Vincent (1982) – Tim Burton’s First Film

Tim Burton’s First Film!

Vincent is a 1982 stop motion short horror film written, designed and directed by Tim Burton, and produced by Rick Heinrichs. It is the second Disney horror film, the first being The Watcher in the Woods.

Vincent is the poetry story of a 7-year-old boy, Vincent Malloy, who pretends to be like the actor Vincent Price (who narrates the film). He does experiments on his dog Abercrombie in order to create a horrible ravenous Zombie dog. He is obsessed with the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and it is his detachment from reality when reading them that leads to his delusions that he is in fact a tortured artist, deprived of the woman he loves, mirroring certain parts of Poe’s “The Raven”. The film ends with Vincent feeling terrified of being tortured by the going-ons of his make-believe world, quoting “The Raven” as he falls to the floor in frailty, believing himself to be dead.

The film was narrated by Burton’s childhood idol, Vincent Price, and marked the beginning of a friendship between them that lasted until Price’s death in 1993. Burton credits the experience as one of the most shaping experiences of his life

Won the Critics’ Prize at the Annecy Film Festival in France.

Directed by: Tim Burton