Tim Burton is a left-wing film director known for his dark humor and gothic themes. He began making films as a teenager and was hired by Disney after graduating from the California Institute of Arts. He directed cult classics like Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands, as well as commercially successful films like Batman and Charlie and The Chocolate Factory. His unique style includes animation and themes of death and incongruity. He often works with the same production team and actors, including Johnny Depp. His next project is a film remake of Sweeny Todd.
Tim Burton is one of Hollywood’s most left-wing film directors. His directing style emphasizes the dark side of human nature and a dark humor pervades his work. It’s impossible to watch a Tim Burton film without realizing you’ve entered a bizarre world created by Burton himself. Some of his films are received well, while others fail spectacularly. As a child of Hollywood, born in Burbank, California in 1958, he can be said to have turned his ears to Hollywood. His later films have proved commercially successful, but their gothic influence is markedly different from the traditionally glossy Hollywood productions.
Tim Burton expressed an early interest in campy horror films and began making his own films with Super 8 cameras as a teenager. He was interested in animation and was accepted as a student at the California Institute of Arts. Disney animators ran the courses, keeping Burton’s interest in animation fresh.
Disney immediately hired Tim Burton when he graduated from the institute. Burton’s style was out of step with Disney traditions regarding family films. Two animated shorts from Burton’s early work with Disney had limited release. The first work is the six-minute short film Vincent from 1982, which is a clay tribute to Vincent Price. The second, Frankeweenie is a thirty-minute short film about a boy who loses his dog and then attempts, Frankenstein-style, to bring it back to life.
Based on the second film, Peewee Herman asked Tim Burton to direct Peewee’s Big Adventure. The film was critically dismal, but enjoyed box office returns. 1988 saw the release of another cult classic, Beetlejuice, which featured a critically acclaimed performance by Michael Keaton. Batman followed in 1989, heavily emphasizing gothic themes. Danny Elfman has composed a dark and fitting score. It was one of Tim Burton’s most successful films. While Batman has had his share of critics, few criticize Jack Nicholson’s performance as the Joker. The Joker celebrates the evil and the perverse. Batman, played by Keaton, is dark, brooding, and while he ultimately succeeds in destroying the Joker, less fun to watch.
Edward Scissorhands, played by Johnny Depp in 1990, was also well received by critics. It’s a Pinocchio-style fairy tale, with a tragic ending. A boy with scissors for hands is injected into a very suburban world, and is first embraced but then chased away by the suburbans. Interestingly, the real ugliness of the film is not this bizarre boy with scissors for hands, but the boyfriend of the female lead, an athlete who does everything to hurt and destroy Edward.
1992 and 1993 saw the release of Batman 2 and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Nightmare on Elm Street was produced by Tim Burton and was his return to stop-motion animation. It is significant in its fantastic musical numbers written, composed and performed by Burton’s longtime partner in motion pictures, musician Danny Elfman.
Ed Wood is a 1994 biopic, again starring Depp, as the quirky director Ed Wood, who often loved cross-dressing. The film is shot in black and white and critics particularly praised the performances of Depp and Marin Landau. The film cannot be said to have found a very commercial audience, although Depp’s fans now consider it one of the best films of his career.
In the late nineties, Tim Burton released Mars Attacks! (1996) and Sleepy Hollow (1999), neither of which received much in the way of media attention or box office success. In 2001, Burton directed a remake of the sci-fi classic, Planet of the Apes, which was also largely unpopular with critics and fans.
Tim Burton’s breakout came in 2003 with Big Fish, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for the film. In 2005 both Corpse Bride, produced by Burton, and Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, directed by Burton were released. While much darker than classic Willy Wonka, Burton’s version is more faithful to his style and to Roald Dahl’s book.
Animation, dark colors and themes of misery, death and incongruity are the hallmarks of Tim Burton’s body of work. Like many directors who have a unique style, he has built a team of production, artistic colleagues and acting talent that he continues to work with. Burton’s next project, a film remake of Steven Sondheim’s musical Sweeny Todd, is a prime example of this, employing Johnny Depp and other colleagues from his previous projects.
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