Tim Burton: The Twisted Story Of The Eccentric Filmmaker

welcome to New York City the year 2009 and we venture into the Museum of Modern Art to view their newest installation [Music] wide-eyed quirky drawings statues with long limbs jaws full of teeth scary enough to give you nightmares glow-in-the-dark carousels better fit for a haunted house than a carnival no it's not Halloween we are entering the mind of Tim Burton you'll recognize iconic characters like Edward Scissorhands movie props like the Penguins bassinet from Batman Returns and plenty of sketches and art from the holiday favorite The Nightmare Before Christmas visually burden is one of the most recognizable directors in the world set designs gothic elements and the way he plays with light and shadow can be seen in everything from Batman to the upcoming live-action adaptation of Disney's Dumbo but how did Tim Burton rise in the world of Hollywood what journey is the director gone on to create such a unique style and visual sense of mind get ready to dive into the filmography of the strange weird and often twisted world of Tim Burton [Music] looking back on Tim Burton's career it seems like the animator artist writer and director was destined for Hollywood there was a period where movie after movie was a hit and the director helped revitalize the whole superhero genre with Batman and Batman Returns and even when Burton isn't making films his influence is felt all over Hollywood his passion for movies and filmmaking goes all the way back to his childhood where the seeds were being planted for a future career if you're looking for a peek into the childhood of Tim Burton you don't have to go far characters stories and imagery have been drawn directly from his childhood the childhood Burton claims was unhappy and isolating making him feel like an outcast living in California Burton was already close to the world of Hollywood but he grew up living a life far from the picturesque postcards of beaches or the Hollywood sign Burton already felt isolated his father was a former baseball player who tried to pass on his passion and skills to his son things didn't turn out so well his mom seemed to pass down some of his quirky traits as she once opened a gift shop dedicated to all things cats but even still Burton was not close to his parents to help Burton with his lonely and isolating childhood he turned to the one thing many of us do the movies his selection of choice classic monster movies and while many of us watch monsters like Frankenstein or the Wolfman in fear it was the complete opposite for Burton he connected with these monsters and felt empathy for them often misunderstood lonely and attacked by others just for being different he could see things from their perspective naturally these classic movies would have a major impact on him in the future Burton also turned to drawing but not in a traditional sense for years Burton followed the rules and guidelines for creating art when he led his hand and mind break free from these so-called rules Burton flourished creating doodles and drawing characters with complete originality he began to fall in love with the form learning drawing techniques working with different mediums and building his skills of her time his artwork led to college at CalArts where he learned the world of animation and developed skills which would help him flourish in both live-action and animated filmmaking oddly enough Burton's first big job in Hollywood is someplace no fans would expect Disney's colorful world at the time known for productions like Peter Pan Robin Hood and The Jungle Book was a far cry from Burton's melancholy world but he did fit right into one of the first productions he got to work on the Black Cauldron one of Disney's darkest films ever made the story imagery and mythology was a seeming fit for Burton he created over 200 concept drawings for the film and unfortunately none of them were chosen for the final production so while the Black Cauldron production moved forward Burton was once again left isolated and getting paid by Disney to do so he got to work on a number of passion projects and his two official Disney creations offered a glimpse into the future for the filmmaker Vincent and Frankenweenie Vincent a stop-motion black-and-white short focused on a McCobb seven-year-old boy who had a very imaginative mind reading the works of Edgar Allen Poe and staying isolated comes from my childhood Frankenweenie was also black and white but the short was shot in live-action and followed the story of a young boy who brings his beloved dog back to life after a horrible incident Disney deemed the story too dark and scary and ended up firing Burton for wasting their resources but the temporarily closed door at Disney only led to bigger and better things Vincent would prove a launching pad to his directing career and helped him nab the role of director for pee-wee's big adventure from there Burton would go on to direct movies like Beetlejuice Batman Edward Scissorhands Batman Returns ed woods Mars Attacks Sleepy Hollow big fish and more modern-day hits like Alice in Wonderland big eyes and miss Peregrine's Home for peculiar children the elements those first two short movies were essentially the blueprint of everything Tim Burton would become this includes the style storytelling and character designs he has brought to his impressive collection of movies one of the main influences found throughout a majority of his films is the use of German Expressionism inspired