The Evolution of Candyman (Animated)
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Born the son of a slave, Daniel Robitaille – a renowned artist – fell in love with and impregnated his subject, Caroline. When her father found out, he hired a lynch mob to beat Daniel, slice off his right hand and cover him in honey, giving him his titular name – Candyman – he was then stung to death by bees. Now, whenever his name is spoken 5 times into a mirror, his ghostly apparition violently appears! This is the Evolution of Candyman’s looks and lore...animated!
warning: spoilers ahead!In the first film, Candyman (1992), Candyman sports a white dress-shirt, matching neck scarf, checkered pants, and his signature bulky trench-coat with fuzzy brown collar and cuffs. Where his right hand used to be now sits a nailed in hook, and that same arm appears strangely long. He has the power of levitation, can exude bees from his various orifices, and also has a Dracula-like trance power.
He’s called on by grad student Helen Lyle – who may or may not be his past-lover reincarnated, but nonetheless, he proceeds to hypnotize her and kill her associates. Eventually, he kidnaps a baby to lure Helen in hopes that she’ll join him in legend, but she instead stabs him with a fire-y stake, which explodes him into bees, allowing Helen to save the baby, although she too succumbs to the fire. But she, like Candyman, can also now reappear as an apparition, with a burned head, red lips, a white hospital gown, and she's holding Candyman’s hook – essentially making her: The CandyWoman.
In Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh, Candyman’s dress shirt and scarf are now blue, his pants darker, his trench coat is less bulky with an added shoulder covering and the collar and cuffs are no longer puffy. This time, he’s summoned by his great-great-granddaughter, Annie, who he foolishly shows in flashbacks that his soul was apparently imprinted on a mirror prior to his death, and to destroy it would kill him, so she smashes the mirror which shatters him like glass.
In Candyman 3: Day of the Dead, Candyman’s coat reincorporates the puffy cuffs and collar, is double breasted, and lacks the shoulder coverings, while his dress shirt is lighter, his neck piece is darker and his hook is more angular. In this film, his great-great-great-granddaughter, Caroline, stupidly summons him – but when she destroys his self-portrait he sets ablaze and explodes – because apparently evil needs good to exist, and his paintings were his good – or whatever, this makes no sense, so moving on.
Ignoring all the previous sequel’s events, the latest film, Candyman (2021), introduces a new Candyman, Sherman Fields. He wears a yellow trench coat with a puffy white lapel, beige pants, and he has a prosthetic split hook hand. Sherman, when alive, gave out candy to local children, but he was falsely accused of adding razor blades to the candy and then beaten to death by the police. Now – when undead – he appears battered and has a more classic-looking hook.
In this film, Anthony McCoy – the baby from the first film – now an artist himself, becomes obsessed with Candyman’s history and summons him, but after being stung by a bee, a honeycomb-like rash crawls up his body, his right eye appears cloudy, and he becomes nearly catatonic, allowing a Candyman believer to chop off his hand, and replace it with a hook. This Anthony-Candyman wears an artist’s jumpsuit and a plaid trench coat. After he's wrongfully shot down by the police, his girlfriend summons him the usual way and the now undead Anthony takes revenge on the racist cops – turning him into a more superhero-like Candyman for the black community.
Notably, his reflection sometimes appears as other unseen Candymen and he can also shape-shift into Daniel Robitaille. But either way you slice it, all of these Candymen are much different than the original novella that describes him as a disheveled man with yellowish skin, which would probably work much better for a Simpson parody.
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