Independent Study: Tim Burton
Introduction
“A pale, frail-looking, sad-eyed man with hair that
expressed much more than last night’s pillow
struggle… I remember the first thing I thought was,
‘Get some Sleep,” writes Johnny Depp, a long time
associate actor of Tim Burton, in his forward to Burton
on Burton (Burton, Salisbury and Depp, Burton on
Burton x).
The image that Depp puts forth is that of a man-child
who inspires through his camera, images of gothic
landscape and images of demonic clown along with the
Dickensian downheartedness and loneliness of a
socially unaccepted protagonist as in Edward
Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow, and Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory.
Burton in his work puts forth an absolute mess and as
self-described as “happy-go lucky manic-depressive”
(Breskin), in the same way, like his physical
description penned down by Johnny Depp. Tim Burton
has brought forth a style of films that transcends
conventional genre and explanations (Burton and Fraga
vii).
In his first short film, Vincent, Berton recalled the tale
of a young man who dreamed of becoming a prince but
was trapped in his suburban home, the story of a fairy
tale gone wrong.
This shows his love for the queer and the odd. Laurent
Tirard points out that Berton “grew up fascinated by
vampires, zombies, and cheap horror films,” which
created an everlasting influence on his romanticizing
with the “weirdness as embodied by all sorts of
hilariously marginal creatures” (Moviemakers’ master
class: private lessons from the world’s foremost
directors 91). Berton is particularly definite in
portraying these magical creatures and he almost
becomes the spokesperson of the queer.
His movies are visual poetry that shows the beauty
behind the demonic and the beast-like creatures.
Burton himself confessed that the ideas he gets are a
“little too dark” that represents his personality’s
“negative side” (Tirard 94). So how far are the ideas
and images reflected in the films created by Berton
reflects the real him, and how has come out of the
influence of his upbringing and childhood.
Alternatively, is it that Berton sees things in a dark,
gothic, manner, almost like a vision that renders a
novel portrayal of the comic book characters or those
from classic texts? Burton’s genius as a creator is
skillfully described by Johnny Depp as “an artist, a
genius, an oddball, an insane, brilliant, brave,
hysterically funny, loyal, nonconformist” (Burton,
Salisbury and Depp xii).
These qualities penned down by Depp about Burton
are true and are reflected in his films. In this paper, an
attempt is made to understand Burton as a rebellious
and nontraditional artist and filmmaker.
This paper is a study of the life and work of Tim
Burton. The paper tries to understand what Burton
spoke through his films and how and why he was
influenced to make such dreamlike (almost
nightmarish) movies that transcend viewers into a
gothic paradise of satire, horror imagery, and a post-
modern rendition of classic fables and texts. Burton’s
movies ushers a new culture of film that inspires awe
as well as amazement.
His use of animation in movies to portray whimsically
magical creatures that were otherwise marginalized in
the original story points to a new marginalized world.
The paper takes a deep look into Berton’s early life had
an impact on the films he made. Further, the paper also
analyzes the movies of Berton and tries to unravel the
mystery elements of the movies and bring out the
salient features that make Berton’s movies belong to a
very different class of its own.
Early Life
Tim Burton was born on 25 August 1958, in Burbank,
California (Lee 13). Burton belonged to a lower-
middle class family and had a younger brother. Burton
as a child was an introvert and felt like a misfit in the
suburban society. He grew up listening to punk rock
and watching cheap horror movies.
His early idol filmmaker was Vincent Price. Though
Berton did not shine in traditional academics, his
artistic talent and penchant for creativity surfaced early
when he used to paint decorations for his neighbors
during Christmas and Halloween to make money.
Later, at the age of 18, Berton received a scholarship to
attend California Institute if the Arts.
In 1979, Burton joined Disney as an animator and
started working on his first project Te Fox and the
Hound. Then he started working as a concept artist but
his ideas were rarely used as it was considered too dark
for Disney’s peppy image. In 1982, he directed his first
short film Vincent, which was a stop-motion animation
film about a seven-year old boy.
