Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Launching Johnny Depp's collaboration with Tim Burton, Edward Scissorhands is the story of a boy created with 'scissorhands' by an inventor who falls in love with a pretty local girl (Winona Ryder) in a sheltered suburb.
Charlie & The Chocolate Factory (2005)
Tim Burton had a difficult job following the popular 1974 adaptation of Roald Dahl's novel which starred Gene Wilder (which terrified me when I was younger). In my opinion, Burton definitly succeeded in creating a wonderful version. Mixing more humour with darkness than I remember in the Wilder version, Burton's Charlie & The Chocolate Factory starred Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka (seemingly giving off a hint of the late Michael Jackson) and Freddie Highmore as Charlie Bucket. Helena Bonham-Carter, Burton's wife, also had a brief cameo as Charlie's mother.
The Corpse Bride (2005) 
This is honestly one of my favourite films, that I only saw because I recieved the DVD from a friend. The wonderful contrast of grey and colour between the land of the living and the dead is one of many things that I adore. The crazy hair styles, the musical numbers, even the costuming on animated characters is wonderful. The voice-over cast is also incredible: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham-Carter, Emily Watson, Richard E Grant & Joanna Lumley among others.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleetstreet (2007) 
Okay, so I haven't actually seen the film-I'm not a fan of throat-slitting and Sweeney Todd is a musical that I don't love-though I do own the soundtrack. Really, I'm including it to praise to Burton for his successful integration of musical numbers and the plot. Rob Marshall's Chicago heralded the revival of the movie-musical, yet kept the musical numbers separate from the acting unless they had to be integrated, like 'All That Jazz'. Previously to Sweeney Todd, musical adaptations that kept the songs in the plot had not done well (Rent, The Producers, The Phantom of the Opera [though they weren't well directed either....]) and it was refreshing to see some of the songs remain. The cast starred Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham-Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall and Sacha Baron Cohen-none of whom were particuarly known for being singers. Burton also took the chance to cast theatre performaners but film unknowns, such as Laura Michelle Kelly (who originated the title role in the musical of Mary Poppins) as The Beggar Woman, Jayne Wisener (who played Mary Phagan in the OLC of Parade) as Johanna and Antony Campbell Bower as Antony.
I am super excited about Alice in Wonderland, which I will be seeing on Saturday. Doesn't the trailer just look amazing!?
No comments:
Post a Comment