With Thanksgiving around the corner and having been commissioned the design of an all new character for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, cinema mastermind, and fellow Englishman, Tim Burton recently said in a New York Times interview that:
“In England, they don’t really know about it,” he said of the Macy’s parade. “Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July are days of mourning in this country. They don’t pay attention to those things.”
That’s why I, personally, never watch the Parade. The only thing I’m thankful about Britain losing the North American Territory, is that we’re no longer responsible for putrid places, such as California. However, seeing as to how my dear friend Tim has graced the Parade with his genius work, I must be loyal, and in true English solidarity, tune in. With such a brilliant and endearing story as that of B. Boy, Tim’s new character’s name, one cannot help but want to watch it float up in the air.
According to an origin story dreamed up by Mr. Burton, B. was created, Frankenstein’s monster-style, from the leftover balloons used in children’s parties at the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. Forbidden from playing with other children because of his jagged teeth and crazy-quilt stitching, B. retreated to a basement lair, where he obsesses over Albert Lamorisse’s film “The Red Balloon” and dreams that he, too, will be able to fly someday.
I’m a big supporter of anything with the word “London” in it, and I’m a big supporter of Tim Burton’s work. If I could make any suggestion to Tim’s balloon, it would be to animate it, or possibly fill it with icy water and have it explode over New York City. That way all the happy Americans who are celebrating their Pilgrim-fest will get a little taste of what B. Boy had to endure in the humid streets of London. They’ll be thankful they’re free from us right then and there, won’t they? (But you’re not truly free, America. You just think you are.)