Even from an early age, Tim Burton loved the macabre, a love that has given his films a unique aesthetic. As he grew up in Burbank, California, he differed from the typical child, who would love to play in the sun. Instead, he would spend his time visiting cemeteries and wax museums. Similarly, he enjoyed watching Hammer horror films and the like. By the time he was entering his teenage years, he had already begun to dabble in creating simple stop-motion films. When he attended the California Institute of the Arts, he channeled and refined his skills as he studied character animation.
To begin his professional career, Tim Burton joined Walt Disney Productions’ animation division as an animator’s apprentice. While he performed various roles, especially concept art for films like The Fox and the Hound and Black Cauldron. Unfortunately, Disney a mainly rejected his work on these films, leading to Burton feeling like he was not a proper fit for the studio. So, he turned his creative talents toward a break-out short film of his own, 1982’s Vincent. While Disney published his next short film, Frankenweenie, they promptly fired him.
Since Burton moved away from Disney, he made a name for himself as a successful writer, director, and character creator for multiple films. His films have even gained a word to describe their style, Burtonesque. Overall, his visual style takes queues from surrealist art to create an incredible gothic tone. In a large part, his films feature elements like angled buildings and architecture, which sets viewers on edge. While the subject is often macabre, it is also exceptionally beautiful. So, join us as we celebrate the best of Tim Burton’s films.
Presenting the top ten films from the twisted mind of Tim Burton
10. Mars Attacks!
When Topps created a series of science fiction trading cards, named Mars Attacks!, in 1962, few thought that the cards would translate to a feature film. While Science Fiction B-films from the 1950s influenced the various cards in the series, the complete story formed a tenuous backbone for any other media to work with. Additionally, these cards depicted gory scenes, like giant bugs gorging men and aliens shooting dogs. None of these scenes would have been appropriate for cinema in the 1960s.
Much changed by the time that Warner Brothers greenlit a Mars Attacks! with Tim Burton in the director’s seat. In 1993, Johnathan Gems presented his ideas for scripts based on either Dinosaurs Attack! or Mars Attacks! While Burton passed on creating a dinosaur film so soon after Jurassic Park, he felt that the science fiction cards offered an opportunity to pay homage to science fiction B-movies from the past. So, Burton helped Gems refine the screenplay for the film over twelve rewrites.
While the film featured several A-tier actors, like Glen Close, Danny DeVito, Michael J. Fox, and many more, one man stood out. Jack Nicholson appeared in the film not as just one character, but two. While he played both President James Dale and Art Land, neither character had any connections aside from the shared actor.
Overall, this film became known as a box office bomb when it came out in 1996. Somehow, avoiding similarities to Steven Spielberg’s work led to Tim Burton releasing an alien invasion film around the same time that Dean Devlin and Ronald Emmerich released Independence Day. Moreover, the brief appearances of many characters led to disappointment.
9. Planet of the Apes
In 2001, Tim Burton signed on to create a remake of the 1963 classic, Planet of the Apes. While the original had the charisma and pedigree of Charlton Heston to carry it, this film had Mark Wahlberg.
Mark Wahlberg played Captain Leo Davidson, who worked closely with primates as an astronaut for the United States Air Force. When he lost contact with a probe that contained one of his coworkers, a chimpanzee named Pericles, he quickly followed into the storm as well. When he landed, he found himself on a distant world, named Ashlar, in 5021 A.D. He quickly learned that a group of humanoid apes ruled the planet and used humans as slaves.
As Leo escaped slavery from the apes, he learned of Camila, a forbidden temple of the first ape, “Semos”. Once he finally found Camila, he discovered that it was the ancient remnants of the space station he once worked on, the Oberon. He then concluded that the storm had hurdled him forward in time while the station remained in the past. When the space station crashed, the survivors continued to experiment and genetically modify the apes. Over time, the son of Pericles, Johnathan, turned against the humans and became known as Semos. Thus, both the apes and humans on Ashlar originated from the Oberon.
To escape and return to his own time, Leo hopped into Pericles’ undamaged pod. As he crashed down on Washington D.C., he found that Apes ruled the world and the Lincoln Memorial memorialized General Thade instead.
8. Sleepy Hollow
In 1999, Tim Burton channeled his gothic side into a loose adaption of Washington Irvin’s classic short story, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”. He also joined forces with one of his favorite actors, Johnny Depp, to create the unique film, Sleepy Hollow.