by the same monster movies which brought him comfort as a child Burton has become a master class in the Gothic style and designed featured in these movies the German Expressionism style and movement began back in the 1920s during the midst of World War one much of Germany was shut out by the international film community forcing German filmmakers to branch out on their own and create original films out of the time period has come iconic visual films including the vampire horror Nosferatu and the cabinet of dr. Caligari stark shadows dramatically angled props and distorted shapes dark lighting all essential elements of a Tim Burton film just look at his designs in Gotham City the strange statues featured in Beetlejuice the crazy zombie dog shadows from his short film Vincent ever since the beginning of his film career Burton has infused his works with inspiration from German Expressionism one of the biggest influences on Tim Burton's career may be the 1927 film metropolis the science fiction film features all of the trademarks of German Expressionism and the production is still impressive today when Tim Burton was building his fictional world of gotham city many metropolis elements were used including building designs sprawling buildings the shadows lurking all over the city many posters of his movies use these elements as well Jack Skellington standing atop the infamous curved Hill among the shadows of Halloweentown has German Expressionism written all over it look closely at the poster for big fish and every branch on the tree features dramatic curves and angles similar to those seen in the cabinet of dr. Caligari even the remake of Planet of the Apes featured curves shadows and dark german expressionist features in a design mainly featuring apes another aspect of German Expressionism anthropomorphism better explained as giving objects human-like actions and qualities the use of an two / morphism has been seen since the beginning Vincente featured a creepy jack-in-the-box coming to life The Nightmare Before Christmas is full of characters and moments where creatures and items have human-like qualities Beetlejuice showcased all types of items coming to life especially during the wedding scene when the collections of statues come alive thanks to Beetlejuice Sleepy Hollow brings an engaging mystery along with some anthropomorphism applied to headless horseman the corpse bride features singing skeletons and a whole land of the Dead which has come to life and even though Burton relies on a heavy influence of German Expressionism he still makes each movie world stand out from each other the world of the afterlife in beetlejuice stands out when compared to Edward Scissorhands Gothic mansion which looms over the picture-perfect family oriented neighborhood Sleepy Hollow truly feels like a 1799 village while the Planet of the Apes feels like a true and life well planet full of apes Burton Stiles splashes all over the screen building the mood and world is something Tim Burton tries to achieve within the first moments of a film he finds that the opening sequence and main movie titles are essential for building the themes and feeling of a movie looking back this trend is evident Burton has consistently woven them into the fabric of the story creating an atmosphere and world building as soon as possible just look at pee-wee's big adventure the opening credits are in an all-white and basic fun when the title of the movie pops up each letter is in a different color and the whimsical font displays on the screen showing us the wackiness and life peewee brings to the screen before we even see the character the Batman opening is now iconic first starting with a Warner Bros studio logo the logo is typically surrounded by a blue sky and white clouds but Burton fought to have the background transition into the dark and gloomy skies of Gotham City today we see companies like dreamworks twentieth century fox and Colombia use custom studio logos for their movies all the time but Batman was one of the earlier ones to do it along with other classics like cannonball ron byrne used the same method for Edward Scissorhands when the 20th Century Fox logo featured snow piled up on different areas following the logo transition and Batman the opening credits follow a maze to the Batman symbol many of his openings feature plot points or symbols tied directly into the movie this includes the flying spaceships in Mars Attacks ape art and weapons in Planet of the Apes a look inside the chocolate production process for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in the floating bassinet in Batman Returns and all of these openings are complemented with one of Tim Burton's longtime collaborators composer Danny Elfman Elfman brings life and layers to Burton's movies with many of the main title themes and soundtracks standing out on their own Elfman's musical tracks go above and beyond just simple music sound effects quirky noises and a wide array of music are an essential and unforgettable part of any Tim Burton movie Elfman has the ability to dig deep into the mind of Tim Burton and turn his thoughts into full-fledged soundtracks just look at the opening for Beetlejuice the title graphic is great but watch the shots over suburbia with some simple stock music now replace the music with Danny Elfman's score and you have perfect movie magic [Music] the Batman theme from Danny Elfman has gone above and beyond just background music for the movie the film was Elfman's first big-budget production