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In this episode, Carl King examines the screenwriting of Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands, and the musical score by Danny Elfman.
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SHOW NOTES / LINKS
Edward Scissorhands on BluRay
https://geni.us/Wktv
Edward Scissorhands on CD
https://geni.us/yPs9R
Dr. David Sinclair / Lifespan
https://geni.us/29LX3iE
Mary Poppins / Chim Chim Cheree
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cr0r0E2ZSIA
Shostakovich / Second Waltz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hTvc3f83Ws
OPENING CREDITS
I’m Carl King, and this is The Carl King Podcast, where we learn about music, filmmaking, and the other creative arts. To support this podcast, head over to Patreon.com/carlking, and join for just $1 or $5 per month. Or send a tip through PayPal or Venmo to username CarlKingdom. Special thank you to my Illusionist $51 level patrons, both Hank Howard III and Chewbode. Chooch-dobe.
Quick shout-out to my music endorsements: Vienna Symphonic Library, Fractal Audio, Ernie Ball Strings, Toontrack, and Millennia Media.
Now let’s get this episode Beginned!
CARL KING THE HUMAN UPDATE
Very Good Friends of Carl King, I have just a few Carl King The Human Updates.
1 – I joined another cult recently. Can’t remember how many cults I’m in at the moment, but THIS cult is based around the podcast called Lifespan by Dr. David Sinclair. I became aware of him through the Huberman Lab podcast. Dr. David Sinclair teaches us how to avoid disease and live longer, so we can make more podcasts that no one hears. As a member of the Lifespan cult, I am only allowed to eat once a day. Folks. Fooolks. I never thought this would be possible, but I am actually adapting to it. I eat a big lunch, and that’s it. But… that’s not actually it. Because I’m a podcaster, I also take Athletic Greens AG1 mixed with wheat grass powder and some hemp protein. Which only has a total of about 150 calories. Usually around 7 or 8pm, when the hunger is really hitting me. My wife thinks that’s breaking my intermittent fast, but I don’t mind. By the way, this is NOT an ad for Athletic Greens. But I wish it were. I would happily join their cult, too. And I will put a link to Dr. David Sinclair and his Lifespan podcast in the show notes.
2 – I have officially been diagnosed with Sleep Apnea, a disease that is slowly killing me. Because that’s what it does. If you haven’t heard of this, it’s where you stop breathing over and over and over as you sleep. And it does two things 1 – it interrupts the oxygen supply to your brain and heart and other organs and 2 – it keeps you from getting into a deep sleep, which your brain and body need. I had a close friend who died a few years ago from chronic sleep apnea. And I already have some long-term effects from it. So I am working with doctors to get this under control.
3 – This is the 42nd episode of The Carl King Podcast overall. But the 25th episode I have produced in 2022. That is, since the relaunch.
That means: according to very poor Carl King mathematics, if I keep this show going throughout 2023, we will be approaching 100 episodes at this same time next year. Actually at this rate we’d probably hit 100 episodes at the beginning of 2024. So here are some questions, or things to think about — will I keep this show going that long? What will happen if I do? Will I have enough listeners by then to take on sponsors? How will the format change over time?
We don’t know yet. But I can say I am thankful to all of the good friends of Carl King for sticking around and listening.
And now, let’s get into the Analytical Music Analysis of the Week.
MUSIC: DANNY ELFMAN’S “EDWARD SCISSORHANDS” MAIN TITLES
This week, since it’s the holiday season, we are going to do an Analytical Music Analysis of… the Edward Scissorhands “Main Titles.” By Danny Elfman, from 1990.
Have you ever wondered why Danny Elfman’s music sounds… spooky and dark and magical? As your very good friend, and a person who analyzes music, I will do my best to explain.
First of all, it’s because we form cultural associations with sounds. Like Pavlov’s dog, those sounds trigger visuals and feelings.
Danny Elfman uses specific chords, scales, rhythms, and even instrumentation that REMIND us of “spooky” and “dark” and “magical.” And that reinforces the story. Without those shared cultural associations, the music of Edward Scissorhands would just be sounds.
Now: Music theory helps us categorize those sounds, and their cultural associations, into a system or a LANGUAGE. Just as writers learn to use words, composers of music use established chords and scales and rhythms and instrumentation.
Music is not conjured out of some mystical realm. Those chords and scales and rhythms and instruments have been around for centuries. Film composers pretty much adhere to a collective vocabulary. They know how to write a heroic action movie, or a romance, or a comedy. And these genres have all been explored in classical music. Think of all the operas and ballets that have been written… Film scores are nothing new.
