Introduction notes for Vincent and The Nightmare Before Christmas

On the morning of Wednesday 23 November 2011 - the day after my PhD viva voce (big scary conversation with examiners who decide whether you're awarded the degree), and two days after my 27th birthday - I introduced a screening of Tim Burton's short animation Vincent (1982) and Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas (dir. Henry Selick, 1993) at the Queen's Film Theatre in Belfast put on especially for school groups. Although the timing was ridiculous, I jumped at the chance to perform this introduction. The Nightmare Before Christmas has always been special to me. It came out shortly after my dad died, and, for all its problems, it was a comfort and a mainstay for me in those early years. I have seen it more times that I can tell you. I know the whole film almost word-for-word, beat-for-beat. Sally the rag doll has been a profound influence. At a major time in my life with such a big absence, it was meaningful to draw my personal and professional lives together, even if the crowd couldn't wait for me to shut up and get out - and that was just the teachers. Here are my notes from that morning and a link to Vincent.

Vincent and NBC

You may notice that these films have distinctive looks. Both involve stop motion clay animation, but they are also quite dark and shadowy with strange angular shapes in the sets and backgrounds.

Tim Burton is highly influenced by a movement called German Expressionism, which appeared in painting in the late 19^th century and cinema in the 1910s until 1930s. In such films, make up, sets and acting were exaggerated. Shadows would be painted directly onto sets, and the disjointed appearance of the set would reflect the inner torment felt by the protagonists – hence the term expressionism.

Tim Burton’s protagonists are often unhappy for some reason, and that is what we will see today in Vincent Malloy and Jack Skellington.

Vincent is a short animation, shot in b&w, and narrated by the very actor young Vincent wishes to be – Vincent Price. Price was a prolific actor who starred in many low-budget Hollywood horror films and lent his distinctive voice to animations. He and Burton formed a warm relationship until his death in 1993, the same year that NBC was released, and also appears in Edward Scissorhands. He was originally cast to play Santa Claus in NBC but was in bad health and regrettably had to be recast.

The structure of the short is different to a feature-length. The narrative is expressed through poetic rhyming couplets that describe Vincent Malloy’s disturbed fantasies based on his namesake’s film characters. Rather than use the 3-act structure that is discernible in NBC, it begins quietly and slowly, and intensifies as Price’s voice gets louder and the edits between shots speed up.

The film is really a series of transitions between Vincent’s reality and his fantasy world, expressed through changes in lighting, camera angle, costume and set. So the short focuses on aesthetic elements of what we call mise en scène to convey moods and feelings that inform the short story.

These elements and devices are also used in NBC, but it follows a 3-act structure where the protagonist Jack is introduced to us with a conflict – he is unhappy with his life as the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town. As he mulls this over he accidentally finds Christmas Town.

Act 2 begins with Jack returning home and revealing his idea to ‘borrow’ the Christmas holiday to liven up his stagnant life. Of course his plans go awry and he endangers his friends including the all-important ‘Sandy Claws’ and his truest friend – although he can’t see this – Sally the Rag Doll. I won’t spoil the end of it for you, but I’m sure you will be able to guess where act 2 ends and the final act begins as you watch.

Thinking again about Expressionist mise en scène – it would be useful for you to pay attention to lighting, settings, background information, how each character is made up or dressed, etc. and ask yourself how these elements affect your mood and response to the characters and the story. Tim Burton and director Henry Selick (who specializes in stop motion) are doing nothing new here. Many film-makers had to leave Germany in the 1930s and 1940s because they were Jewish and were persecuted under the Third Reich.

Naturally they went to Hollywood and took their expressionist devices with them, from which came about such genres as film noir and horror.

NBC was originally linked to Disney but was shifted to one of its label’s groups, Touchstone Pictures, for fear that its gruesome characters would scare very young children, also why it is rated PG and not U. But you may be aware that Disney is very much involved in the film’s merchandizing. So NBC bridges a gap between its experimental roots – stop motion animation/Expressionism – and Hollywood’s commercialism.

As an audience, we can regard this film in different ways: as a love story, as a tale of transition, or accepting who you are. We can even think of it as a musical. It can make us think of how holidays replace one another in a commercially driven economy. It might make us think of the possibilities of animation beyond live action in creating other worlds. Or the experimental techniques used in an otherwise conventional plot structure.

It is also a film designed to capture childhood imaginations - You may notice that in both films you never see above the adults’ shoulders, and their bodies and hand gestures are highly expressive, but quite stern towards children because they just don’t get it. These films certainly captured my imagination when I was young and sparked my passion for cinema – I hope they have a similar effect on you.

 

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