When Paramount Pictures greenlit the film in 1993, Kevin Yagher worked as the director of the slasher film. However, as production lingered on, Yagher became demoted to a prosthetic makeup designer. Thus, Paramount moved Tim Burton into the director’s seat to complete the film.
Johnny Depp played the starring role, Ichabod Crane, a New York City police constable who found himself dispatched to Sleepy Hollow thanks to a series of decapitations. As he investigated the various murders, he found that the locals believed that an undead apparition, the Headless Horseman, was responsible. Since Crane believed strongly in the scientific method, he doubted that the supernatural was responsible for the murders. However, witnessing the decapitation of Philipse convinced him to investigate the supernatural.
As he followed the instructions from a witch in the Western Woods, they uncovered the grave of the Horseman at the “Tree of the Dead”. As he and Christina Ricci’s Katrina dug up the grave, they discovered that the skull was no longer present. Thus, the pair believed that the person that took the skull controlled the Horseman.
Eventually, the pair found that one of the prior assumed victims, Lady Van Tassel, controlled the Horseman. She faked her death to remove suspicion in Crane’s investigations. All the murders had been part of her revenge plot against Peter Van Garrett.
7. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
In 2007, Johnny Depp and Tim Burton once again worked together as Burton directed the musical slasher, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The seeds of the movie began in 1980 when Burton saw the musical as a student and fell in love. As his directing career took off, he courted Stephen Sondheim, the creator of the musical, for the rights to adapt the musical to film. Unfortunately, nothing came out of his attempts back then.
Eventually, production on a film adaption of the musical began in 2003, with Sam Mendes at the helm. When Mendes left the project in 2005, Burton enthusiastically became the director in his stead. Thus, he worked with the screenwriter, John Logan, to shorten down the play so it would be proper for a two-hour movie.
Johnny Depp took on the leading role of Benjamin Barker, who used the alias “Sweeney Todd” as he returned from exile. The man who exiled Barker to Australia, later raped his wife, leading to her suicide. Thus, Todd vowed to avenge his wife as he reopened his barbershop. Unfortunately, the announcement that Anthony planned to elope with Johanna interrupted his opportunity to slash Turpin’s throat. Having lost his first chance at revenge, Todd swore to take his revenge on the entire world instead.
As Sweeney Todd killed as many people as he could, he gained the assistance of Mrs. Lovett, who baked his victims into pies. Eventually, Todd discovered that his wife was still alive, and that Mrs. Lovett had misled him the entire time. In the end, Todd murdered Mrs. Lovette before allowing Tobias Ragg, the assistant to one of his earliest victims, to slash his throat.
6. Edward Scissorhands
The bromance between Tim Burton and Johnny Depp began in 1990, with Edward Scissorhands. The pair found that they shared similar ideas, which is why Depp often appears in Tim Burton’s filmography. Even in their personal lives, the two are friends.
As Tim Burton was a child, he drew imagery to express his feelings of isolation thanks to his issues with communicating with others. Thus, he drew a tall man with long, sharp blade-like fingers. As his directing career took off, Tim Burton decided to develop this character into the main character for his next film. Luckily, Johnny Depp made a personal connection with the film, and history was made.
Edward was the creation of an inventor, who nearly created a complete humanoid before he suffered from a heart attack. Thus, Edward remained incomplete with scissor blades for his hands. As the years passed by, he continued to dwell in the inventor’s abandoned manor. There, an Avon saleswoman, Dianne West’s Peg Boggs, discovered him, quickly figuring out that he was harmless. Thus, she decided to take him in and bring him to her home.
In return for the kindness that the Boggs showed him, Edward trimmed the hedges and cut the hair of both dogs and women from around the neighborhood. However, the good times did not last long. One woman named Joyce lied after she tried to seduce Edward. Likewise, Jim tricked Edward into trying to break into his parents’ home. Thus, the neighborhood began to shun him.
Spurred on by jealousy and various accidental injuries, Jim chased Edward back to the mansion, intent on shooting him down. In self-defense, Edward stabbed and slew Jim. To cover for Edward, Kim claimed that both Jim and Edward killed each other.
5. Batman Returns
With the 1989 film, Batman, proving to be a financial success, Warner Brothers moved to have Tim Burton direct the direct sequel, Batman Returns. Michael Keaton once again donned the cape and cowl as he reprised his role as Bruce Wayne. This time, Danny DeVito and Michelle Pfeiffer joined the cast as Penguin and Catwoman.
While Tim Burton originally did not want to create a sequel to Batman, he eventually agreed to come back to the project. However, he had the writer that worked with him on Beetlejuice, Daniel Walters, rework the script so that it now showed that “true villains of our world don’t necessarily wear costumes”. Thus, a hunt for hidden treasure became a plot to become mayor of Gotham.