And so, the music of Edward Scissorhands sounds a lot like the spooky, dark, magical classical music Danny Elfman grew up listening to: Bernard Hermann, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Igor Stravinsky.
Disclaimer: I’m not accusing Danny Elfman of being derivative any more than every composer in the world is derivative. It’s all part of the creative tradition.
Now I’m only going to focus on the first track in the film score, which is actually called “Introduction (Titles)” and it is 2 minutes 37 seconds long.
Edward Scissorhands is considered a Christmas Film because… the story takes place during Christmas time. And the instrumentation is reminiscent of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, which is another Christmas story based on an old Christmas fairy tale. You might be familiar with The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, from The Nutcracker. It also used a specific twinkly percussive instrument that we hear prominently in this cue.
Before we get into the main titles, I have to mention this. In the actual film, over the 20th Century Fox Logo, for about 10 seconds, there’s a short cue that doesn’t appear at the beginning of this actual opening track. I’m guessing they pasted that in later. OR, they simply omitted it when they compiled the score album.
Here we go.
This Main Titles piece is in the key C minor (play), which is a good choice of key. So right off the bat, we have a dark, minor sound. Perfect for a sad fairy tale.
And it is MOSTLY in a 3/4 time signature. For non-musicians, that means the music is counted like this: 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3. Kind of a WALTZ. Which is appropriate to represent Winona Ryder dancing around in the snow. Although that scene is in 4/4, so I have no idea what I’m talking about.
But the 3/4 time signature of this cue reminds us of a European dance. If you’re familiar with Mary Poppins, another piece in this same time signature AND key (C minor), is Chim Chim Cher-ee. I’ll put a link to that in the show notes.
Another famous piece of music in 3/4 time AND ALSO in C Minor would be the Second Waltz by Shotokovich — one of Danny Elfman’s favorite composers. I will also put a link to THAT in the show notes.
If you listen to those, I think you will hear that the music of Edward Scissorhands fits into this genre of sad or dark minor key waltzes. But with a few special twists and turns.
The tempo of this piece fluctuates somewhat freely, which is always nice to hear in music. It was probably conducted manually, and without a click. As opposed to so much of the metronomic DAW music we hear these days. It floats around in the 110-116 bpm range. There are brief moments of accelerando, where the music speeds up, and ritardando, where the music slows down. Remember when music used to do that?
I broke this cue into 3 main sections, which I will refer to as A, B, and C. And there are variations of these sections, like the Intro and the Outro.
INTRO
And this piece DOES start with an Intro, for some reason.
The first thing we hear is a C minor chord. And it’s in an upper register. So on a piano, it would be played way over to the right of the keyboard.
NOW. Before we go any further, I need to point out. It’s ALWAYS important to choose your orchestration according to the note or chord’s letter name. For instance, all A chords should be played on an instrument whose name starts with A. Such as an Accordion. And all B notes should be played on a Bagpipe. Folks. FOOOLKS. I did not make those rules, I only follow them. There’s simply no chance my orchestration teacher was lying to me.
So that C minor chord is played, you guessed it… on an instrument that we can all agree BEGINS the letter C. It’s either pronounced celestee or celestay, but there’s no need to get upset and have another incident.
Now think about it: had that been a D minor chord, we might have associated Edward Scissorhands with a Didjeridu.
And since you asked, here’s some Hollywood trivia: Remember that film that never got made, Superman Lives, directed by Tim Burton and starring Nicholas Cage as Superman? Well, I know a lot of people in Hollywood, and I can tell you the secret of why was canceled. It’s because Danny Elfman wrote the main theme in the key of E major, which meant the score was to be performed only with a single Egg Shaker.
Back to our analysis: the Celesta is an instrument associated with either a spooky or magical or even creepy sound. And it’s used in plenty of horror movies: Like The Shining from 1980, Suspiria from 1977.
So Danny Elfman’s choice to feature it here fit within the kinda spooky genre.
By the way, that C minor chord is played in various inversions. For those who don’t know what the heck an inversion is… it’s a ways of arranging the notes of a chord.
For instance, our C minor chord has 3 notes in it. C – Eb – G. You can “invert” it by putting the highest note G, on the bottom. Or the middle note, Eb on the bottom. Hear how they’re slight variations of the same chord?