and went above and beyond to ensure perfection between the prints tracks and Elfman's music the film score perfectly captures the mood and tone Burton set out to create with his version of Batman in just the opening of the movie Burton's goal was to make people forget about the campy style of the 1960s show and Elfman's moody music helps cement this fact his Batman main theme went on to become a part of the Batman animated series theme song used in various Lego Batman video games and was also sampled in the recent live-action Justice League along with Elfman Tim Burton has infused all types of other music into his movies there's the Joker dancing along to prints music the citizens of Halloweentown singing this is Halloween and the dinner party breaking out into song during Beetlejuice as dark and imaginative Burton can be he uses music to infuse a lot of fun and Happiness into his movies he even took on a full movie musical with a dark comedy and Broadway adaptation of Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street the music helps showcase internal feelings move the story forward and help establish the atmosphere of the world he's created Danny Elfman often helps with the songs as well whether he's writing lyrics for the Oompa Loompas and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or singing in the corpse pride as Burton develops movie ideas he brings Elfman on board as early as possible and sometimes it's the music itself which can help guide some aspects of the production and design but if we go all the way back to the beginning of the production it starts with Burton's writing and development process much like his movies and characters Burton does not follow the norm when creating movies and stories his initial ideas often begin with just a piece of art a simple drawing helps lead the way for the development of the whole project before the outfit escapes and sets were built on 1989's batman burton drew some literal inspiration in the form of the joker the purple suit Jack Nicholson wears at the end of the film is almost identical to Burton's drawing after filming Batman Burton went on to work on the sequel Batman Returns and one of the first drawings he came up with was the penguin this drawing was completed very early in production and ended up looking a lot like the final product as Danny DeVito was transformed into the creepy villain Burton also illustrated designs for the switched up Catwoman costume which became one of the most iconic parts of the movie the trend continued when planning his production of Mars Attacks based off a series of peculiar tops baseball cards of all things Burton brought the aliens to life first by creating detailed sketches of their design even with digital designs and 3d storyboard artists Burton often returns to pen paper and paints for inspiration his concept art is now iconic and even used for modern-day movies just look at some of his art for the 2010 release of Alice in Wonderland here's the final version of the Red Queen her big head matches her big ego and the design was definitely a unique take on the royal leader and now check out Burton's concept months before production even began everything is there the Red Queen's giant head unique clothes and even the shape of her hair from concept to final design we see how visual Burton is before words are even put on a page when taking on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Burton had a much bigger challenge the 1971 version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was already so visually iconic right down to Wonka's suit hair and came for his new version he envisioned a different looking Wonka and the end result was a quirky Johnny Depp with very white teeth and some straight hair this design wasn't Depp's preference or something made up on set once again Burton's concept art was used as a blueprint for the final character design there are many drawings which end up going unused because a movie gets canceled or trapped in development one of them was for the film Superman lips after taking on the world of Batman Burton was set to take on Superman and introduced the hero in a radical new way including a long-haired Nicolas Cage suiting up for test shots in the role Britain's drawings focused on the villain of the film Brainiac and the various forms he could take for Superman lives after multiple years of development the film fell apart and was never to be for the Nightmare Before Christmas Burton had been drawing versions of Jack Skellington for years he knew the character had his mannerisms down and could draw him with ease but it took years for the story to pop in his head the inspiration for Sally's design came from a Polaroid photo shoot he did with a friend inspiration can seemingly come from anywhere with his designs as they get translated onto big-budget movies with his own style and story put on them and the story element is where Burton typically stops with his writing out of all his films he has only been credited for the story and characters never for a full screenplay as a visual storyteller he relies on professional screenwriters to fill in the pieces add the dialogue and build the full plot around the world he is created as a director he makes everything come to life and builds a synergy that comes alive when one of his films is completed and because of his special communication skills and happiness with following similar routines Burton has often gone back to the same people for multiple movies there's