The Plot
The movie began with the Cobblepot family tossing away their deformed infant son into the river. As the years passed, the infant grew into the man who the citizens of Gotham referred to as the Penguin. He also amassed an army of disgraced circus performers, the Red Triangle Gang, to become his minions.
Meanwhile, a shrewd businessman with many skeletons in his closet, Christopher Walken’s Max Shreck, disliked the current mayor of Gotham. When Penguin kidnaps Shreck, he blackmails the man into helping him. Elsewhere, Shrek’s assistant, Selina Kyle accidentally uncovered that his newest power plant would suck power from Gotham. To protect his secret, Max shoved Selina out of his high-rise window to fall to her doom. Even though she died, cats swarm around her, reviving her and giving her nine lives. Thus, Catwoman was born.
As Shreck tried to set up Penguin as the next mayor of Gotham, Catwoman wanted to sabotage all Shreck’s businesses. Eventually, the Penguin became annoyed with Shreck and politics, so he enacted his original plan to kidnap and kill all the firstborn children of Gotham.
As Batman foiled the Penguin’s kidnapping plans, the villain deployed an army of penguins to bomb the city with. When Batman turned the bombs against the Penguin, the man fell throw the window into the murky sewer waters below. As the Penguin died, Selina confronted Max Shreck one last time. She kissed him with a stun gun whilst grabbing a live electrical wire, electrocuting both. While she seemed to perish, her silhouette appeared at the closing shot of the film.
4. Beetlejuice
As Tim Burton was beginning his directing career, he longed for a film that would let him express his artistic and creative side. Meanwhile, a successful horror writer, Michael McDowell, decided to try his hand at screenwriting, inspired by the success of films like Poltergeist and The Exorcist. Upon receiving McDowell’s script for Beetlejuice, Tim Burton fell in love with the concept. So, he signed on as the director. However, as Burton and Universal executives worked on modifying the script, creative differences led to Warren Skaaren replacing him.
Bringing the title character to life, Tim Burton approached Michael Keaton to take on the role. While it took several meetings to get Keaton to join the project, once the actor understood Burton’s intentions with the film, he fully embraced the role. Thus, he requested that the wardrobe department bring him various costumes from various eras. He created Betelgeuse’s signature look by mixing these eras, “electrifying” his hair, and adding moss to the make-up.
The film followed the recently deceased couple, Adam and Barbara Maitlan, who Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis played. As they adjusted to their newly undead life, the Deetz family moved into their Connecticut home. Since the living family annoyed the Maitlans, they tried to scare them away. Eventually, discovered Betelgeuse in their home, who claimed to be a “bio-exorcist”. Unfortunately, his services felt too severe for the couple.
As the Maitlans continued to try to scare away the Deetzes, they grew close to their daughter, Winona Rider’s Lydia. Thus, they eventually decided to make peace and accept the family in their home. Unfortunately, the Deetz found the Handbook for the Recently Deceased, which almost led to the exorcist of the ghosts. While Beetlejuice ended the exorcist, the Maitlans had to stop him before he married Lydia.
3. Corpse Bride
As the years passed, Tim Burton’s movies moved away from the medium that made his artistic vision shine, stop motion. While Tim Burton broke out as a director with his stop-motion short films like Vincent, live-action films filled most of his filmography. Thus, it was a delight when Tim Burton returned to stop motion with his 2005 movie, Corpse Bride. This time, Tim Burton shared the directing credits with Mike Johnson, where the two formed an organic relationship.
The Plot
Corpse Bride stars Johnny Depp as Victor Van Dort, the timid son of wealthy fish merchants. In a bid to raise their social standings, Victor’s parents arranged a marriage with the daughter of the aristocrats, Emily Watson’s Victoria Everglot. While the pair instantly fell in love, Victor botched up the wedding rehearsal so badly that he ran into the woods. There, he practiced his vows with what he thought was a root, but it turned out to be the finger of a corpse.
Claiming that Victor was her husband, Helena Bonham Carter’s Emily whisked Victor into the Land of the Dead to celebrate her wedding. As he spent time with Emily, he learned that she died on the night of her elopement, and her murderer stole away with her family jewels and bag of gold. Still, Victor wished to marry Victoria rather than spend the rest of his life in the Land of the Dead.
