Welcome to the final installment of “The Price May Be Right!” I’ve been counting down My Top 31 Favorite Vincent Price Performances & Appearances! The countdown has covered movies, TV productions, and many more forms of media…and now, it’s time for the finale. My All-Time Favorite Vincent Price Performance!
NUMBER ONE IS…Tim Burton’s “Vincent.”
If you haven’t seen this short stop-motion film, you should. It’s interesting and important for a LOT of reasons. This short film was the official cinematic debut of Tim Burton; at the time, Burton was working as a concept artist and in-betweener for the Disney studios. While his work was never really used, some people on the administrative staff felt there was potential in the young animator, and decided to throw him a bone, so to speak, and see what he could do. This led to the production of a simple six-minute animated piece entitled “Vincent,” based on a poem Burton had written.
“Vincent” is a strange piece, in that it is both very simple and very ambiguous. The poem tells the story of a young lad named Vincent Malloy: “for a boy his age, he’s considerate and nice…but he wants to be just like Vincent Price.” The youth imagines himself as a mad scientist, going on dark adventures inspired by multiple Vincent Price movies, including “House of Usher,” “Pit and the Pendulum,” and “House of Wax.” It seems to be a humorously Gothic piece…up until the ending. I won’t give away what the ending is, but it’s a very odd and unusual way for the story to end, as you can’t really tell what’s going on. But that’s also part of what makes it so impactful: it leaves things open to interpretation, and any answer you come up with is interesting.
Burton was – and still is – a lifelong fan of Vincent Price. The poem, and the short, were a tribute to the actor and his career. It was fitting, therefore, that Price himself be asked to perform the reading of the poem, as narrator for the short. Price said that the short was one of the greatest tributes he ever received as a performer, and that the experience was “gratifying” beyond compare: “It was immortality – better than a star on Hollywood Boulevard!” (It should be noted that Price had no less than TWO stars on Hollywood Boulevard, so that is saying a lot.) It might seem odd that I’d place something like this at number one, but for me, “Vincent” is just something so rare and beautiful: it’s a tribute to a great actor being performed BY that same actor, and it’s something that feels deeply personal to all parties involved as a result.
Tim Burton made no secret of the fact that the character of Vincent Malloy was sort of meant to be a stand-in for himself, to the point where the character is actually meant to resemble both Burton and Vincent Price put together. However, I’m tempted to say Vincent must have seen something of himself as a child in the character. Even if he did not, you can feel the honesty in his performance of the narration, as his own sense of sardonic with and dark elegance permeates every frame. And the fact it was something so intrinsically connected to his life and his work only adds to the power of the result. Like the short itself, the overall result is both humble and grandiose at the same time; something so simple and yet so complex to describe.
Bottom line…for me, “Vincent” is SYNONYMOUS with Vincent Price: when I think of one, I think of the other. That is all the reason I need to name this short subject as My Favorite Vincent Price Performance.
Thank you all for joining me! And Happy Birthday once again to the great Mr. Price! I hope that you, Peter Cushing, and Christopher Lee are having a blast putting on that marvelous mystery movie in the sky.
Free idea for animators that are more talented/experienced than I am:
Ever wish those stop-motion Barbie doll animations had lipsynching to go with all that scripted dialogue? How about adding a drawing layer and animating their faces to go with it? I've never tried it myself, but I think there's some potential there!
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