Tim Burton's Franken-balloon to debut at NY parade

[October 22, 2011]  NEW YORK (AP) -- Filmmaker Tim Burton has designed a floating freak show of a balloon for this year's family-friendly Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City.

With pointed teeth and jagged stitching across his face, B. is the Frankenstein of balloons.

A Burton-created backstory distributed by Macy's says the balloon boy was "stitched together from rejects of old birthday party balloons." The parties were thrown for children at a London hospital. But B. wasn't allowed to join in the fun. Instead he watched the French short film "The Red Balloon" repeatedly.

B.'s only dream was to fly and make a child happy -- just like in that movie.

Now B. will get his chance at November's parade through Manhattan.

Burton has directed several films, including "Edward Scissorhands," "Alice in Wonderland" and "The Nightmare Before Christmas."

[Associated Press]

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