LIVE-ACTION
CARTOON
The concept of the live-action cartoon might clarify most Tim Burton films: his feature films --aside from Ed Wood-- function like cartoons acted out by human beings. I use the analogy of the cartoon, because the cartoon is the kind of film that is the most extreme in its selectiveness of which elements to include and which ones to exclude. Since everything within a cartoon is purposefully drawn, there is no seepage of outside elements. An animated feature like Disney's Beauty and the Beast creates an autonomous world with its own geography, characters and rules --as a matter of fact a rather similar one to Edward Scissorhands-- that includes some references to our familiar reality (its setting in nineteenth century France), but does not have to abide by its rules. It is freer than a fantasy film like Die Hard with a Vengeance, whose contemporary New York City setting places it within a specifically realistic and recognizable frame of reality. Tim Burton's films, like most animated cartoons, do not depict a recognizable version of any familiar reality, but rather create a stylized frame of reference within the film, in which only a few aspects of "reality" seep through. In Batman Returns, for example, there is a scene in which the Penguin is introduced to his campaign managers. The brightly lit office interior filled with colorful balloons is from a different kind of reality than the stylized, gothic design of the rest of the movie. This sharp contrast heightens the banality of the situation, as blinding and strange to the audience as it is to the Penguin.

In Edward Scissorhands there is a similarly stylized version of a banal reality: the pastel colored suburb where Edward is taken in includes from elements from a familiar reality, but not in an attempt at realism. Certain parts have been carefully exaggerated, others systematically excluded, in order to create a world that is more than a shallow parody of an American suburb. One important element is the presence of the dark castle on the hilltop overlooking the suburbs. The castle is forever shrouded in fog and clouds, while the color-coordinated neighborhood is always drenched in sunshine and primary colors. The fact that no-one in the film seems surprised or even disturbed by this deliberately non-realistic story element is very important for striking the right chord without losing the audience. The diegetic world is therefore a coordinated system with a clear set of rules, character and geography.

Burton's earlier features Pee-Wee's Big Adventure and Beetlejuice offer worlds that are less coherent,, with some parts wholly stylized and even animated, while other parts show an image that adheres to conventions of narrative realism. This turns both these films into anarchic comedies with moments of surrealism, pastiches of farce, satire and horror that are literally all over the place.

Batman's Gotham City is a more coherent world, though in comparison with Burton's later films, there are still many moments in which conventions of realism break through the design of the film and disrupt the balance. These scenes, for instance those that take place at Vicky Vale's newsroom, do not serve as a contrast to the film's gothic world, but as a part of it. Yet because these scenes are stylistically so different from the rest of the movie, they actually work against the creation of a believable and autonomous diegetic world.

Like his first short, Vincent, Burton's later films, from Edward Scissorhands up to The Nightmare Before Christmas present closed versions of reality, in which every element has been consciously designed and forms a part of the diegetic world.