Tim Burton’s distinguishing use of color in films

Graphic by Chase Grivna

With Halloween approaching, there is truly no better way to get in the spirit than a spooky movie. Tim Burton is often regarded as one of the leading directors in this genre. 

Burton’s eccentric aesthetic provides nostalgia and perfectly encapsulates a late night in autumn. To fully capture the dark undertones within Burton’s films, color theory plays an essential role in developing the tone and characters. 

Color has been used to evoke human emotion in an attempt to sell an idea or product for what feels like forever. Companies utilize the psychology of colors in advertisements to subconsciously try and sell you products that you may not need.

Burton uses a similar idea with using colors to evoke emotion, which is what defines the signature aesthetic that Burton is known for and makes them so nostalgic.

One movie that I think displays this perfectly is “Edward Scissorhands”. The film follows the character Edward Scissorhands, played by Johnny Depp, who was created with scissors for hands and is brought to live with an average family.

When the neighborhood is first introduced, each house is a single pastel color with a very simple set design. The pastel colors are supposed to be calming and represent their simple life before Edward came to town.

The houses being one color is very interesting as they appear two-dimensional when first introduced, which can translate to how some of the people in the town come across as very shallow in the film. 

Edward’s house at the end of town opposes the standard with cool tones that are primarily grays and light blues. Cool toned colors can be used to set a melancholy tone and portray Edwards's loneliness in the beginning of the film. On the contrary, the front of his house has very vibrant gardens to represent Edward's creativity. 

Looking at Edward himself, he is a complex combination of black and white tones. Black can correlate with darkness and grief, but can also represent seriousness. White is often correlated with innocence and being “good”.

This combination represents how layered Edward’s character is. 

Throughout the film, we see a creative and sensitive side to the character that is presented in a very melancholy way. Looking at Winona Ryder’s character Kim who is Edward's love interest, her color palette  is much lighter with warm tones representing the comfort Edward finds in her. 

She wears a lot of pink and lighter toned colors that are often seen as more feminine and gentle, which lines up with Kim's personality traits shown in the film. She is a source of comfort for Edward and is very sensitive to helping him transition into his new life. 

Another movie that I think shows off Burton's use of color perfectly is "The Corpse Bride,” specifically through the color palettes of the characters. Victor and Emily are perfect examples of how color psychology can be used to portray characters in films. 

Emily, one of Burton's most iconic characters, is a dead bride who tries to marry a living Victor. The film starts with Victor who is planning to marry Victoria, a living girl, and accidentally enters the land of the dead where he finds Emily. 

One thing that makes Emily stick out so much is that she is entirely blue toned. The color blue can represent sadness and also trust, which shows Emily's loneliness in the film and why she wants to marry Victor. The blue tones can also be seen as Emily trying to build trust in Victor so he will marry her. 

Victor on the other hand is also black and white toned like Edward. This makes sense as Victor is a very layered character, we see his struggles with internal conflict between staying with Emily or going back home. 

The contrasting color in the story helps differentiate between the land of the living and the land of the dead. The land of the living is very similar to Victor's color tones with it being mostly neutral colors.

This use of color also represents a serious environment as Victor's parents are putting pressure on him to marry Victoria. Opposing this is the land of the dead, where it is mostly a very vibrant green, which can be associated with decay and sickness.  

Arguably, colors are the most pivotal component in a Tim Burton movie. The way the color schemes of a character can represent unspoken traits gives them greater depth.

This increases the connection that viewers feel with the characters and is often why so many people love Burton's films. It also gives a nostalgic feel when watching that keeps people tuning into Burton's films when autumn rolls around every year.