Using inversions are a way to make the chords not sound so BASIC. You can sort of disguise them. And get more milage out of them. Here are some more extreme examples. All of them are made up of the same 3 notes.
Danny Elfman is actually BIG on inversions, in all of his scoring. And for simplicity, for the rest of this analysis, I am going to intentionally overlook all other inversions of chords. We’ll pretend it’s entirely root position block chords. Because otherwise, we’d be here all day, and we’d get lost in even smaller details.
For the non-musicians out there, Danny Elfman uses only two chords in this intro. The c minor, and the G major. These are VERY common chords. I’m sure they sound familiar to your ear.
And for the musicians, it’s 3 measures of that C minor chord, which is the minor tonic chord, and then we get 3 measures of a… G major. The dominant. The V chord. It might even be a dominant 7 chord, and I will leave that to you to decide.
And remember… these are the TWO MOST BASIC chords in the minor key. So far, nothing revolutionary has happened. 99% of the songs in the universe use these two basic I and V chords. You could say they are the fundamental chords that define a key.
However… I want to point out here that each of those chords or phrases last only 3 measures. That’s odd, isn’t it? Normally, each phrase would be an even number of measures. Usually 2, 4, or 8.
And so… on measure 7 we get the first real indication we’re dealing with Danny Elfman. There is a a sequence of 3 chords: Cm – F – G. That would be, in the key of C minor: minor I, MAJOR IV, and Major V.
For the non-musicians in the audience, it would more commonly sound like this. Cm – Fm – G.
But he makes that F minor an F MAJOR. It’s an uplifting and magical sound to use the two major chords in a row.
For the musicians out there, we are briefly in MELODIC MINOR. Where both the IV and V chords are MAJOR instead of minor.
By the way, I haven’t fully formed my argument about this, but I don’t believe minor keys are REAL keys. I think they’re just altered major keys. Maybe someday I’ll be able to better explain that belief.
Anyway, that F major chord really jumps out because it wasn’t expected.
AND, that F major is held out for a bar of 4 instead of 3. So Danny Elfman is changing time signatures for only one measure — adding an extra beat. Which gave that striking chord even more emphasis.
Still, it’s nothing revolutionary in the world of classical music. While you could say it is very Elfman, it’s still all “by the book.”
B SECTION MINI
Next we move into what I am calling the B Section MINI. Or Mini B Section. It’s a teaser of what will come later. And because of that, it’s shorter. It’s only 7 bars. Isn’t that odd?
For the non-musicians out there, most musical phrases are broken up into 2, 4, 8, or 16 bar chunks. 2 x 2 is 4, x 2 is 8, x 2 is 16. So these powers of 2, are most easy for listeners to digest without thinking about it. It’s sort of like how we walk in steps of 2. Left, Right, Left Right.
So a phrase that is 7 bars is a nice way of surprising the listener, even if it’s a subconscious surprise. Your brain has to take two steps with its left foot to get back in sync.
However… that full B section we get later is a NOT ODD 16 bars.
For the musicians out there, this sequence of chords has classic Danny Elfman instant modulations. You might call them non-diatonic chords, or even modal interchange.
For the non-musicians out there, basically all you need to know is that a “key” has 7 basic chords in it. One for each note of the scale. And it’s expected that when in a key, you work with only those 7 chords. Unless you eventually CHANGE keys. But if you do, it’s expected you stay with the 7 chords in that NEW key for a while. It keeps the listeners ear focused, and helps us know where we are at.
Well, Danny Elfman is breaking that rule. He’s using chords that are… in a way, kinda WRONG. He’s jumping outside of the key and using chords that aren’t in the formula. Those chords TRICK our ears.
Now, I used to argue with my music theory teachers that there’s really no such thing as KEYS, and you can move to any chord you want to without justifying it. Still, since most popular music we hear is written in a “key signature” it’s a useful tool or MAP for understanding what the heck is happening.
Anyway, there are 6 chords here in Danny Elfman’s Mini B Section, and they go:
Cm – G – Ab – G – Db – G
Which would be:
i – V – bVI – V – bII – V
So let’s look closer at these.
The Cm and the G major are in the key. But that Ab major breaks the rules, in a small way.
For the musicians out there, the notes in the Ab major chord are Ab – C – Eb. Because an Ab major is in the C NATURAL minor key. But right next to it we have a G major, which is in… C MELODIC minor. So you could argue he’s kind of changing keys here, or simply switching between which version of C minor he is adhering to. HOWEVER: this is not an unusual move in classical music, either. It’s still all pretty much by-the-book.
