A Wedding Of Vision And Music

Rating: 9/10 (2 February 2006)

You have to experience this to get a direct look at Burton's vision of the world, and a line into how Elfman hears it.
I believe that Burton really does see our world as "Beetle Juice"-- "Bride" has more or less the same narrative and story arc -- To Burton, there are no real people, just *puppets* manipulated by minds. The "Bride" characters are fully formed sight gags; they don't need a 'story', or to 'do' anything...their mere existence says it all. His world is gray, monochrome, metronomic in form and motion: Victorian England. Deep inside, he yearns for...
...the alternate Elfman world ("Harlem is Heaven"), a tribute to Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson. In that other world, the narrative is musical: splashy, dazzling, free form.
Burton doesn't know how to exist among the colors of that world, so he co-opts the music. Elfman's music has to reside in a movie world. So we have a compromise: a happy wedding.