Tim Burton

Best known for his dark, gothic and quirky fantasy films, such as Beetlejuice (1988), Edward Scissorhands (1990), The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Ed Wood (1994), the horror fantasy Sleepy Hollow (1999), and later efforts such as Corpse Bride (2005), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), Dark Shadows (2012) and Frankenweenie (2012).

At heart an animator, Tim Burton leaves an unmistakable stamp on all of his films. Extraordinary, intricate, and either beautiful or Gothically anti-beautiful production designs; intelligent and compelling and, yes, humorous storytelling; his films seem like he literally did everything himself. Still, they leave more than enough room for brilliant actors to add their own touches.

Tim Burton grew up in ’60s Burbank a block from a huge cemetery. The fact that that’s funny says it all. His taste for the macabre is obvious. His early childhood heroes included B-movie monster-makers and Vincent Price. A loner in school, he preferred to draw. Accepted into the Disney-funded Cal Arts (a classmate of Pixar’s John Lasseter), Burton stood out, and was hired by Disney as an animator.

Bored working on films such as Disney’s “The Fox and the Hound”, Burton was made a conceptual artist, where he contributed to “The Black Cauldron”. Still out of sync with his employer, Burton started working on his own projects, the animation shorts “Vincent” and “Frankenweenie”. Because the latter got a PG-rating, it couldn’t be released with other Disney fare and, except for a quick European tour, was shelved.

These “horror-film” shorts, though, got the attention of, among others, Stephen King. That, somehow, led to Paul Reubens, aka Pee Wee Herman, which led to Burton’s first big adventure, “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure”. Far exceeding box-office expectations and picking up critical accolades along the way, Burton was next offered “Beetlejuice”. Though it was supposed to be a dramatic horror film, Burton had the wisdom to let Michael Keaton vamp in his title role, turning it into a classic black comedy. Also, where “Pee Wee” wasn’t exactly overflowing with either quality actors or great performances, “Beetlejuice” had more than enough of both.

Proving that he could direct actors as well as visual effects, Burton was handed even more of both with “Batman”. Though everyone was concerned when he brought along Michael Keaton to play the title role, opposite no less than Jack Nicholson’s Joker, the choice was a canny bit of casting. Not only did Keaton bring dimension to the Dark Knight, Burton’s vision was grounded enough to offset and enhance Jacks macabre silliness. Again garnering critical raves from a summer box-office extravaganza ostensibly directed to kids, Burton reached the call-your-own-shots level, which he used (but certainly didn’t use up) on his own story, “Edward Scissorhands”.

Starring Johnny Depp, his alter ego, the allegorical film takes on many themes, not the least of which is an aborted father-son relationship. Burton admits on the “Big Fish” DVD to not having the best of relationships with his then-deceased father. It is at least one of the themes that unites three of his best films, “Big Fish”, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, and “Edward Scissorhands”. It is also evident in his “Batman” films, and even in Ed Wood seeking out Bela Lugosi as a father figure.

Returning to his favorite medium, stop-motion animation, Burton produced the classic “The Nightmare Before Christmas” in 1993, then meandered through the rest of the twentieth century with his idiosyncratic trio of “Ed Wood”, Mars Attacks!” and “Sleepy Hollow”.

Not exactly going mainstream, Burton seemed to rid himself of enough closet skeletons in the new millennium to make in his last three films, two of his best: “Big Fish” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”. The notable musical “Corpse Bride” is a signature stop-motion achievement, which couldn’t help but be compared unfavorably to “Nightmare”, though it’s wickedly funny and both brilliantly and darkly realized.

And his next project? Perhaps the project he was born to direct: Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd”, starring, of course, Helena Bonham Carter and Johnny Depp. Tim Burton will not stray from his boyhood cemetery for too many moons at a time.

— Nate Lee