Siempre me han gustado los creadores que han sido capaces de ambientar universos paralelos e imaginarios realmente creibles y fascinantes. Entre ellos podríamos incluir a Genesis, de quien ya hemos hablado con detalle. También a Tim Burton, con ciertas atmósferas comunes en lo referente al toque "Lewis Carroll", victoriano y macabro en ocasiones con los anteriores y de quien ahora nos ocuparemos...
Bienvenidos al mundo de Tim Burton!
Erase una vez un chico de siete años cuya única obsesión era ser como Vincent Price...
Así comienza el primer corto de Tim Burton titulado sencillamente "Vincent", como una declaración de intenciones de lo que iba a ser su obra...
Se trata de un corto de seis minutos de animación con la técnica del stop-motion, con una bella y triste historia escrita en verso por el propio Tim y con una bella y melancólica música ambientando una iluminación oscura y tenebrosa, dando una atmósfera gótica y adecuada a la narración. El propio V.Price, con su inigualable y fascinante voz, accedió a ser el narrador de la historia.
Es la triste historia de un niño de 7 años, alter ego del propio Tim, que quiere ser como su ídolo, el actor de películas de terror (sobre todo de Edgar Allan Poe) Vincent Price. Mientras los niños de su edad juegan a juegos propios de su edad, Vincent tiene ensoñaciones y fantasea con mundos oscuros de fantasmas y monstruos de Poe...
El perro del niño se llama nada menos que "Abbercrombie" (!)...y lo quiere convertir en zombie...
Vincent Malloy is seven years old
He’s always polite and does what he’s told
For a boy his age, he’s considerate and nice
But he wants to be just like Vincent Price
He doesn’t mind living with his sister, dog and cats
Though he’d rather share a home with spiders and bats
There he could reflect on the horrors he’s invented
And wander dark hallways, alone and tormented
Vincent is nice when his aunt comes to see him
But imagines dipping her in wax for his wax museum
He likes to experiment on his dog Abercrombie
In the hopes of creating a horrible zombie
So he and his horrible zombie dog
Could go searching for victims in the London fog
His thoughts, though, aren’t only of ghoulish crimes
He likes to paint and read to pass some of the times
While other kids read books like Go, Jane, Go!
Vincent’s favourite author is Edgar Allen Poe
One night, while reading a gruesome tale
He read a passage that made him turn pale
Such horrible news he could not survive
For his beautiful wife had been buried alive!
He dug out her grave to make sure she was dead
Unaware that her grave was his mother’s flower bed
His mother sent Vincent off to his room
He knew he’d been banished to the tower of doom
Where he was sentenced to spend the rest of his life
Alone with the portrait of his beautiful wife
While alone and insane encased in his tomb
Vincent’s mother burst suddenly into the room
She said: “If you want to, you can go out and play
It’s sunny outside, and a beautiful day”
Vincent tried to talk, but he just couldn’t speak
The years of isolation had made him quite weak
So he took out some paper and scrawled with a pen:
“I am possessed by this house, and can never leave it again”
His mother said: “You’re not possessed, and you’re not almost dead
These games that you play are all in your head
You’re not Vincent Price, you’re Vincent Malloy
You’re not tormented or insane, you’re just a young boy
You’re seven years old and you are my son
I want you to get outside and have some real fun.
”Her anger now spent, she walked out through the hall
And while Vincent backed slowly against the wall
The room started to swell, to shiver and creak
His horrid insanity had reached its peak
He saw Abercrombie, his zombie slave
And heard his wife call from beyond the grave
She spoke from her coffin and made ghoulish demands
While, through cracking walls, reached skeleton hands
Every horror in his life that had crept through his dreams
Swept his mad laughter to terrified screams!
To escape the madness, he reached for the door
But fell limp and lifeless down on the floor
His voice was soft and very slow
As he quoted The Raven from Edgar Allen Poe:
“and my soul from out that shadow
that lies floating on the floor
shall be lifted?
Nevermore…”
Esta es la transcripción del poema completo que lee el propio Vincent Price en el corto de Tim Burton.
Podeis ver el corto en este enlace:
La ficha completa de la película:
