Eleanor Luckett

Extended Diploma Year 2

Tim Burton's Parent Predicament

INTRODUCTION
Psychoanalysis is a methodological approach said to be fathered by
Sigmund Freud. This is largely because he is the most renown developer
and champion of its merits. This is the methodological approach I will be
using to analyse Tim Burton's works as this is the primary way of
assessing the unconscious mind and how the thoughts from this translate
into the real world. The use of free association (the conveyance of our
subconscious through our dreams) is clearly applicable in works such as
Burton's due to their dreamlike quality and the style in which they portray
the stories.
The pieces of Burton's work that I have decided to analyse are Vincent,
released in 1982; Alice in Wonderland, released in 2010; and Miss
Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, released in 2016. I have chosen
these films as they span a large proportion of Tim Burton's career and give
me enough of a breath of type of film to be able to cover most of, if not all
of his work styles. These are also all films that I very much like and have
watched many times, giving me enough depth of knowledge of the stories
and visual effects to be able to analyse the stories properly.
I intend to look at the different themes, narratives and visual methods used
to portray the narratives, and from those what can be discovered from
exploring the more subtle subtexts and psychological considerations
hidden underneath the surface.
(242 words)

CONTEXT
Psychoanalysis discusses the many aspects of our minds, outside of the
physical, focussing highly on the psychological factors that lead to certain
behaviours. One of the main focuses of psychoanalysis is the unconscious
mind. This is meant to be the part of our mind that houses our emotions,
urges and memories that we do not consciously process or register. This is
the part of our brains that acts before we consciously register our
behaviours. This is used with a method called Free Association to link our
unconscious thoughts to our behaviours, even those that we are not
necessarily aware of. Another key part of psychoanalysis is the
developmental stages as dictated by Sigmund Freud. These stages are
defined into five specific age brackets. These are; the Oral stage (0 to 1
years of age), the Anal stage (1 to 3 years of age), the Phallic stage (3 to
5/6 years of age), the Latency stage (5/6 to puberty) and the Genital stage
(puberty to adulthood). Freud said that each stage of the development of a
child into an adult had specific and significant behaviours linked them, and
that trauma in each of these different stages could create different
problems later on in life. The final key concept explored by Freud is the
elements of the mind. He proposed that the mind was made uo of three key
aspects; the Id, the Ego and the Super-ego. He proposed that each element
has a different function. The Id is the part of the brain that gives us
impulsive and momentary decisions. The Ego is the intermediary role
between the Id and the real world, managing what is realistic and what is
not. The Super-ego is the part of the brain that reasons and tells us what we
should really do and the moral and complex consequences of the
behaviours. The levels of each of these elements which are available to the
conscious and unconscious mind are demonstrated well in Figure 1 below.

Fig 1 Tripartite personality

(2017)

Psychoanalysis is incredibly closely linked to art and design, both through

the process of developing the actual work itself and through the critiquing
process that all public works go through. Psychoanalysis is arguably one of
the most applicable methodologies to art and design as it can be applied to
all methods, all arts and all time periods; unlike some of the other
methodologies that are only applicable after certain time periods or
movements. Psychoanalysis is commonly used, especially free association
to analyse art in which there are clearly multiple layers of meaning in
operation, especially with more abstract or indirect works. Specifically in
animation, it is often used to further understand the meaning of seemingly
unusual behaviours, flash backs or dreams. It can also be used to interpret
elements of the image shown on the screen, in much the same way that
Freud himself used the ink marks to understand what a person
automatically though of upon seeing nondescript shapes and images.
These are said to allow contact and understanding of the unconscious
mind. It is also a widely understood subject so can be easily studied and
mastered without little difficulty.

Tim Burton's 1982 film Vincent is a black and white ink on paper hand
drawn animation about a young boy called Vincent who dreams of being
like the well known horror movie actor Vincent Price. His obsessions with
horror films and dark novels such as those of Edgar Allen Poe show that he
is a deeply disturbed child who has a weak connection to his mother.
Figure 2 and 3 (below) are images captured from the short film.

Fig. 2 Vincent Cover Image (1982)

Fig. 3 Vincent and black cat (1982)

Vincent is extremely interesting when you examine its context. The short
film was produced by Burton whilst he was still an employee of Disney, a
company who he had worked for as an animator since leaving CalArts. He
found himself disassociated from the style and overall process presented to
him at Disney and wanted to continue with his own style and thoughts
through his work. After a long time of asking, Burton was finally granted
his own film and funding under Disney. Vincent was the outcome. This
is nothing like the normal style of Disney's work, and they were not at all
impressed with the outcome. The film was eventually finally released on
the extras for the DVD release of The Nightmare Before Christmas. This
was released over 11 years later, as an extra in the section about the
making of the film. Its interesting that Burton's style so completely
juxtaposes the usual Disney house style. Using psychoanalysis, this sense
of rebellion can be securely linked back to Burton's childhood.

