Color

Color is used in the opening sequence to give a sense of abandonment and loneliness to the opening. A blue filter is used in all frames throughout the opening sequence, usually showing blue objects on a black background. This is particularly effective as blue is a color generally associated with sadness, and so it serves to expand on the emotions created by other aspects of the opening.

In particular, the way that the blue filter affects the way objects are represented is very effective. Cookies, something usually associated with warmth and friendliness, suddenly appear to represent loneliness and lost childhood when shown in blue.

The same effect is used with other objects such as hands, which are another symbol generally associated with life and warmth. When shown in blue, they represent death and the isolation and loss Edward feels at the death of the inventor. They also represent his longing to have hands of his own, and the way he is now different to everyone else. This is effective in putting the viewer in the right mindset for the rest of the film by showing them that many objects that generally have positive connotations can be negative too.

The use of the blue filter also relates to snow which is a recurring icon throughout the film. The snow represents Edward's love for, and his capacity to understand, beauty, even though he himself is seen as a monster by the townspeople. This is seen especially in one of the film's most iconic scenes, where Kim dances in the snow as Edward carves an ice sculpture of her. This scene represents Edward's final moment of innocence and purity before the townspeople turn on him. In this way, snow is also used to reprent Edward's innocence, and the loss of it. This is important to the main themes of the film and the use of cold colors relating to the snow helps to reinforce this.

The use of a blue filter creates meaning in the film opening by reinforcing the themes of the movie's narrative and dictating the viewer's emotional response to the film. By using a muted palette of cold colors, Tim Burton has effectively told the viewer that Edward Scissorhands is a film which deals a lot with loneliness, rejection, isolation and abandonment. These themes are revisited many times throughout the film; through the loss of the inventor and Edward's abandonment issues stemming from this, Edward's rejection by the townspeople for his differences to them, and his eventual isolation from society when he chooses to fake his own death and live out his life in solitude rather than deal with the pain of rejection. The use of color is important in achieving this because the human mind automatically associates different colors with different emotions. Therefore, using only blue, black and white colors is a simple yet effective way to set the tone in the film without distracting attention from the movie's titles. Tim Burton also uses this technique in some of his other films, most notable in The Nightmare Before Christmas, where Burton uses different color palettes to differentiate between the warmth and happiness of Christmas Town and the dreary, depressing mood of Halloween Town, similar to the way color is used to underline the mood in Edward Scissorhands.