the after mentioned Danny Elfman as one of his main composers and on the writing side Burton has often teamed up with screenwriter John August known for films like go and the upcoming live-action Aladdin August collaborated with Burton to write big fish the Corpse Bride Frankenweenie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the story for Dark Shadows in front of the camera is where some of his more well-known collaborations have taken place one of the main actors to work with Tim Burton Johnny damp according to Burton himself Depp and Burton have an unwritten language and understanding of each other even though he's a director with a great vision his communication is different than a typical director or creator and Burton often teams up with actors who understand his vision style and minimalistic language while filming Burton has the ability to get the best out of depth and depth typically understands exactly what burden is looking for through a performance the two have created a whole gallery of visual characters work just as much costume and design go into the performance the scarred and wide-eyed Edward Scissorhands was a breakout role for death and he continued to transform himself by slitting his hair back and playing director Ed Wood in the campy tale of the cheap budgeted and inexperienced Hollywood director then there's the Sleepy Hollow investigator Chocolate Factory owner quirky vampire with complicated family and the for Miss Mad Hatter alongside Depp in many of those films was Helena bonham-carter the actress clicked with Burton so well the two began a romantic relationship with each other and even had two kids together despite being in a romantic relationship Burton and Carter spent several years living in separate houses right next to each other before announcing their breakup in 2014 and even before Burton was using Depp and Carter in a lot of his films he relied on Michael Keaton bringing Keaton back for Batman Returns was an obvious choice considering he was in the original but Keaton also starred as the heavily make up covered beetlejuice and now several years later the two reunited again for the production of Disney's live-action Dumbo and even though he definitely loves routine there's one thing Burton typically avoids sequels while he did sign on to do Batman Returns it was early in his career and Burton left the franchise as Warner Bros headed off in a different direction with both Batman Forever and Batman and Robin films like Edward Scissorhands have had a sequel in comic book form but Byrne has been really protective over his original works and allowing them to stand on their own of course the movies continue to live on through countless merchandise sales the Isles of Hot Topic even a recent mega hit like a Disney's Alice in Wonderland sparked the production of a sequel but Burton left the director's chair even though a majority of the cast and production crew stuck around a lot of Burton's movies are adaptations of comics like Batman books like Alice in Wonderland or remakes of other properties like dark shadows or Planet of the Apes when Burton heads into a project his goal isn't to make it modern or offer a shot-for-shot remake of the original movie his ultimate goal is to bring his own vision to each world for years Batman was viewed as a campy comedy thanks to Adam West's TV show and Burton wanted to bring it back to its dark roots not only did he provide his own style in the movie but he changed elements including the costume and the backstory involving the death of his parents another thing that helps Batman stand out from other superhero movies is its lack of CG effects Burdon prefers to rely on practical effects even for fantastical elements at first his reliance on practical effects were mainly for the lack of technology as seen in films like Beetlejuice when the characters transformed their face where we see sandworms jumping in and out of the dirt Edward Scissorhands also featured a great of practical effects the opening credits showcase moving machines and parts which all operate with fluid motion and incredible detail his reliance on practical effects continued even with 2001's Planet of the Apes the same time Planet of the Apes was released the CG heavy Jurassic Park 3 was also getting released showcasing the contrasts and styles and CG design the prosthetic makeup for the Apes was incredible and helps make the Apes feel more lifelike no matter how confusing the plot and ending of the movie was the film won multiple awards for the makeup design as modern filmmaking became filled with the use of CG Burton welcomed the added changes allowing him to expand his mind and imagination even further than before Alice in Wonderland is a CG filled adventure with crazy effects giant heads and fire-breathing dragons the scale of the movie wouldn't have been as effective with practical designs and the same could be said for his updated adaptation of Charlie in the Chocolate Factory even films like miss Peregrine's Home for peculiar children were elevated thanks to the use of CG just think of the scenes featuring the little girl with a sharp-toothed mouth on the back of her head whenever Burton gets the chance he goes back to practical effects for example his adaptation of Dark Shadows had plenty of digital sets but wide shots of houses relied on practical miniatures and ghost scenes were shot in a water tank to get realistic views of floating hair the film was a great blend of old-school and modern filmmaking