When we FINALLY hear the big Danny Elfman moment, its that Db major chord. It sounds VERY out of place, almost otherworldly.
That flat supertonic major chord REALLY jumps out because first of all, the Db note isn’t in the key of C natural minor.
Remember, the notes of C natural minor are:
C – D – Eb – F – G – Ab – Bb
And that Db major chord would use the notes: Db – F – Ab.
That Db would be a b2.
For the musicians out there, it COULD be analyzed like this: Danny Elfman is grabbing that Db major chord from the… C Phrygian mode. Which is closely related to C natural minor. It’s only a one note difference.
And to go deeper into the confusion — that Ab major could be thought of as the I chord of Ab major, the C minor could be the iii mediant chord, and the Db is the IV chord. Which would make only the G major chord out of the key.
But in either case, one of the chords won’t belong in the key.
So back to thinking of this piece in C minor… that Db major chord is special because it is also… a TRITONE away from the G major chord. Which sounds especially magical and possibly evil. And very Danny Elfman.
By the way, for variety, he also uses some inversions to repeat the chord across two measures. And it is in 4/4 time again, as those violins climb up the scale, to draw it out.
A SECTION #1
NOW, we move on to A Section #1. I call this the A section because it has a CATCHY melody with the notes:
G – F – Eb – F – G – C – B
Over a C minor chord those scale degrees would be:
5 – 4 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 8 – 7
And that 7 or B note is played over the G major chord.
In this first A Section, the melody is given to the choir.
And that 4-bar melody repeats TWICE. Nothing unusual here.
At bar 26 of this whole piece… I think I hear what I am going to call a Mini-Stravinsky. Because unless I am wrong, he SEEMS to be using these TWO chords:
F MINOR to G MAJOR. But it also doesn’t come off as a hard cadence, so I’m assuming he’s using some inversions there. The contrabass pizzicato sounds strange, so I’ll leave that to the music nerds as extra credit.
And if I am correct, this is the chordal relationship you’ll find in his theme from the film Batman. And also Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite.
But these could all be considered fair game in the key of C minor. There is REALLY nothing unorthodox happening. It is very “tonal classical music.”
A SECTION #2
Then we move on to A Section #2. Now, the melody is given to the Oboe. And the choir sings counter-melodies. And as far as I can tell, it was simply a variation to continue the same basic idea. Theme and variation.
B SECTION
Now, at Measure 50: we have the B section. In which we get more rapid chord movement and non-diatonic chords. It sounds like this.
Cm – G – Ab – G – Fm – Db – G – Ab
Those would be:
i – V – bVI – V – iv – bII – V – bVI
C SECTION
At bar 66 we get a C section. And it is 8 bars long, changing chords each measure.
So the sequence of chords is:
Cm – G – Ab – Db – G – Db – G – Db
That’s a i – V – bVI – bII – V – bII – V – bII
And the most notable thing happening here is after the first three chords, Cm – G – Ab – we have a sequence of Db majors and G majors. Back and forth between those two.
Db – G – Db – G – Db
Now why are those notable? First of all, because they are two major chords a tritone apart. Which we always like to hear.
Second, because over that Db major, the melody is playing the notes G and F. Which would be the #4 and 3, creating a LYDIAN sound. Yet another modal shift by Danny Elfman. And Lydian is a mode he uses often. For extra credit, check out the theme from The Simpsons.
Anyway, he repeats those notes G and F in the melody over the next chord, but they become the 1 and the b7 over G.
Then, over the next Db major, he climbs up 3 – #4 – 5, staying with the Lydian sound.
And over the next two bars it’s another G and Db with a crescendo into The Outro.
OUTRO
Now for the Outro he returns to a version of the A Section.
BUT, he now seems to have instantly MODULATED to the key of F MINOR. Using the chords F minor and C major. He’s taken the same idea from the previous A section… and moved it to a new key.
BUT this is what freaks me out. He cleverly FLIPS it around somehow, and RESOLVES to the C major chord at the end. Which should be the V chord in F minor.
SO he makes that F minor sound like a iv chord in the key of C major. And the C major now sounds like the TONIC chord. This is one of the most baffling things in the piece. I truly do NOT understand how that’s happening. I’ve listened to it over and over, and it should not happen. But it does.
Okay than, I will let everyone know.
By the way, if we consider this whole piece to be in the key of C minor… that final chord would be called a PICARDY THIRD, which is when you end a minor key piece on a major chord. It is a brighter, happier sound.
