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layfully creepy, undeniably fascinating and instantly recognizable. The style of director Tim Burton is as unique as a fingerprint, with the lasting impression of a fingerprint left in blood. Each of his films is unmistakable. The bizarre toy-box coloured journey through a child-like fantasy. The fadedpastel suburbia of a youth with scissors for hands. An infectious neon-Gothic carnival of the afterlife. Batman and Joker brought to the big screen with an appropriate blend of dark reverence and whimsical terror. He's a fan of Bollywood, Johnny Depp is the godfather of his son, and he has a thing for featuring dismembered or dead dogs in his films.
the early years
Timothy Walter Burton was born August 25, 1958. Growing up in the typical 1950s American suburb of Burbank, California, he never quite fit in with the shiny, happy, popular people of his neighbourhood. He did not do well in school, nor did he retreat to the solace of books. Rather, he painted, drew and enjoyed monster movies. He loved Godzilla , idolized matinee actor Vincent Price, and adored the Hammer Film Production horror films of that era such as The Curse of Frankenstein , Dracula and The Mummy . The work of master stopmotion and special effects artist Ray Harryhausen on The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad , would inspired him to shoot his own crude stop-motion animation films in his back yard. “Vincent Price, Edgar Allen Poe, those monster movies, those spoke to me”, said Burton. The culmination of his interests led to his enrolment in the California Institute of the Arts after graduating High School, then on to Disney where he worked uncredited as an animator on films like The Fox and the Hound and TRON . While working in the 30
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concept art department at Disney, Burton befriended Rick Heinrichs, who then produced Burton's first short film Vincent and then his first life-action short Frankenweenie . It was after actor Paul Rubens saw Frankenweenie, that he chose Burton to direct the cinematic spin-off of his fictional stage act character, Pee-Wee Herman . It was this break, directing a movie about a man-child's eternal love for his bicycle, that set Burton on his way towards becoming one of the most noticeable directors in film.
Burton & Film
“Movies are like an expensive form of therapy for me”, says Burton, who’s been going to his particular brand of therapy for almost three decades now. Here is a quick rundown of Burton’s directorial therapy sessions throughout the years (films he only produced have been omitted, with one exception):
1980s: His first film, Vincent (1982) (http://goo.
gl/cwTA) is a five-minute black and white stop-motion movie based on a poem he wrote as a child (http:// goo.gl/yNf6), depicting a young boy who fantasizes that he is his idol Vincent Price (who provided the narration himself). A parody and homage to the 1931 film Frankenstein , Burton's second film Frankenweenie (1984) follows a young boy named Victor who liked to make movies starring his dog, Sparky, who gets hit by a car. Victor reanimates Sparky after learning about electrical impulses in school, and the angry-mob affront-to-god trope plays out in full, yet with a happy ending. Burton’s first feature-film, Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985) is also his first partnership with Danny Elfman. Burton put in every type of scene possible in film, while Elfman matched each one with appropriate music, treading diverse musical waters. Beetlejuice (1988), a blend of bizarre horror and jan 2010
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comedy, was almost called Scared Sheetless . Burton pulled off a polka-infused, calypso beat day-glow afterlife as a young couple, recently deceased, enlist the aid of a ‘bio-exterminator’ to try and haunt the new metropolitan couple who moved into their house. While Heath Ledger may have crafted a sharper, edgier Joker in the more recent Dark Knight , Jack Nicholson stole every scene with his flippant Joker in Burton's Batman (1989). The Batman game: every time Michael Keaton has to look up or down in his rubber Batman suit, bending at the waist, give yourself a point.
1990s: With Tom Jones as the soundtrack for the
lives of suburban housewives, Edward Scissorhands (1990) is largely seen as autobiographical of Burton's life: outcast artificial man (Johnny Depp) with scissors for hands who doesn't fit into ‘normal’ society. Since the first Batman did well beyond expectations, Burton was roped into doing a sequel under protest. Batman Returns (1992) shows a wicked and dark world of misfits, sexuality and umbrella-based technology as Batman fights Catwoman and The Penguin in a film noir setting. Inspired by a poem Burton wrote, The Nightmare Before Christma s (1993) tells the stop-motion tale of Jack Skellington, the pumpkin king of Halloween Town, and his role in ruining (and then saving) 32
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2000s: While it may have been criticized for
Christmas. Disney initially thought it too “dark and scary” for kids. This film, along with James and the Giant Peach (1996) was directed by Henry Selick in Burton's stead. Ed Wood (1994) is Burton's homage to the life of 1950s filmmaker Edward D. Wood, Jr. and his brand of low-budget sci-fi and horror flicks. A commercial failure of a film, but a sensitive look at one of Burton's role-models, as played by Johnny Depp. A clash of 1950s sci-fi flicks and 1970s all-star disaster flicks, Mars Attacks! (1996) never takes itself seriously, the actors ham it up, and little green men from Mars kill and destroy for your amusement. Johnny Depp returns with Burton to play forensic detective Ichabod Crane investigating a series of murders by a mysterious Headless Horsman in Sleepy Hollow (1999), a film that feels like a return to vintage Burton.
being “watered down”, Planet of the Apes (2001) was a financial success. The film was a significant departure from Burton's style, and rumours persist that he was forced to make it according to the studio's wishes. Damn dirty apes! Based loosely on the novel by Daniel Wallace, Big Fish (2003) casts Ewan McGregor as a young travelling salesman, recounted through tall-tale stories on his deathbed to his estrange son. The use of exaggeration, colour and temporal orientation via pop tunes from each era told in the story, crafts a sombre yet inspiring fantasy drama. Johnny Depp (again!) plays Willy Wonka in Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), a rendition of the 1964 book by Roald Dahl. Charlie wins a golden ticket, Oompa-Loompas sing, and everyone is happy. Burton's first full-length stop-motion film (as director), Corpse Bride (2005) has Depp and Helena Bonham Carter (for whom Burton created the project) as voiceactors. Light and darkness are used to represent being caught between two irreconcilable worlds, and there's a skeleton doggy. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) re-tells the Victorian melodramatic tale of Sweeny Todd, a barber seeking revenge. His accomplice, Mrs. Lovett, turns the remains of Todd's victims into delicious meat pies. It's an adaptation of a Tony Award-winning 1979 musical thriller.
Burton & Art
“I’ve never really felt like a writer. It was always a visual thing for me”, says Burton. His most famous character, Edward Scissorhands, began life long before the movie: “It was an idea from when I was a teenager, it had been in my mind for a long time.” The same for Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas : “That was just a doodle I kept drawing over and over and over for no apparent reason”. In 2000, Burton created a series of online flash animation shorts called The World of Stainboy [http:// goo.gl/l9aJ] based on two short poems he wrote in his youth. The New York Museum of Modern Art recently held a Tim Burton retrospective, showing over 700 pieces of art. There is also the 434-page tome, The Art of Tim Burton , containing over 1,000 drawings, paintings and concept art dating back to his teen years. jan 2010
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