Edward Scissorhands: Critic Reviews

The romanticism has a personal dimension -- for Edward is, of course, Burton's surreal portrait of himself as an artist: a wounded child converting his private darkness into outlandish pop visions. Like Edward, he finds the light.

Mr. Burton invests awe-inspiring ingenuity into the process of reinventing something very small.

Depp is perfectly cast, Burton builds a surrealistically funny cul-de-sac world, and there are some very funny performances from grownups Dianne Wiest, Kathy Baker and Alan Arkin.

Enchantment on the cutting edge, a dark yet heartfelt portrait of the artist as a young mannequin.

Burton has not yet found the storytelling and character-building strength to go along with his pictorial flair.

An original movie, though not Tim Burton's best.

A delightful and delicate comic fable.

The film has an unapologetically adolescent purity about it that transcends what would ordinarily be the shortcomings of its script.

Burton's richly entertaining update of the Frankenstein story is the year's most comic, romantic and haunting film fantasy.

...perhaps the cinema's most enchanting parable about the misunderstood and alienated artist.

... this sweet 1990 fantasy ... for the first time crystallized the latent themes in the director's work: the notion of the artist as outsider, of skills that make one special but at the same time different.

Visually, stylistically and emotionally stunning.

Fine performances all around, particularly from Depp and the immensely sympathetic Wiest.

It's visually pleasing and an easy film to like, even if it never gets out of shallow water as far as its story goes.

[Burton and Depp] seem to bring out the best in each other.

Burton's movies are fairytales for retarding evolution.

It remains curiously hollow.

His gothic tones always mask a feeling of wonder and an endearing love for everything that is possible in life and death

Burton's sweet Gothic fairy tale has lost none of its charm.

Johnny Depp and Tim Burton in magical collaboration.

A personal film for Tim Burton, which also serves as a parable about the artist as an outsider, this lovely fairytale began the long, fruitful collaboration with the endlessly versatile Johnny Depp.

Moody and bizarre modern fairytale that works on a number of levels.