Rhiteek Chatterjee
What are the best Tim Burton movies? Before we list out the best films of Tim Burton, let’s look a little bit into his career.
Tim Burton is one of the most enigmatic and charismatic directors in the world. His movies attain a level of transcendental magnetism where even death seems to be a beauty. Since his directorial debut, Burton has grasped the audience’s imagination with his absurd and weird work of art. Be it a gothic tale of a brutal psychotic murderer or a valiant superhero, he has brought in a wave of ludicrousness with a graphic genius. The director, through his years in filmmaking, has developed an artistic mind where he continues to enthrall the audience with his characters, writing, direction, and music. He has gone from directing fantasy films to superhero films, horror films, and even historical dramas. Let’s just say that he has almost been successful in all of them. Here is a list of top 12 Tim Burton movies.
12. Big Eyes (2014)
One of the most recent works by the enigmatic filmmaker; ‘Big Eyes’ is a biographical film starring Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz. Based on Adams’ character Margaret Keane – a painter famous for drawing paintings and portraits with big eyes, she is challenged by her husband, who claims to be the original painter. What follows is a courtroom trial between the two. Set in the Jazzy-America of 1950, the film’s music has a certain tinge and is a treat to the ears. What leaves a mark is the lead pair’s tremendous performance combined with an engaging screenplay by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, who managed to make the audience question society and its relevance. The film is another critical brilliance and received immense praise for its thought-provoking ideas and concepts, which were raised even more by Adams and Waltz’s performances.
11. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is one of the most beloved tales. Who is better than Burton to direct the classic? While ‘Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory’ (1971) was a brilliant adaptation of the Roald Dahl classic, Burton’s movie was more true to its origin. Another collaboration of Burton, Depp and Danny Elfman, the 2005 film is visual delicacy to watch. What is more attention-grabbing is the fact that the director chose to avoid using too many digital effects. Furthermore, to employ visual imagery, he applied forced perspective techniques, over-sized props and scale models to avoid computer-generated imagery. The results were amazing, as it added to the absurd imagery. Burton was successful in creating something which is very difficult, i.e. representing the literary devices as a pictorial image. The film was met with positive reviews from critics and was a success among fans of the book as well as others.
10. Big Fish (2003)
Tim Burton received immense heat for his 2001 science fiction project, ‘Planet of the Apes’. With ‘Big Fish’ (2003), the 58 year old director redeemed his reputation. The 2003 fantasy comedy-drama film pens a simple story of a man’s relationship with his father. Inspired by Daniel Wallace’s ‘Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions,’ Burton infuses his knack for creating a fantasy world out of the ordinary with artistic and visual storytelling. He luminously transmutes a tale of forbidding realities of death, betrayal and riffs into a sketch of a heart-warming narrative on the father-son relationship. The film is a classy amalgamation of Burton’s directorial exploits, John August’s spellbinding writing, Philippe Rousselot’s visual cinematographic elegance, and Danny Elfman’s striking music, all accompanied by the cast’s deft understanding and portrayal of the characters. ‘Big Fish’ was deservedly praised by many critics.
9. Batman Returns (1992)
A sequel to Tim Burton’s ‘Batman’ (1989), the film built upon its predecessor’s success and introduced us to new characters and themes. With Keaton reprising his role as the caped crusader, Burton brought in Michelle Pfeiffer for the nifty Catwoman, Danny DeVito for long-nosed Penguin, and Christopher Walken for the corrupt business tycoon Max Shreck. The story is a continuation of the story of the mysterious Bruce Wayne, struggling with his alter ego, who is posed with a new challenge when Max Shreck and Penguin team up to take over Gotham City. Things go haywire for him when he comes across the puzzling Catwoman and falls for her. Like its antecedent, ‘Batman Returns’ faced several problems as Burton was initially hesitant to direct the sequel. However, once in production, the film went on to become a masterpiece. Burton’s 1992 flick developed upon the action sequences and the clever writing of characters just proved Burton’s distinction in the art.
8. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
Based on a Victorian melodramatic tale of Sweeney Todd, an English barber who, along with his accomplice Mrs Lovett, would kill their customers with razors and process their victims’ corpses into meat pies. Casting Johnny Depp as the titular serial killer and Helena Bonham Carter as his notorious co-conspirator, ‘Sweeney Todd’ dexterously adapted a serious and dark topic into a musical and quite disturbingly humorous story. What makes Burton’s adaptation so brilliant is that even though his movie is a remake of the Stephen Sondheim musical, it is teeming with classic Burton themes and motifs. ‘Sweeney Todd’ embraces the thematic representations of love, revenge, insanity and gore. Upon its release, the film garnered immense praise from critics and fans alike, and the lead characters’ performances were equally appreciated.
Even though the film had a brief interruption due to Depp’s daughter’s severe health condition, the actor pulled off a brilliant act where he articulately grasped the griming nature of the fictionalized serial killer as well as presented Tim Burton’s twisted sense of humor. The cinematography added to the gothic quintessence, and Sondheim’s music was artistically translated into the director’s idea of thought. With Sondheim himself appreciating the rendition, ‘Sweeney Todd’ amassed 86 % positive reviews (out of 221) and bagged quite many nominations and won some, including the Academy Award for Best Art Direction (Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo).
7. Beetlejuice (1988)
Tim Burton can quite possibly be the pioneer of merging horror with comedy and 1988s ‘Beetlejuice’ is a perfect example of that. With his previous venture i.e. ‘Pee-wee’s Big Adventure’ (1985), it was a well-established fact that the filmmaker has a certain attraction towards dizzyingly imaginative stories. As his first directorial debut was a hit, many scriptwriters were interested in working with Burton but were blatantly rejected due to the lack of originality and fancy. It was the duo, Michael McDowell and Warren Skaaren who managed to catch Burton’s quintessential brain. The movie draws inspiration from the classic “ghost-haunting” stories where the ghosts try to scare away new inhabitants. Starring Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis and Michael Keaton as the ghosts and Catherine O’Hara, Jeffrey Jones and Winona Ryder as the human inhabitants, ‘Beetlejuice’ was a map into Burton’s bizarre world.
The film is heavily influenced by B-movie horror, and its campiness and visual qualities are brought to life by stop-motion, prosthetics, and puppets. While McDowell’s original script was much darker with little comedic elements, Burton decided to hire him to re-write the script along with Skaaren and so giving birth to this cinematic brilliance. ‘Beetlejuice’ was met with criticism and commercial triumph, winning the Academy Award for Best Makeup – thanks to Steve La Porte, Ve Neill, and Robert Short and also spawning an animated television series of the same name.
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6. Frankenweenie (2012)
A remake of Burton’s own 1984 short film of the same name, ‘Frankenweenie’ (2012) is a 3D stop-motion-animated fantasy horror comedy re-imagination of the classic tale. Written by John August, Lenny Ripps and Burton, the 2012 film is about a boy named Victor, who upon losing his dog, a Bull Terrier named Sparky, uses the power of electricity to resurrect him only to be blackmailed by his peers into revealing how they too can reanimate their deceased past pets and other creatures, resulting in complete pandemonium. The movie is a tongue-in-cheek parody of the 1931 revolutionizing film Frankenstein. Shot as a black-and-white film, it was the first one of its kind to be released in IMAX 3D. Like all Burton creations, the film oozes with thematic representations of death, denial, emotions, and morals, which are heightened by a talented voice cast, queer music, and a visually engaging cinematograph.
5. Ed Wood (1994)
This was practically homage to B-movie legend Ed Wood. Much of Burton’s style and forte of directing campy films is credited to the American filmmaker of the fifties. Starring Johnny Depp as the titular character, ‘Ed Wood’ is a 1994 biographical period comedy-drama film that gathered critical commendation. This was ironical, given Ed Wood’s reputation as one of the worst directors ever. Set in 1950s Hollywood, the film chronicles the director’s trying to achieve his ambition and dream despite the stinging disapproval and lack of support. The film was Depp’s second collaboration with Burton and gave him the chance to venture out into a different character-set and essentially build a strong foundation of friendship and trust between the two, spawning many more collaborations.
The screenplay, written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, is a seamless and unspoiled tribute to a panned yet cult director. The cinematography captured the spirit of 1950s Hollywood, which had a sudden thrust of multiplicity due to the introduction of television and other forms of visual entertainment. An instant classic, the film went on to win several accolades, including the Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor (Martin Landau, who played Ed Wood’s love interest Bela Lugosi) and Best Makeup (Rick Baker, Ve Neill and Yolanda Toussieng).