including the digital removal of every single time Johnny Depp blinked so his vampire character could come off as realistic as possible Burton has proved he can adapt with the times and CG effects are still able to show his unique style but if there's one true representation of Burton's filmic and personal touch it's with animated movies ever since his early days of filmmaking Burton has always connected with the world of animation one of the main reasons was the ability to make films while still being isolated he could create characters build worlds and make a whole movie using minimal cast and crew even though Disney fired Burton after making Vincent and Frankenweenie they saw the massive success he had with Beetlejuice and Batman wanting him back in the fold Burton was not only hired to help create and produce a Nightmare Before Christmas but Disney decided to finally release his live action version of Frankenweenie to much acclaim the film was made in 1984 but people didn't see it until 1992 when it was released on home video starring Shelley Duvall and Daniel Stern as a young boy's parents the 30 minute short was a great homage and parody to the original Frankenstein The Nightmare Before Christmas was the first in a series of stop-motion films Burton would either produce or direct the film helped revitalize the world of stop-motion and proved that no matter how much technology or animation improved the world of stop-motion is a very specific art form and often beloved by the masses after The Nightmare Before Christmas Burton once again teamed with a director Selleck to produce 1996's James in the Giant Peach after the 1995 release of Toy Story CG animation took over Hollywood and more studios popped up Burton's stuck to his vision and style to create in direct 2005's corpse pride written by john august corpse bride is an animated visual feast the stop-motion effects and filmmaking method clearly improved in the years since The Nightmare Before Christmas and it shows the movie is trademark Burton including everything you'd come to expect from one of his movies someone looking for the perfect example of Burton's work can look no further than the tale involving an anxious man who's hesitant about marriage and inadvertently gets sent down to the world of the Dead there's German Expressionism Danny Elfman's music and vocals dark humor characters feeling isolated and a celebration of the McCobb Burton also turned to actor staples like Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter for voice roles in the Gothic and dark movie musical another theme found in the Corpse Bride a dead dog sidekick as morbid as it sounds a majority of Tim Burton's animated movies have featured dead dogs as characters the trend began with a zombie dog Abercrombie and Vincent continued with zero in the Nightmare Before Christmas and the corpse bride also featured a skeleton dog by the name of scraps after producing the animated movie 9 in 2009 Burton decided to make the dead dog theme his lead character for his next animated directing gig in 2010 Burton went back to his roots for the black-and-white stop-motion film Frankenweenie the film is a feature-length adaptation of his original short film one of young victors only friends as his dog Sparky who dies in an accident unable to accept his death and move on Victor digs Sparky up and reanimates the dog back to life messing with science comes with a lot of unintended consequences especially when a school mates begin experimenting with bringing their own pets back to life the theme with dead dogs is not just Burton's morbid thoughts and ideas it's based around his own childhood the loss of Burton's childhood pet and beloved companion has clearly had a large impact on the director the inability to accept the loss of his dog ran strong through him and while he couldn't bring his dog back in real life he did have the ability to do it in a fictional world as dark as the idea of a zombie dog might seem there is a layer of Hope hidden underneath hope can be found with the possibility of meeting your dog again one day Frankenweenie offers a lot more than just Burton's love and connection to his childhood dog the movie is an homage to his childhood as a whole the giant pet monsters that form and come back to life are representative of his love for black and white monster movies as a child the disconnected parents who try too hard to be normal a reflective of his own parents and growing up with them Victor even spends a lot of time alone in the Attic similar to Burton's own isolation in his dark and gloomy bedroom Victor's character is clearly an outsider something Burton has felt all of his life even after achieving major Hollywood success Byrnes love for classic actors like Vincent Price also comes through with characters like the science teacher and of course the movie does a lot to reflect on his own film career Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands star Winona Ryder returns to the burton verse to voice a character in the movie there's a gravestone with zero written on it the weird girl comes from Burton's own book the melancholy death of oyster boy and other stories the book and Burton's drawing style has also led to his own animated miniseries entitled the world of stainboy the six shorts are based off of Burton's art featuring a lot of quirky characters and designs including a bully bowling ball a weird girl and robot boy the animation quickly spread online and allowed fans to connect with Burton through a