From the very first movie Burton exposed audiences
with his unique visions and gothic imagery that later
became signature style for the filmmaker. In 1984, he
made Frankenweenie that recounted story of a young
Victor Frankestein who breathes life into his dead pet
dog. It was not until 1985, after leaving Disney; Burton
received commercial success with the movie, Pee-
wee’s Big Adventure.
This movie built his initial reputation as a commercial
filmmaker. Burton’s love for the horror and weird
continued with Bettlejuice (1998) which was a bigger
commercial hit. This movie brought Burton to
international fame as it won an Oscar for best make-up.
Burton’s fame erupted more with the release of the
1989 Batman movie.
However, Burton’s artistic talent as a filmmaker was
established with Edward the Scissorhands in 1990.
This movie reiterated the significant dark imagery
typical of Burton’s movies. The film was based in
suburban America of Edward, a maddeningly original
character, who had been artificially created. The movie
brings in along with Edward, a typically suburban
American life in the 1950s with stereotypical pulp
fiction characters.
His other films released in the 1990s were Batman
Returns (1992), Ed Wood (1994), Batman Forever
(1995), Mars Attack! (1996), and Sleepy Hollow
(1999). In the 2000s, Burton directed movies like
Planet of the Apes (2001), Big Fish (2003), Charlie and
the Chocolate Factory (2005), Sweeny Todd (2007),
and Alice in Wonderland (2010). These films received
mixed critical reviews and popularity. However,
Burton’s ability to create a unique form of film that
brings forth a vision of the dark and queer cannot be
doubted.
Every film has been categorized to represent various
facets of the culture, gender, biographical, etc. are
discussed in greater detail when we try and understand
what Burton’s movies speak of in the next section.
Burton’s movies are believed to be his expression of
his rebellious nonconformist attitude, his love for the
queer, and influence of pop culture and art. The paper
will analyze a few movies by Burton to understand
what he tried to express as an artist and what
influenced his non-conventional style of filmmaking.
Burton’s Creativity
Art, Pop Culture, and Burton
“I think best when I’m drawing.” – Tim Burton
(McMahan 20)
In his early childhood at Burbank, Burton was a
product of a “benignly dysfunctional family” (Burton,
Magliozzi and He 9). He had an “odd” relationship
with his father. In his early childhood, Burton
describes himself both as a practical joker and an
introvert (9). His favorite pastime was to hibernate to
his room and eventually moved in with his
grandmother. Burton was never a reader, even of comic
books as he felt there were too many words and
“Drawing and visual media were his pain-relievers”
(10).
The early childhood scrapbooks of Burton
demonstrates that even as a boy Burton was a
voracious consumer of the pop culture through his
collection of greeting cards, lists of sci-fi and horror
movies, sketches of his favorite star Vincent Price, and
posters that he created for horror films (Burton,
Magliozzi and He 10). His collection of newspaper
cartoonists such as Henry Syverson (Saturday Evening
Post), Gahan Wilson (National Lampoon), and Angelo
Torres (Mad Magazine) show his interest in the satire
of the culture and the conventional.
All these cartoonists brought forth their caricature of
the American way of life through wry witness of the
battle of the sexes, cultural satires, and adult cartoons.
These cartons left a lasting influence on Burton’s
sensibility through his efforts to imitate their drawing
styles. His school assignments also helped in
inculcating the pop artist in Burton.
In 1975, an assignment was given to Burton to write a
paper on “Humor in America”. It was apparent that
Burton from his very early childhood wanted to be a
non-conformist, a rebelled against the “ordinary way of
life” that Burbank fathers so cherishingly upheld
(Burton, Magliozzi and He, Tim Burton 10).
