Vincent - Tim Burton's 1982 animated short

Vincent is a 1982 American stop motion horror short film written, designed and directed by Tim Burton and produced by Rick Heinrichs. It is the second Disney horror film, the first is The eyes of the park (The Watcher in the Woods). Running around six minutes, there is currently no individual version of the film, with the exception of a few bootleg versions. It can be found on the 2008 Special Edition and 2008 Collector's Edition DVDs of The Nightmare Before Christmas as a bonus feature and on the Cinema16 American Short Films DVD.

The film is narrated by actor Vincent Price, who has always been an idol and source of inspiration for Burton. From this relationship, Price would appear in Burton's Edward Scissorhands. Vincent Price later said that Vincent was “the most rewarding thing that ever happened. It was immortality, better than a star on Hollywood Boulevard ”.

History

Vincent is the poetic story of a 7-year-old boy, Vincent Malloy, who pretends to be like actor Vincent Price (who narrates the film). He experiments on his Abercrombie dog to create a horrible, ravenous Zombie dog. He is obsessed with Edgar Allan Poe's short stories, and it is his detachment from reality when reading them that leads to his delusions that he is actually a tortured artist and mad scientist, deprived of the woman he loves, mirroring some parts of Poe's life. "The Raven". The film ends with Vincent terrified of being tortured by the events of his imaginary world, quoting "The Crow" as he falls to the ground frail, believing he is dead.

Production

While working as a conceptual artist at Walt Disney Productions, Tim Burton found two allies in Disney executive Julie Hickson and head of creative development Tom Wilhite. The two were struck by Burton's unique talent and, while not "Disney material," felt he deserved respect. As such, in 1982, Wilhite gave Burton $ 60.000 to produce an adaptation of a poem Burton had written titled Vincent. Burton originally planned the poem to be a children's storybook, but he thought otherwise.

Together with fellow Disney animator Rick Heinrichs, stop motion animator Stephen Chiodo and cameraman Victor Abdalov, Burton worked on the project for two months and made the six-minute short. Shot in black and white in the style of 20s German Expressionist films, Vincent imagines himself in a series of situations inspired by Vincent Price / Edgar Allan Poe films that had such an effect on Burton as a child, including experimenting on his dog - a theme that would later appear in Frankenweenie - and welcoming her aunt home while at the same time conjuring up the image of her immersed in hot wax. Vincent Malloy, the main character of the film, bears a striking resemblance to Tim Burton himself

The film was narrated by Burton's childhood idol, Vincent Price, and marked the beginning of a friendship between them that lasted until Price's death in 1993. Burton credits the experience as one of the most formative of his life.

The film was released in theaters for two weeks in a Los Angeles cinema with the teen drama Tex. Before being delivered to Disney vaults, it garnered numerous critical accolades when it premiered at London, Chicago and Seattle film festivals, winning two awards in Chicago and the Critics' Award at the Annecy Film Festival in France.

Technical data and credits

Original language English
Country of Production United States of America
Year 1982
Duration 6 min
Technical data B / N
relationship: 1,37:1
Regia Tim Burton
Film script Tim Burton
Producer Rick heinrichs
Production house Walt Disney Productions
Distribution in English Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Photography Viktor Abdalov
Music Ken Hilton
Artistic director Rick heinrichs
Entertainers Stephen Chiodo
Original voice actors
Vincent Price: Narrator
Italian voice actors
Ettore Conti: Narrator