Tim Burton is making his Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade debut this year! The movie director has been asked to create a balloon for the famous parade. Burton has created a balloon called B. Boy, or B. for short, and a story behind the balloon for the parade. Macy’s said that Burton was on the top of their list of people they wanted to have involvement in the parade and knew he was a necessity to the parade after seeing his exhibit in the MoMA in 2010. Read more and see a pic of what the balloon design is after the jump.
“It’s such a surprise to be asked, and it was great,†Mr. Burton said in a telephone interview from London. “It’s such a surreal thing that you don’t even believe what you’re hearing. Somebody’s trying to play a joke on you or something. It had that kind of feeling.â€
Mr. Burton’s contribution to the Nov. 24 parade, a character called B. Boy (or B., for short), will float alongside the familiar faces of Garfield, Snoopy and Spider-Man.
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.“There’s always been something about balloons,†Mr. Burton said, by way of explaining his B. Boy character. “You see them deflated and you see them floating. There’s something quite beautiful and tragic and sad and buoyant and happy, all at the same time.â€