special Burton story Twitter account on the account fans could contribute to stain boy's story and Burton would select the best entries for himself it's through films like Frank and wienie in the corpse bride where we can see into the mind of Burton even more so than his live-action movies along with his memorable and marketable characters like Jack Skellington the corpse bride and Frankenweenie there was the potential for a lot more in Tim Burton's animated world The Addams Family and Tim Burton seemed like a perfect match and could have been a stop-motion Addams Family movie was in development for multiple years before the project was dropped a new Addams Family animated film is set for release in the future but Tim Burton is not attached to the current project other animation plans included a pg-13 rated film entitled deep but plans fell through before production even began and then there was monster pocalypse end of live-action and animation based on the cult board game the epic film was fully written by John August but ultimately the film was dropped because of the similar robots and alien fighting premise found in the Pacific Rim series and over the years Burton's animations stand out on their own but clearly the self-proclaimed outsider has inspired a lot of others Burton's style is often imitated in a sincere form of flattery and honor animated films like Monster House Coraline and ParaNorman all stand out on their own but have a lot of similarities to Burton's style designs and use of German Expressionism and then there are legions of bands who create all types of Burton fan art products and Burton themed art designs he has clearly impacted a lot of people and no matter how much of an outcast he feels like millions of fans will adore him for the rest of their lives visitors to Burton's official website get to enjoy controlling stainboy exploring a lot of his art and connecting with a director in the digital age but Burton's career has not been all filled with fantastical worlds and big imaginations Sleepy Hollow may have been about the Headless Horseman but it was felt like more of a grounded mystery period peace big fish was ultimately about the connection between father and son even if flashbacks did involve circus sideshow acts Giants and witches his grounded movie may have been big eyes the true story of Margaret Keane an artist known for painting images with giant eyes on people and animals her husband takes credit for her work and eventually takes him to court over the true ownership of the paintings Amy Adams ended up winning the Golden Globe for Best Actress in the movie and received great reviews from critics and Tim Burton's career shows no sign of stopping yet truly coming full circle since his early days in Hollywood Burton is once again collaborating with Disney for a live-action adaptation of Dumbo after spending years connecting us to his love for dogs a new generation will experience a connection when he brings the big eared elephant to life the film reunites some of Burton's longtime actors and crew Danny Elfman returns for the magical score Danny DeVito who starred in Batman Returns and big fish appears as Max a circus ringmaster Michael Keaton also returns as ruthless businessman Eva Green also has a role and is one of the newest actresses to join the Burton fold after starring in miss Peregrine's Home for peculiar children the film has a lot of signature Tim Burton elements and has built up a lot of hype before its March 29th release after the release of Dumbo burden can go anywhere he's at a point in his career where he has the ability to take on all types of projects it's been seven years since Frankenweenie was released and fans would love to see another burden animation come to life and while he is teaming with Michael Keaton again for Dumbo there has been news and rumors for years about a sequel to beetlejuice with superhero movies overtaking the box office year after years it would be interesting to see Burton take on another superhero film especially with a wide selection of quirky heroes could you imagine if he had directed his own version of the guardians of the galaxy either way diving deep into the mind of Tim Burton reveals a lot of themes visuals and characters in his film his isolated upbringing has made a huge imprint on his career and you can get a detailed glimpse at the personal life of the filmmaker just by watching his movies Tim Burton will go down as one of the most well-known directors his films stand out on their own and as a group of collective films he is not only an icon of the 90s but a filmmaker still making an impact and influencing filmmakers all over the world and now we're back at MoMA looking at Burton's art and creations from over the years knowing the inside of his mind his childhood and his life gives us a better appreciation for everything he creates [Music] so what's your favorite Tim Burton movie what do you want to see next let us know in the comments and don't forget to subscribe to Screen Rant for more great content and documentaries [Music]

Channel: Screen Rant

Views: 1,329,065

Rating: 4.9526825 out of 5

Keywords: Tim Burton, Nightmare Before Christmas, Frankenweenie, animated movies, Beetlejuice, Michael Keaton, Big Fish, Dumbo, Disney movies, Edward Scissorhands, Johnny Depp, Alice in Wonderland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, screen rant, screenrant

Id: BsdYCREsCco

Length: 30min 51sec (1851 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 10 2019