At the end of the film, and coincidentally at the end of the musical score, there’s a track that is for some reason called The End. And it coincidentally plays under the End Credits. And it’s an expanded version of this Main Titles cue. Lots of fun theme-and-variation stuff happening.
So, to sum it up. Why does Danny Elfman’s Edward Scissorhands sound spooky and dark and magical?
1 – His choice of instrumentation. Celesta is considered a spooky instrument, and its bell-like quality is also reminiscent of Christmas. So why not a SPOOKY CHRISTMAS? And hey, choirs can be pretty spooky.
2 – Use of a minor key, which we associate with darkness or sadness.
3 – The 3/4 time signature which reminds us of a European dance.
4 – Chords that are outside of the key, for surprise. Specifically, a chord that is a tritone leap away, which can sound otherworldly or evil or magical, depending on the context.
If someone were to ask me to compose a piece of music that sounds like Edward Scissorhands, these are the sorts of things I would be looking at closely.
I recommend you give this entire score a listen, and I will put a link to it in the show notes.
And now, let’s move on to the Analytical Film Analysis of the Week!
FILM ANALYSIS: EDWARD SCISSORHANDS (1990)
This week for the Analytical Film Analysis of the Week, we have a decent pairing. We’re going to examine an unrelated film ALSO called Edward Scissorhands from 1990. Directored by Tim Burton, whose birthday is the day before mine. And that explains how he had such a head start.
The film was screenwrited by Caroline Thompson. She also applied her screenwritering talents to the films Corpse Bride, Addams Family, and Nightmare Before Christmas. Two of those being directored by Tim Burton.
I’m going to focus on the film from a screenwriting perspective. Now what do I mean by that?
A screenplay, also called a script, is more than just the dialogue. The actors don’t just show up with their lines memorized and make everything else up. It’s the screenwriter’s job to invent the movie. The theme, the plot, the characters, the setups and payoffs, the surprises, the conflicts, the locations, the world. It’s broken down into acts, it’s expected to follow a standard formula and pacing, and everything important to the story SHOULD be there.
So when I say screenwriting, I’m referring to all of that. And even though I’m not working FROM the original screenplay, I’m going to look at it mostly from the perspective of a screenwriter. Er.
So here we go:
First up, I wonder if those opening titles were edited to the music. Because there are fast flashes of cookie cutter shapes in sync with the pizzicato strings. It would have been tricky back then to sync up the tempo and pizzicato strings with those exact frames. Would have been so much easier the other way around.
Now what we have here at the beginning is called a Frame Story. Remember The Princess Bride? It’s a story TOLD BY the person inside the story. In this case, it’s an old woman putting her grand-daughter to bed. And the old woman, spoiler alert, is Winona Ryder.
So I wonder, who did she end up marrying from the little town, and having a child with, who had another child? Did she eventually get back together with that macho loser played by Anthony Michael Hall?
We get a good “once upon a time SETUP” question from the little girl. She asks, “where does snow come from?” And the grandmother has a VERY long story to explain it. This is all a straight up Fairy Tale, much like The Nutcracker, a ballet by Tchaikovsky. Here’s some trivia: The Nutcracker was based on another story 1816 called The Nutcracker and The Mouse King. It’s all perfect for a psychedelic Christmas.
Now back to our film. Edward lives alone in a spooky castle, on the edge of what we’ll call “Normal Town.” And down in Normal Town everything is PASTEL colors. And that sets up the contrast of the extremes. We’ve got this single weirdo goth kid, and we put him where he doesn’t belong. Around a bunch of bright colors and housewives.
These extreme contrasts can also be found in David Lynch films. The pairing of a normal everyday small town… and something very dark. Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet come to mind. And by the way, some of the shots in Edward Scissorhands are very David Lynch. For instance, when the lady with huge 80s hair sits down on her couch and dials the phone, in that 70s living room.
Regarding Normal Town, my first thought was: this looks a lot like the neighborhoods in Florida. The houses, the lawns. And sure enough, that’s exactly where it was filmed. About an hour from where I grew up.
But according to the internet, Tim Burton meant for it to look like Burbank, where HE grew up. And it kind of does? The main difference is that Burbank has those iconic TREES all along the sides of the street. Normal Town in Edward Scissorhands does NOT have those Burbank trees. Which are iconic from so many movies.
