Edward Scissorhands is one of the maestro's earlier, hugely thematic and emotional scores. This is one of the most dazzling and pretty film scores of [fairly] recent years, touching in its gentleness, and haunting in its dreamy, fairy tale atmosphere, and certainly Elfman's most sincere and powerful work thus far. Although many fantasy-themed scores are enjoyable and fun to listen to, Edward Scissorhands takes a step further with its pure emotional power. To listen to it is to be swept away into Edward's bittersweet world. I would find it hard to believe that this world would effectively move the audience it is shown to without the beauty and elegance of Elfman's work.

The soundtrack release is done about as perfectly as possible. It is set up in the same way that the movie is, rather than having all of the cues out of order, they are all placed in chronological order to tell the story itself through music. And I've rarely come across any score that can convey the story so well through the music alone, but ES does it. Basically, it sets up the general mood with Edward's own music box-like theme and continues on with the story, introducing and developing a theme of love for Edward and Winona Ryder's character. To reflect the film, about midway through, the score becomes much more menacing as the world proves to be less accepting of Edward than previously thought. The climax, "The Grande Finale" is probably tied with "Descent into Mystery" from Batman as my favorite Elfman cue. It presents an incredibly sweeping version of the love theme that would break most people's hearts. Very touching.