Film Courage: Scott, why movies?
Scott Menzel:
Great question.
As someone who lived in a household that was very sports oriented growing up
I had a very big disconnect with my father because he always wanted me to play baseball or football
and I was always that quirky kid who liked to draw and sit down and watch Sesame Street.
Then I discovered movies, movies
were an escape. They made me forget about things that were going on in my home,
they made me escape into different worlds, they made me feel things, they inspired me.
I credit Tim Burton for why I do what I do today because yes I grew up watching Pee-Wee's Playhouse
but it wasn't until Peewee's Big Adventure and then Beetlejuice and Batman
that I really became obsessed with movies and my world changed entirely when I saw
Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas. That movie spoke to me on so many levels
and it made me love the gothic culture, it made me fall in love with stop-motion animation
but it opened my mind in such a way that I never quite experienced before.
I became so obsessed with this movie that I bought there was this art book that came out
from it and I would take it everywhere and I go to the dinner table. I had goes for the
the art book I would bring it into the bathroom. I was just obsessed with this book
so much so that it actually made me want to draw and there was a period of time in my
life where I actually thought I wanted to become an animator and I took animation classes because
of this book because of this movie and it really just made me fall in love with movies animation
and the entire thing as an art form what's the favorite scene from Nightmare Before Christmas
I mean it's right from the beginning I mean Nightmare Before Christmas
has such an iconic opening scene with the Patrick Stewart voice over this is halloween I mean all of
those characters coming to life whether it's Lock Shock and Barrel, Oogie Boogie Jack Skellington,
Sally all of them coming to life just I don't know this like warped kid like just was like inspired
almost the same way like you feel with Tim Burton's background right he was a weird recluse
he was like the social outcast and he just he drew these weird characters and these weird drawings
and everyone was kind of like what's up with you growing up and I was not a popular kid and
watching this movie I felt seen it was very weird because Jack Skellington in a weird way
lives in this world this halloween town but then he wants something more and
he wants to become Santa Claus he wants to he wants something different he yearns for change
and I think I resonated with that not really realizing it as a kid that
I wasn't like a lot of people my age and that I always wanted something different
I wanted to be viewed differently and this movie just spoke to me in a way that I really can't
describe what other movies have changed your life well in addition to Nightmare Before Christmas
there's been a lot of them that impacted me in different ways throughout the years
again I feel like the ultimate timber and fanboy here but
between Peewee's Big Adventure Beetlejuice Batman Batman Returns Ed Wood just movies that
just connect me and I again I it's about being an outsider struggling to fit in oh Edward
Scissorhands how can I forget about Edward Scissorhands outsiders trying to fit in in
this world and it's interesting thinking about this now because as an adult you reflect upon
that from a childhood perspective of being the kid who was bullied who was picked on who never
felt like he belonged and now being asked this I’m kind of like holy crap that's the reason why
I connected with these but as I kind of matured throughout the years comedies were things that I
always gravitated towards so I have my Tim Burton escape for the imagination but I love
comedies favorite comedies growing up definitely Mike Myers anything so I Married An Axe Murderer
Wayne's Worlds Austin Powers I don't care what anyone says all three of them I love gold member I
loved Fat Bastard I just loved what Mike Myers did and he was so a lot of people say he's very one
note but I just love that he had again this imagination of creating these different characters
and it was always a love of movies right like Austin Powers was a love of James Bond and all
the characters but it was like this this parody version of it and they were so extreme every
character was so silly and over the top whether it was Dr. Evil with the one million dollars
or Fat Bastard or gold member going so I like gold like I just really really love that and
Jim Carrey Jim Carrey is another one that talk about someone who I was obsessed with growing up
Ace Ventura The Mask and Dumb and Dumber coming out within a year span
man my I don't know how my mom and dad dealt with me growing up because
I just wanted to go to the movies and live there my entire life like I just
these these movies these characters just made me feel so alive and they were as I as I said
earlier they're just an escape you just you just you wanted to spend time they felt like friends
and I love things where I feel something right whether it's laughter or heart or a sense of like
leaving this world behind and going into another world that's really what connected to me and then
when I moved out here the first time I went to chapman university
and I did a tour a couple years prior and I saw my first indie movies and I’ll never forget it
because it was a back-to-back it went to I don't even remember I think it was the Laemmle on Sunset
Five like or now it's like the AMC Sunset Five but it was like a Laemmle Theater long time ago
they wouldn't let anyone under the age of 16 in that theater
and they showed all these great art house movies and I remember this so vividly because
I saw lost and delirious which was the first movie that I have ever watched that introduced me to
lesbian characters and I remember like seeing this love story and I never saw anything like it before
and I fell in love with the with Piper Peribo and she was so great in that film and it was very
poetic and I just loved it and then the following night I went back and I saw a Ghost World with
Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson very very early Scarlett Johansson and it just opened my eyes to
independent cinema because beforehand like I said earlier I’ve been watching all of this mainstream
stuff I grew up Mike Myers Jim Carrey Tim Burton and I was like these smaller movies and they were
just so incredibly inspiring and they opened the door to so many more so that's when I went
back and I started watching things like American Beauty and I became such an art house champion and
inspired me to go to Sundance and and do all these film festivals because wow there's other people
telling stories that aren't just Hollywood studios do you remember Jim Carrey In Living Color oh my
goodness Fire Marshall Bill of course yes yes yes oh let me show you something yeah yeah absolutely.