Since the Everglot’s assumed that Victor had run away for good, they quickly moved to arrange a new marriage for Victoria, with Richard E. Grant’s Lord Barkis Bittern. Thus, Victor decides to properly marry Emily, which required him to drink poison to join her in death.
In the end, Lord Bittern turned out to be the man who murdered Emily. As he mocked Emily, he downed the poisoned drink. Thus, he died instead of Victor, allowing Emily and the dead to take revenge on him for his evil deeds. In the end, Emily freed Victor of any obligations to her, allowing him to wed Victoria.
2. Batman
While attempts to create a darker Batman film began in the late 1970s, movie studios at the time could only think of the caped crusader as Adam West portrayed him in the 1960s. They wanted another campy, humorous hero rather than the Dark Knight. Luckily, Warner Brothers finally picked up the project in 1980. The movie picked up steam with the success of graphic novels like The Killing Joke. While Tim Burton never was a comic fan, the tone and dark take of the project convinced him to join on as the Director.
The Plot
Michael Keaton played the playboy, philanthropist, Bruce Wayne, who donned the cape and cowl to become Batman. He took on the life of a crime fighter due to the tragic death of his parents, whom a mugger shot down as Bruce watched. As he brought down the criminals of Gotham, rumors began to stir about a giant man-sized bat. Thus, Kim Basinger’s Vicki Vale, a photojournalist, began investigating the rumors.
Elsewhere, Jack Nicholson’s Jack Napier, the second to a crime boss, Carl Grissom, raided Axis Chemicals to retrieve incriminating evidence. As Batman interfered with the raid, Napier toppled off the catwalk into a vat of chemicals. While the criminal survived, he became disfigured with white skin and a permanent smile. Thus, the Joker was born.
The Joker terrorized both Gotham’s citizens and crime families, becoming the Prince of Crime. As his finale, he planned to poison all of Gotham with Smilex-filled parade balloons. While Batman removed the balloons from the streets, the Joker ran away, taking Vicki Vale hostage.
As Batman confronted the Joker one last time, the man taunted the bat with the phrase, “Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?” Thus, Batman knew that the Joker was the same man who killed his parents. In the end, the Joker plummeted to his death while the city set up a Bat-Signal in case they ever needed Batman’s aid again.
1. The Nightmare Before Christmas
While Tim Burton’s name is all over The Nightmare Before Christmas, he did not direct this film. Instead, he created the story as he produced the film. When Burton still worked for Disney, he authored a three-page poem titled The Nightmare Before Christmas. While Disney considered turning the poem into a special or short film, development stalled as Disney broke away from Burton for being too weird. Still, Disney retained the film rights.
Eventually, Tim Burton returned to follow up with the project in 1990. So, he and Henry Selick committed themselves to see the project through to the end. While Tim Burton could not direct the film thanks to his commitment to Batman Returns, he trusted Selick to direct the film, following his vision. Tim Burton attempted to work with Michael McDowell once again as his screenwriter. However, he eventually turned the project into a musical, bringing in Danny Elfman for lyrics and compositions.
The Plot
Chris Sarandon played the “Pumpkin King”, Jack Skellington, who had become bored with year after year of nothing but Halloween. He dreamed of something new to inspire him. As he wandered away from Halloween Town, he found himself in a grove with six trees that had doors that symbolized other holidays. Jack became entranced with the Christmas tree door. Thus, he found himself pulled into Christmas Town.
As he returned to Halloween Town, Jack desired nothing more than to share the excitement of Christmas with the rest of the denizens. Thus, he planned to kidnap Santa Claus, who he called “Sandy Claws”, and take over the role himself. Unfortunately, all that the citizens of Halloween Town knew were scares and tricks.
Meanwhile, Catherine O’Hara’s Sally the ragdoll secretly longed for Jack Skellington to notice her. As she pined over her unrequited love, she saw a vision of the disaster that Christmas would be. While she tried to warn Jack, she could not convince him to turn away from his plans.
Thus, Jack became a menace as he terrorized the globe with his Christmas gifts. After the police shot him down, Jack realized that his calling was and will always be Halloween. He excelled at scaring individuals and should not take over other holidays, like Christmas. Unfortunately, he had to rescue Santa Claus from Ken Page’s Oogie Boogie before he could set things right.
What were your favorite Tim Burton movies?
Today, we have shared with you the movies that best represent the strange and morbid mind of Tim Burton. Burton’s unique style has given his films a unique feel that no one else has replicated. His unique style has garnered fans across the globe.
Still, we would love to hear from you. Do you agree with our list? Let us know what your favorite films from Tim Burton were in the comments below.
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