The Carnevalesque in Tim Burton’s Batman and Batman Returns

Abstract

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 The Ubiquitous Carnival in Tim Burton’s MoviesTim Burton’s cinematic work has been described with a wide array of adjectives and proven very resistant to categorizing and pigeonholing. However, there are certain qualities that can be found within most of his works. In fact, Burton’s movies often contain elements that are exuberantly colorful, gay, hallucinogenic, childlike and chaotic. Summarizing these elements best as carnevalesque, they can be found for example in Peewee Herman’s house, Charlie’s chocolate factory or the Penguin’s clownesque entourage. While at first sight these attributes only seem significant because of their stylistic and visual qualities, they carry in fact a much deeper meaning. The Russian philosopher and literary critic Mikhail Bakhtin analyzed in his book Rabelais and his World (1965) how the Renaissance’s carnival served as an opportunity for the inversion of the existing power hierarchy. Within the few days of carnival, the people from the lower classes were for once in power because they were able to dress up and to parody the official culture. Thus, carnival is characterized by «an attitude in which the high, the elevated, the official, even the sacred, is degraded and debased, but as a condition of popular renewal and regeneration». With respect to Burton’s work, the movies’ carnevalesque qualities seem to serve the function of renewal and regeneration as well. Especially – as will be shown henceforth – Batman and Batman Returns contain elements of the carnevalesque that carry the above mentioned political dimension. Thus, analyzing Batman and Batman Returns with Bakhtin’s concept, I will argue that the Joker’s, the Penguin’s, and Catwoman’s carnevalesque demeanor and antics all serve the purpose of inverting the existing power relations.