Edward Scissorhands (1991)

This lovely fable of being outcast from the world, told as a child's bedtime story, loses scope on the small screen. But it also gains: It becomes a miniature, as if its action were occurring inside a snow dome. That's fine too, since Edward Scissorhands proposes, in highly imaginative and moving terms, how snow came to be. Edward, played by Johnny Depp with great ingenuousness, is the classic outsider — an unfinished humanoid invention with scissors instead of hands. A gentle and clever antidote to the randomly slashing Freddy from Elm Street, the benign Edward, with his wild hair and black cherub lips, is brought down from his castle to suburbia by the universe's friendliest Avon lady (Dianne Wiest). Edward turns out to be the Leonardo da Vinci of hairdos — a true artist — but the ''normal'' world can only deal with him for so long, and his difference is soon seen as weird and unacceptable. Every kid alive ought to be able to identify. Directed by Tim Burton (Batman), this movie is simple, funny, gorgeous, sad, and sweet, perfect for playing over and over. A