It was convenient that Edward was taken in by an Avon Lady. Because of his pale complexion and scars. It was the perfect setup for gags between the two of them. But being an Avon Lady is also a good small-town American relatable thing.
She has an obliviousness, which mirrors Edward’s. Both of them don’t seem to truly understand the people around them. She’s eccentric enough herself to not be phased much by the creepy castle or the scissors.
And the neighbors in Normal Town are possibly just as horrified by the Avon Lady as they would be by Edward. Like, oh no, here she comes again. Some of the kids even TEASE her.
And oddly enough, they seem to like Edward MORE than they like her.
At about 37 minutes into this film, I realized: There is very little plot or even much drama. Once Edward was brought to her house, the story kind of flatlined.
Think about it. Aside from the Religious Lady who only makes brief appearances, no one has goals or wants. It’s a stable situation. There’s no plan. No forward motion. That’s fine. I’ll keep watching.
Something I noticed, when the van full of kids stop to let Winona Ryder out: isn’t that a bizarre place to stop? It’s right in the middle of the street, nowhere near the curb. Okay than. I will let everyone know. If I recall, more than one car parks like that. Was that an intentional Tim Burton demand, or some sort of behind the scenes technical problem they had? We don’t know yet.
Regarding Winona Ryder’s character: It was a good move to have her wear a blonde wig. First of all, because she represents a typical cheerleader. Second, to create CONTRAST against Edward. In the final scenes she even wears a white dress. So the pair could be so-called opposites. Light and dark.
I’m still watching. *And at 48 minutes in, that’s nearly an hour — there is still BARELY any conflict. Aside from Anthony Michael Hall not liking Edward, no one is trying to achieve anything. It’s just a series of… cute scenes? Yes, he has scissors for hands. He pops the water bed. He uses his scissors at the barbecue to Shish Kabob. He gives haircuts. We explore all the ways his scissor hands play out in everyday circumstances.
But an entire hour goes by before there is any real conflict or goals. Edward and the horny housewife DO decide to open a salon, which isn’t all that exciting.
BUT FINALLY there’s a burglary plot that Winona Ryder’s boyfriend comes up with. It creates drama, puts people at odds, and gives everyone something to disagree about.
Folks. Fooolks. I have to say it. Edward Scissorhands has an incredibly slow plot. That is, according to the standards of modern screenwriting. Name another movie where it takes an HOUR for the first major thing to go wrong.
But please remember, I consider myself a Plot Denier. I can watch a movie with ZERO plot, as long as it’s heavy on Character. But I only noticed the lack of plot here… because there wasn’t a lot of Character, either. At least not in the first hour. Act two was pretty lighthearted and conflict free. I would even say it was flat, in my own totally subjective opinion.
Now I’m not here to say whether the end result is good or bad, because a lot of people do LOVE this film. But that previous 40 minutes of Edward acting confused and doing landscaping COULD have been seriously condensed. And these days, it probably WOULD have been. At least by any screenwriting teacher or alpha nerd bully executive.
Here’s something I enjoyed: the symbolism of Edward’s clothing. He starts out dressed as himself, in that S&M suit. When he comes to Normal Town they put Normal Clothes OVER the suit. And slowly, as he devolves psychologically, those normal clothes get progressively shredded and torn. Until later in the film, he finally “loses it” and cuts them off. Returning to his original state as a social outcast.
Now what is this film really about? I think it’s about an artist who is rejected by society. But not because his art is bad — they actually love his art. It’s because he accidentally hurts people. So he ends up alone, in a castle, carving ice sculptures. Is that supposed to say artists should be alone?
But I’m wondering, how did he get those big blocks of ice up there? We don’t know yet. This could be another violation of Well’s Law. But then again, Edward Scissorhands is a fairy tale with a sad ending. And that’s all we need to know for now.
Since it’s a classic, and my mom says I used to look like Johnny Depp, I gave Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands 5/5 stars on Letterboxd.
END CREDITS
OK, that’s the end of this Episode of the Carl King Podcast. Remember to subscribe on Spotify, Apple, or anywhere else you listen to these dang podcasts. And support the creation of more episodes by joining my Patreon for $1 or $5 a month. That’s Patreon Dot Com Slash Carl King. Or send a tip through PayPal or Venmo to username CarlKingdom.
And as always, special thanks to my $51 a month Patrons, at the special Illusionist level, Chewbode and Hank Howard III. And thank you to ALL of the Very Good Friends of Carl King for listening, and as I always say: Okay Than. I will let everyone know.