Split
Worlds

The split world is one of Burton's regular themes, worked out thematically as well as visually in nearly every one of his films. Many of Burton's main characters have split personalities, with one side inhabiting the normal world and the other half on the weird side, but even in films with a static, one-dimensional main character like Pee-Wee Herman there is a dark side to the brightly colored toy shop world. Burton films are usually split into a "normal" world, which somehow never comes across as being either regular or attractive, and a "weird" world, in which his characters are invariably more at home. This "weird" world is never understood by the "normal" side, and the "weird" characters often long for acceptance by the other side, but are always rejected and misperceived in the end.

The protagonists of Burton's first two films are young boys who are not at ease in the "normal" world of their parents. Vincent all but disappears into a fantasy world of old horror films, while Victor Frankenstein revives his beloved dog, only to encounter fear and misunderstanding from the people in his neighborhood. For most Burton characters, it is this misperception by the people around them and their ideas of what being "normal" means that brands them outsiders.

The most obvious examples of split personalities are to be found in the two Batman films. Batman, Catwoman and The Joker are characters that create their own rules inside their own world by dressing up in costumes and thus displaying their alternative selves: rich, absent-minded playboy Bruce Wayne transforms himself into a grim, masked super-hero, mousy secretary Selina Kyle turns into a linoleum-wrapped avenger, and cynical, cool gangster Jack Napier reveals himself as a disfigured, giggling clown with a tendency towards sadistic practical jokes. Their only way to deal with reality is by changing their appearance and identity in order to play the game by their own rules. They dress up in order to re-create their selves and face the outside world.

A similar but distinct transformation also occurs in Burton films: characters that are perceived as "weird" by the outside world make an effort to adapt themselves to their "normal" surroundings, only to realize that they simply will not fit in. Edward Scissorhands is a good example. Edward is taken along out of his gothic castle by Avon lady Peg and integrated into her "normal" world of pastel colored suburbia. The innocent, peculiar young man wears ordinary clothes over his own leather body suit, he cuts hair, dogs and hedges, and his scissorhands turn out to be excellent utensils for the barbecue. The neighbors' initial acceptance however is quickly revealed to be a superficial fascination for the unusual, which can turn to anger and hatred at the first misunderstanding. Finally Edward and his well-meaning adoptive family are forced to learn that he will never be accepted into their world, so he returns to his castle.

The same kind of theme can be recognized in Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas and Jack Skellington's attempts to take over Christmas. But he also soon finds out that he is trying to be something he is not. The main difference between Edward and Jack is that Jack has his own world to return to once he realizes who he is, while Edward retreats to his solitary castle.

The split world of Ed Wood is somewhat less fanciful than earlier Burton films, with the main character expressing his split personality by wearing women's clothes. This aspect is however not the most important part of the split world depicted in the film; Wood's outsider status is more important than his transvestism, which functions more as an anecdote on an oddball character than as investigation of a man's need to wear clothing of the opposite sex. The most interesting way in which the split worlds are presented in Ed Wood is in the separate universe the director and his group of friends inhabit on the fringes of B-movie Hollywood. Vampira, Tor Johnson, Bunny Breckinridge, Bela Lugosi and Wood himself create an alternative lifestyle, with rules and codes that have little or nothing to do with those of the world around them. The divergence between their world and the "normal" one is less absolute than in previous Burton films, in part because there is less of a visual separation between the two (like the difference between Halloweenland and Christmastown). The boundaries between the two worlds are not physical but mental, and by the end of the film they are crystal clear. Ed Wood and his stars are attending the premiere of Plan 9 from Outer Space in the complete conviction that this will be their definite breakthrough. None of them is aware of how bad their film is in the eyes of the outside world. They have set their own rules and limits without reference or comparison with the world around them, and have lost touch with reality.