Vincent Price, in his screen farewell, is an inventor whose near-human creation Johnny Depp—bearing shears as limbs—is brought into garish suburbia. Ryder is unexpectedly bewigged blonde as the popular girl who opts to be kind to the skittish soul. Borne of core concepts and inspirations Burton had nurtured since childhood and elaborated on by screenwriter Caroline Thompson, this remains one of the director’s most expressive and poignant works.