.
Passing it off as his own he becomes the darling of the art circuit, but at a price. Success breeds contempt resulting in tension between himself and his wife Erica, whose extramarital dalliances and jealous demeanor lead to a spiteful plan to remove the source of her husbands celebrity.
But what exactly is in the jar? The original series started in and ran for 10 years, covering a staggering episodes plus another 93 for The Alfred Hitchcock Hour , and was resurrected during the s for a modern audience. The original productions were book-ended by the master of suspense telling amusing macabre anecdotes and these would be reused albeit colourised for the remakes.
Scripted by James Bridges from a short story by the great Ray Bradbury, it follows the themes we have come to know from Bradburys work: small-town America; carnivals; the delight in revealing the dark depths underneath the surface of society; and dire consequences. Sadly, Bradburys combination of innocent nostalgia and blind psychosis is a difcult balance to produce in any medium his work has a fragile nastiness that should, but doesnt, translate well to the screen.
Paul Bartel makes a welcome appearance here, his second in a Burton production, and does much to liven up the proceedings. But the irrelevant Nazi connections and liberties with the story take its toll over the acting and the unusual effects. In the end this is a reasonable television production with all the inherent failings of the medium and is not as poor as Burton himself remembers it.
At least the twist in the tale remains and its suitably creepy. What starts out as a pure Elfman score albeit with a reduced number of musicians soon becomes a wonderful take on Bernard Herrmann, as themes from classic Hitchcock lms are blended together seamlessly, to produce something that is at once homage and also an in-joke on the theme of the series. Beetlejuice came Tim Burtons way via studio executive David Geffen and he immediately took it on board.
Burton assembled previous collaborators, all of whom helped give the lm that essential quirkiness: Thomas Ackerman had shot Frankenweenie, Rick Heinrichs helped design the lm and Danny Elfman provided the score.
So what if its a bit twee, they like it that way. Naturally, such a scene of domestic bliss would make for pretty dull viewing so, in the name of dramatic storytelling, it becomes necessary for the Maitlands to face some apparently insurmountable obstacle in order to facilitate a more interesting cinematic experience. And sure enough a problem rears its ugly head, for their nagging friend Jane sells their house to the Deetz family, a ghastly nouveau-riche couple with a misanthropic and long-suffering daughter Lydia.
But it seems that the Maitlands can do nothing about their unwanted visitors, nay homeowners, because they are dead. Following a car accident involving a dog on a bridge they nd themselves in the afterlife, forced to remain inside their house as beyond the front door lies a barren desert populated by giant, vicious sandworms intent on masticating upon any passing ghost.
Help of a kind is available in the shape of The Handbook for the Recently Deceased, a handy tome given out to all newly-deads to aid them in those troublesome early centuries. They nd their way to a bizarre bureaucratic world and discover to their horror that they are doomed to haunt their property for a long, long time.
Drastic events call for drastic measures. The Deetz family are intent on destroying everything the Maitlands hold dear with the help of interior designer Otho, whose designs are, how shall we say, radical. For the time being, all they have is their attic room in which to hatch a plan.
What do ghosts do for a living? They haunt! But the Deetz family cant see them, except for Lydia who is at least sympathetic to their cause. The situation is intolerable. Then they come across an advert for Betelgeuse, a bio-exorcist. Despite the imploring pleas of every dead person theyve met, they summon him by calling his name three times. Now they have a professional, albeit a manic one whos also an opportunist lecher, and he gets straight to work.
Sadly his attempts end in disaster as the Deetz family nd the concept of a haunted house a sure-re way to become the darlings of their social circuit. Tragic times for our couple. Not only do they have to contend with their house being abused, they have also unleashed a chaotic and insane phantasmagorical force of a magnitude hitherto unimagined.
Comment: Beetlejuice, although only a second feature, laid the groundwork for the rest of Burtons career by becoming a surprise hit.
Despite Beetlejuice generally remaining in a budget-friendly single location, the Maitlands house, it manages to branch out into the most absurd fantasy places. The purgatory sequences in particular have very little basis in real-world logic and provide us with a plethora of strange characters, all apparently victims of violent death. Theres the man who fell asleep with a lit cigarette, a magicians assistant she may be in pieces but can still respond if someone gets fresh with her and the amazing shrunken-head man whose conditions cause is only revealed at the lms close.
All are overseen by an ofcious secretary and a hideous numbered ticket system. Heaven isnt short of civil servants, clerks and councillors. Its all very Brazil
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