Here is the video clip for Tim Burton’s “Vincent” :

In this post, I will discuss the characters as well as some design elements of Vincent, a short animation that is written, directed, and designed by Tim Burton.

Tim Burton usually has a unique way of presenting the physical appearance of his characters on screen.  In this animation, the characters have exaggerated features.  Vincent’s face is exaggerated into a long triangle with considerable distance between his nose and mouth. Vincent’s dog has a similar face shape as well.  The black cat in the beginning also has a distorted shape and is incredibly skinny.

The adult characters of the mom and aunt in the animation do not have their faces shown, but are rather shown from their midsection down.  The characters skin seems to have a cloth texture and at times looks cellulite ridden, particularly the aunt and mom’s.  Vincent’s hair seemed like it was completely fried, but at the same time the hair looked very realistic. The aunt does not really communicate with Vincent, and when the mom is shown talking to him, it is in fact not her voice, but the narrators, and she is giving gestures with her hands in the narration.

Speaking of narration, none of the characters actually talk in this animation.  Their actions and thoughts are narrated by a deep voice that helps to convey the mood and setting.  The narration is done in rhymed lines, giving the piece a poetic touch.

In terms of the design elements, The animation is done in black and white to add to Vincent’s eerie imagination.  The lighting throughout is pretty dim, and gets especially dim and dark when we enter Vincent’s imaginary world.

There is a use of  shadows and silhouettes in the imaginary world.  This is seen with a zoomed out shot of the stairs that Vincent goes up to get to his “tower of doom,” or simply put, his room.  A huge shadow of the dog is also seen, along with Vincent’s other inventions.  There are also zoomed in shots of Vincent’s bulging eyes to convey changes in his character or show his fear.

The background music also served very well to convey the tone of the animation, and was particularly successful at the end when Vincent is lying on the floor with the narrator reading the lines of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven.” Overall I thought this was a well made animation.

*I commented on Emily Witt (#51) and Brenda Webber #50