From the outlandish and brilliant director of "Beetlejuice" and "Batman"

comes the touchingly funny, slightly off-the-wall fairy tale, "Edward Scissorhands." Tim Burton brings to the screen a delightful take-off of Shelley's Frankenstein and creates the "monster" from the heart of a cookie, thus making him sweet and vulnerable.

Vincent Price makes a cameo appearance as the inventor, whose main purpose in life is to be good. His creation, Edward, portrayed superbly by Johnny Depp ("21 Jump Street"), is the epitome of all the good that is in the hearts of all little children's imaginations. Price teaches Edward etiquette and reads him poetry, but, alas, as the final time draws near for Edward's scissor hands to be replaced by real hands, the inventor dies, and Edward is left to fend for himself.

He is discovered by the sticky-sweet Mrs. Ladd, played by Dianne Wiest, ("Parenthood"), the local neighborhood Avon lady, who decides that she will take Edward home with her. Edward becomes the neighborhood sweetheart, trimming bushes into dancers, swans and family portraits, grooming dogs, and being the Vidal Sassoon of the housewives.

Naive Edward falls in love with Ladd's daughter, played by Winona Ryder ("Heathers," "Great Balls of Fire") who is an authentically typical All-American cheerleading teenager. Anthony Michael Hall makes his first appearance since "Out of Bounds" as Ryder's neurotically possessive rich boyfriend.

As the tale is told by now-grandmother Ryder to her granddaughter (the entire movie is seen through the little girl's imagination), "Scissorhands" is a convincing fairy tale. However, I did find fault in the way conflict was resolved: through death. Burton could have tried to alleviate the problems created by the climax of the movie (when all has gone awry and aloof Edward is mistaken for a robber and molester). But the problems just kept on mounting, and finally could only be resolved with death.

On the whole, however, I found "Edward Scissorhands" to be a delightful movie. It is a perfect film to see with a date or friends, but I would not recommend it to little ones: the violence does get a little out of hand in a few scenes. Grade: B