TIM BURTON - THE MADDENING CREATIVITY & SUCCESS OF TIM BURTON
by Minwa
There are a number of directors known for their eccentric, spooky, horror-inspired style: Guillermo Del Toro, David Lynch, David Cronenberg, and Sam Raimi, to list a few… but undoubtedly, the most well-known director among the list of names you’d find, and perhaps the first person most people would think of, is Tim Burton.
In this day and age, if anyone has even the slightest interest in film, it’d be impossible not to know Tim Burton. His style is so distinctive and popular, that I don't even need to describe it for you, the reader, to picture it - imagery fitting the words “dark”, “creepy”, and “gothic” immediately in your mind, right?. Said pictures are most likely in a monochrome, dark-toned color palette that he favors in most of his films, defining the story he’s telling with a signature style. The characters and worlds he captures almost look like the illustrations of too-creepy fairy tale books come to life, with an abundance of surreal, fantasy, and magical realism components and aesthetics constructed by exaggerated, frightening character and set designs and shots that emphasize shadows and lighting, even in animation, perfectly setting the scene of his stories, whether they’re creepy stories or not. His style is simply unique, unmatched, cohesive, and without a doubt distinctive across his large and varied filmography. As such, though he’s unfairly not held in the same esteem by cinephiles, Burton can without a doubt be considered a modern auteur. Yes, the genius of his creepy character designs and sets can and should be attributed to the team he works with, but they are under the direction of well, the director. And no matter the genre or the story he’s telling, the cast and crew he employs, or the themes and inspirations he deals with - the one constant is him, tying everything together and making everything his own. It’s something that can only be said for a handful of filmmakers, and Burton should be held in as much esteem as his peers.
But beyond his visual style, there are far more reasons why Tim Burton’s films are so popular.
Though it might not seem like it at first due to the boldness of his style, Burton’s films are extremely personal for your typical blockbuster or fantasy film, in that his films are personal to both him and the characters. Burton’s characters are usually lonely outcasts - whether it’s a character who doesn’t fit in with the world around them or within their own lives - and it is mostly a reflection of how Tim Burton felt as a kid growing up in the suburbs of Burbank, California, which he described as “growing up on an empty canvas” where he was “forced to create his own world”. This served as inspiration for his characters and the themes of loneliness across his films - in turn, the stories he was drawn to and later chose to tell mostly feature characters who are alienated outsiders as well, also featuring a stark contrast between mundanity, normality, and everydayness, against their imaginative journeys and worlds. Disregarding the heart of his films and stories or claiming him to be “superficial” for his iconic style. would be doing Burton and his films a disservice, ignoring all of the heart and lessons that many resonate with. Big Fish is a heart-touching film about the turbulent relationship between a man and his father. Edward Scissorhands is about the conforming pressures of society. Ed Wood and Big Eyes tell the story of a struggling, passionate artist. Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children is about a safe haven for alienated children. Burton even went out of his way to add backstories and depth to his adaptations of childhood classics, Alice in Wonderland and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
That’s why it comes as no surprise that most people tend to gravitate towards Burton’s films during their teenage years, watching and appreciating them more than they ever could before and after those formative years. As teenagers, we face those internal struggles more than we would later on in our lives. We’re almost forced to grow up and neglect our inner child for the first time and conform to society’s expectations, the world bursting our little bubbles and forcing us to study, think of a career, and look to the future, perhaps even before we’re ready to do so. And through it all, we’re still discovering ourselves as people for the first time as well, as our experiences help us figure out how we see the world…. It’s a lot to handle, and most teenagers struggle. But while the world starts forcing us to grow up, Burton goes against everything we’re taught or expected to do. Not only do we see ourselves and our struggles reflected back at us, he reminds usof our inner child and that it’s okay to color outside the lines, think unconventionally, and see the world as our playground or as he describes it, a canvas, rather than a prison…. It’s a truly artistic and creative vision that inspires us all to see ourselves as the artists of our own lives.
Burton does so through his genius adaptation and interpretations of classic stories. A lifelong fan of monsters and horror flicks - which often featured alienated and lonely monsters that crept into his work later on - it was only natural that he’d pull from works he held so dearly and develop his own take on them later on in his career, and Burton didn’t shy away from doing so more than once and playing around with the material to make it his own. The best examples would be Edward Scissorhands (1990), and the animated film Frankenweenie (2012) which are both his interpretations of the gothic novel and sci-fi film, Frankenstein. Both films are loosely based on the same source material, but are entirely Burton’s, entirely different, and are almost considered original. As mentioned, he isn’t afraid to “color outside the lines” and experiment, and the same can be said for his use of “genre”. Though his inspirations mainly derived from the horror, sci-fi, and fantasy genres, Burton himself never set out to make a “genre film” - none of his films could be labeled under a single genre, as he masterfully blends elements of fantasy, sci-fi, comedy, horror, action, and family… to name a few. He doesn’t fit into any box except his own.
Looking solely at the themes he touches on and his “dark” visual aesthetic, one might get the impression that Burton’s films are “heavy”, upsetting, or just alot to take in. But Burton’s balance of the light and dark can not only be said for his color palettes and visuals, but for the stories as well. Achieving the goal of connecting with our inner child and inspiring people worldwide would need just as much light and optimsitm as it does the dark and the gritty. And Tim Burton’s films are just as happy and optimistic as they are dark and grim. The gothic, dark components that make up so many of his films are offset by happiness, a sense of child-like wonder and whimsy.
Despite its gore, Sweeny Todd still has all the joy of your typical musical. Willy Wonka’s factory still is the most colorful, Candyland-like utopia many people would love to visit (fatalities aside). Beetlejuice ends in an unforgettable dance number. Corpse Bride has Burton’s own version of a “happily ever after wedding”. That duality is something that many are able to recognize, connect with, and thus appreciate. It reminds us of the balance of good and evil in this world, as well as acting as a callback to many of the “original” fairy tales that we read as kids that Burton was inspired by as well (and that companies like Disney wiped clean with their adaptations). It is why his films feel familiar and nostalgic, even if you’re watching them for the first time…
“One person's craziness is another person's reality.”
- Tim Burton
Some may consider Burton to have been in somewhat of a decline in recent years, with his last notable film being 2014’s Big Eyes. It’s true that Burton’s films may not be as they once were, but the same thing can be said for the cinematic landscape, which has changed drastically in that timeframe, as did Disney, the studio he worked with often. Burton has recently expressed a disinterest in continuing his working relationship with the company, which he has described as becoming “very homogenized, very consolidated”. It could be that the director is re-navigating where he stands in this modern landscape, as his next project - a television series centered around The Addams Family’s Wednesday - is set to be released on Netflix, which has undoubtedly given filmmakers more creative freedom.
Whether his films appeal to you or not, Tim Burton leaves a touch of undeniable magic in his works, and we will always be looking forward to watching his films during the Halloween season, and whatever he has in store in the future. His next project, Wednesday, a series surrounding the iconic character from the Addams Family, hits Netflix on November 23, 2022.
What’s your favorite Tim Burton film?