Timothy Walter Burton was born on 25th August 1958. By his own
account he survived a benignly dysfunctional family consisting of two
parents and a younger brother. His father, with whom he remained
permanently at odds, worked in athletics for the Burbank Parks and
Recreation Department, while his mother ran a gift shop named Cat's
Gifts. There were incidents of being forced to hibernate in his room at
home, and eventually moved in with his grandmother. (MoMA, 2009: 9)
These periods of abandonment and isolation, whilst probably
unintentional, may have caused improper development during the Anal
stage of psychosexual development (1 to 3 years of age). Freud speculated
that trauma during this key development stage could lead to an Anal
expulsive adult. He said that this would result from little to no toilet
training at this key stage. Although this would seem unrelated, Freud
claimed to have observed this kind of trauma during the Anal phase to
result in an adult with compulsion to share their experiences and outcomes
with others. It had also been observed to lead to messy, disorganised and
rebellious behaviours. These characteristics, especially the rebellious
behaviours are clearly seen in the contrast of style between Burton's style
in Vincent, and that of the house style of Disney. It is also shown by how
much darker and more twisted Burton's storyline is compared to that of
Disney's normal work. The compulsion to share his experiences and
feelings also come through in his work as many of his characters have
similar home situations and lives as he did as a young person. His
traumatic experiences with his parents are clearly passed on through his
work.

Another one of Burton's films, Edward Scissorhands is a film based

around the self-discovery and isolation of a young man; themes that we
have already seen that Burton was well acquainted with. In this case,
Burton's creation of isolation is manifested in Edward's strange
appearances and behaviours. He stays alone in a Gothic castle, another
interesting metaphor for Burton's own isolation from being shut in his
room and partially abandoned. This is reinforced by being a setting of
other films directed by Burton, such as Batman and The Nightmare
Before Christmas. The character of Edward is also presented as a
misunderstood and unusual young man, not unlike Burton himself at the
same age. It is worth noting that Burton's appearance is also fairly similar
to how Edward is presented. Therefore it can be concluded that, at least
subconsciously, Edward is a reflection of Burton.

Although Freud is the most commonly recognised user of psychoanalysis

and his theories are widely accepted as the best representation of
development, there are many other psychoanalysis methods and theories
that could also explain some of the characteristics of Burton's style. One of
the main problems with accepting Freud's psychoanalysis is that it has
been near on impossible to replicate his experiments. Freud lived in a
period that had many abused and abandoned children that he could study,
meaning that he potentially had access to a much larger group to study that
we can produce now. It is morally unethical to place children in these
situations, so we cannot replicate this environment. However, Freud didn't
use this opportunity. His patients were almost entirely middle-class
neurotic individuals from Vienna, mainly women(Cardwell and Flanagan,
2004: 145). His theories are formed from the recollections of childhood
from abnormal individual belonging to a distinct cultural group and a
particular historical period (Cardwell and Flanagan, 2004: 145). This
means that as much as these methods are useful to analyse work and derive
meaning, outside of that distinctly portrayed to the audience, this particular
method and study isn't veritably applicable to the context in which Tim
Burton grew up and created his work. There have been a number of
alternate theories which may be much more applicable to Burton, and his
work's, context. Jung (1964) theorised that rather than a translation of our
inner conflicts, dreams were directly linked to our activities. This then
translates into the creative arts through inspiration in dreams. He gave the
examples of authors who dream up their plots or characters, mildly based
on people around them. This is a theory that is well explained and
demonstrated by The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.

Jung's theory can be easily applied to Burton's work, especially since a

large proportion of it shows aspects of escapism. Both Vincent and
Edward Scissorhands are set in large, dark, prison like houses; not unlike
how Burton's home must have felt to a small child being trapped in one
room for extended periods of time. Both films also feature characters that
both physically and characteristically show similarities to Burton. This
therefore suggests that these settings are extensions of the experiences that
he has had, and a way of making a dull and scary environment more
interesting and entertaining. In short, it is a way of extending his
environment into his dreams and allowing his imagination to keep him
company. If we follow through Freud's psycho-sexual development theory,
Burton as an Anal expulsive adult, means that Burton feels the compulsion
to share these characters and their adventures with the world, leading to his
embossing of the original stories with his own experiences and
environments. This has lead to slight deviation from the original story lines
in some cases. Probably the best example of this is Alice in Wonderland.
In the original book, Alice falls asleep under a tree with her sister reading
before falling down the rabbit hole. However, in Tim Burton's 2010
adaptation, Alice is being forced into an arranged marriage; something that
her parents think is the best and proper thing for her, but something that
will make her deeply unhappy and prevent her from exploring her own
wishes and desires. It is also worth noting that this story is another
example that demonstrates Jung's theory more than Freud's. The people in
her life translate into the characters Alice meets in Wonderland.
The most significant thing about Burton's adaptation is this change to the
setting for the story taking place. The involvement of enforced changes in
Alice's life that she has little to no control over, and she desperately tries to
escape those circumstances in her mind, can be paralleled to Burton's
abandonment and subsequent move to live with his grandmother. It is also
important that this change of circumstances in Alice's story are not seen in
the previous, animated, Disney adaptation.