4. Corpse Bride (2005)
A credit shared by Mike Johnson and Tim Burton, ‘Corpse Bride’ is a stop-motion-animated musical fantasy film set in a fictionalized Victorian village. This was his first full-feature stop-motion-animated film and was successful in mastering this category of filmmaking. Based on an old Jewish folklore, Burton sketches out a story about a young man voiced by frequent collaborator Johnny Depp who unwittingly gets married to an “undead” wife who Helena Bonham Carter voices. Burton quite artistically adapts the Jewish tale into a Victorian-age narrative, which is packed with traditional Victorian-age characteristics – lack of morality, rapid industrialisation, and stinking poverty.
Burton also employs his favorite tools of whimsy and macabre, which act as a visual portrait of his mind. The voiceover cast is exceptional, with both Depp and Carter perfectly encapsulating the audience’s imagination with their adroit sense and command of interpreting human emotions. ‘Corpse Bride’ was a critic and fan favorite, with the film grossing over $100 million worldwide and gathering a variety of honors, including a nomination for the 78th Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature (losing out to Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit).
3. Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985)
The directorial debut of the queer filmmaker, ‘Pee-wee’s Big Adventure’ (1985) served as the archetypal future Burton creations. Written and performed by Paul Reubens, the film is about an eccentric yet unripe man-child who sets out on a journey to find is adored bike. The debutant clearly established his art of filmmaking which contained bold ideas, audacious characters and ingenious storytelling. The flick managed to pull-off a strange yet faultless story which appealed to both the audiences – young and old alike. It did receive some flak, though, with Chicago Tribune film critic Gene Siskel claiming it to be “one of the worst movies of 1985”.
However, much of the criticism for overindulgence of slapstick comedy and immaturity are now seen as a comment on the society in the advent of the modern age. With the core plot inspired from the 1948 Italian classic ‘The Bicycle Thief’ and deployment of Paul Reubens ‘The Pee-wee Herman Show’ (1981), the film’s themes and narrative garnered financial success, which achieved cult status and resulted in the birth of two sequels – ‘Big Top Pee-wee’ (1988) and Pee-wee’s Big Holiday’ (2016).
2. Batman (1989)
“I was never a giant comic book fan” – is what Tim Burton said in one of his initial interviews when the world got to know that he was the new creator of the caped crusader on the big screen. Adding to this, Burton selected an actor who was primarily known to do comic roles to don the iconic character. Naturally, fans were not happy. However, every cloud of doubt disappeared once it was released in theatres. Starring Michael Keaton as the World’s Greatest Detective Batman; Kim Basinger as Batman’s romantic interest Vicki Vale and Jack Nicholson as the arch nemesis The Joker, ‘Batman’ hit the right spot with both audiences and critics. The director employed dark humour, comic-book corresponding visuals and despicable villains to create an apt superhero movie.
The film is bursting with inspirations from Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s ‘The Killing Joke’ and Frank Miller’s ‘The Dark Knight Returns’ and adapting ‘The Red Hood ’ for the origin of The Joker, which makes is so true to the roots. Nicholson’s portrayal of the psychotic Joker was bang on and managed to create a fitting foe for the Dark Knight. Burton did make several changes though, changing The Joker’s origin by introducing his alter-ego, a gangster named Jack Napier. The gothic music combined with a tinge of superhero inspiration by Danny Elfman elevated the film’s success. The brilliant work of thoughts and ideas between the director and the screenplay writers, Sam Hamm and Warren Skaaren, produced a tremendous story and spawned a fitting sequel which is a work of brilliance in its own right.
1. Edward Scissorhands (1990)
This is the director’s favourite film and might be his best creation. Written, director and produced by Burton himself, it has the director’s genius all over it. Releasing in 1990, ‘Edward Scissorhands’ was a story about an artificial man with scissor blades instead of hands who is taken in by a suburban family after living years in isolation. Caroline Thompson and Tim Burton’s beautiful writing procreated a story which has an essence of emotional depth which connected to all on a transcendental level. The first collaboration between Depp and Burton, the film is a reflection of the fantasy of gothic exquisiteness. The performance by Depp was met with immense praise which built a foundation of successful future associations between the actor and director.
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