The
short film by the
godlike Tim Burton used
stop-motion animation and
cel animation, much like
the Nightmare Before Christmas would twelve years later. In another Nightmare Before Christmas precursor, Vincent's gothic imaginary world appears in black and white, rather reminiscent of
Halloweentown. There is no dialogue; instead, a
poem written by Burton is read (by
Vincent Price!) over the animation. The film is available on the
special edition DVD of Nightmare... Here is the complete text of the poem.
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 cat,
Though he'd rather share a house 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.
Then he and his horrible zombie-dog,
Could go searching for victims in the
London Fog.
He thoughts though aren't only of
goulish crime,
He likes to paint and read to pass some of the time.
While other kids read books like "
Go, Jane, Go,"
Vincent's favorite 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 sent to the
Tower of Doom,
Where he was to spend the rest of his life,
Alone with the portrait of his beautiful wife.
All alone and
insane, encased in his tomb,
Vincent's mother burst suddenly into the room.
She said, "If you want, 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'm 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 the hall,
While Vincent backed slowly against the wall.
The room started to sway, to shiver and creak,
His horrid insanity had reached it's peak!
He saw Abercrombie, his zombie slave,
And heard his wife call from
beyond the grave!
She spoke from her coffin and made goulish 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!"
P.S. This was all hand-transcribed, as I've never found a published copy of the poem. If any noders know where I can find one, please /msg me, as I'd dearly love to check my linebreaks. Thanks