Nothing says Halloween quite like a Tim Burton film. Visually, Tim Burton is one of the most recognisable directors in the world. His visual sets, use of light and Gothic elements is the style that Burton is renowned for. Tim Burton is often listed among the directors considered ‘auteurs’ due to their ability to input their distinguished style created from their own unique imagination and personality into their feature films. Another example of an auteur is Edgar Wright, whose style I have discussed in another blog article linked.
In The Beginning
Time Burton’s reputation of the eccentric filmmaker in the 1970’s, breaking through the competition as an animator and storyboard artists, which helped him progress into one of cinemas most recognised and known directors. Burton as stated in previous interviews that his work was influenced from eccentric forms of art including paintings, books and other films. One major influence for his work comes from German Expressionism movement in the 1920’s, where oblique camera angles, distorted settings and exaggerated makeup was used in conjunction with science-fiction or horror games.
Burton’s began his career in the animation genre, creating one of his most iconic trademark flairs. His participated in many motion pictures features during the earlier parts of his career, showing admiration for stop-animation and used an 8mm camera to make short feature films in his own home. His early work such as ‘Stalk of the Celery Monster’ drew on his childhood heroes Dr. Seuss and Roald Dahl, drawing the attention of Walt Disney Animations. While his work with Disney was short-lived he was able to develop his own short film during his time at Disney, Vincent (1982) that was a black and white short narrated by the great late Vincent Price. His visual style and story telling is already prominent.
It is now difficult to imagine a Tim Burton film without the accompaniment of the work of songwriter and composer Danny Elfman. Their collaboration began with Burton’s first feature film, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, which was well-received by many critiques but failed to truly show Burton’s unorthodox potential. Following this success in 1988 Burton deliver the now iconic Beetlejuice to the screen. While a foray away from the animation, he followed in the footsteps of the German Expressionist formula with live action. Unlike the majority of his work, the story was not a Burton original it matched with his bizarre story favouritism and visual potential that is his now trademark style. Without his move to live action we would never have been given great scenes such as this:
His Entrance Into The Mainstream
Once Burton’s has reached Hollywood status, known for his dark, gothic style. This style was one of the reason Burton was chosen to restart the Batman franchise in 1989, it has been highly debated as to whether or not this re-boot was a batman film or a Tim Burton film, with many comic book fans believe it to stray away from the original source material and its ranking in the franchise varies. Personally, I think Tim Burton’s dark gothic approach alongside Michael Keaton’s portrayal of Batman do the universe justice. I mean, who can forget this iconic portrayal of the Joker?
In 1993, Burton’s stop animation style broke through into the mainstream with ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’. While not a direct of the film he has been specifically attributed to the success of the film with its adaptation form his original story and animation style. It has now been accepted as a cultural favourite during the Halloween season as well as Christmas.
So now you know where Tim Burton started, what do you think of his current films? Do you think he has lost his touch? Do you have a favourite childhood Tim Burton film?