Burton was then accepted at CalArts that provided an
unique opportunity to him to explore and exploit his
artistic talent. Though his classroom sketchbooks
contain conventional still lives and art instructions, but
it provided Burton with the environment to explore
many possibilities of his rebellious imagination that
helped him create creatures such as “bizarre aliens,
humanoid insects, and battling dinosaurs.” (Burton,
Magliozzi and He, Tim Burton 10).
His artistic talents were dubbed to be “the kind of raw
talent the Disney instructors expected could be trained
to serve the company.” (Burton, Magliozzi and He,
Tim Burton 10) Burton’s graduation project a four
minute animated film named The Stalk of the Celery
Monster (1979) showed a story of a mad torturing
doctor’s chamber to a dentists’ clinic. The short movie
is a whimsical sketchbook that demonstrates his love to
merge the gothic with the real world.
Burton had a close connection between his visual and
performing art. Art no doubt had a lasting impact on
the way he conceived his films. His inspirations came
from the cartoon strips from newspapers from his early
childhood to the cartoons that studied women, men,
and couples, and watercolor and pen and ink renditions
of the 1980s.
Burton through his love of art and the weird created a
pop Cubism. In the 1980s Burton created a
wonderfully pencil illustrated animation. These
represented his ability as an adept storyteller whose
voice was overshadowed by Gothic characters and
visual effects.
Burton as a child was introvert and in a maintained a
socially alienated life. His characters right from the
very beginning (e.g. Vincent , Edward Scissorhand,
etc.) shows that he had a “loner mentality” (Burton,
Magliozzi and He 13).
He was greatly influenced by the Pop Surrealist culture
that evolved during the phase of Burton’s childhood
and his professional career in form of tattoo art, pinups,
comics, toys etc. this art form removed itself from the
conventional modern abstract paintings and art to
demonstrate a more representative art form.
Burton too was influenced by the Pop Surrealist culture
that developed during the time and its influence can be
remarkably found in his films and personal projects
such as his paintings (e.g. Blue Girl with Wine, 1997)
and his extra-large Polaroid photographs (Burton,
Magliozzi and He 13).
It is believed that the flow of the fluids in his films as
in the rivers of chocolate in Charlie and the Chocolate
Factory (2005) or the gushing blood from Sweeny
Todd: The Demon barber of Fleet Street (2007)
represent Burton’s homage to the Pop Surrealists.
Further in his depiction of physical mutilation in
characters such as “stitched Sally, the tattooed Blue
Girls or the pierced Pin Cushion Queen” (14) in
Nightmare, Burton reveals his affiliation to the punk
body art capturing the pop Surrealist art. He adopted
other pop Surrealistic characters:
In line with the figurative nature of Pop Surrealism,
Burton delights in the exaggerated manipulation of the
body. Japanese transformation toys were important
early influence and his drawings often picture
anthropomorphic creatures – part man, animal, and
machine – in the grip of some transformative emotion.
His attention to the creature-like qualities of his
characters is a way for him to access their humanity:
the cartoon concept art for Batman and the Joker
emphasized their damaged psyches; the drawings of
Edward Scissorhands’s sinister bondage gear and jack
Sellington’s freakish emaciation translates to their
soulfulness on screen. (Burton, Magliozzi and He 14)
Most of Burton’s characters a hidden behind masks
and armors that re-emphasizes the “creatures lurking
within” as observed in the expressionist attire in the
Batman series, Planet of the Apes, Sleepy Hollow, and
Scissorhands.
Another specific character of Burton’s work is its
carnivalesque nature. Often his movies presents an
imagery of a circus or a fair ground entertainment. This
carnival inspired drama is present in movies like
Batman trilogy, Pee-wee, Beetlejuice, Mars Attack!,
and Charlie.
The presence of puppets, toys, clowns, scarecrows
represents his love for the carnival and circus
entertainment. Further, his sensibility for the carnival is
reinforced with use of contrasting primary colors,
stripes, and question marks. Typical of Burton’s
movies, a carnival, a parade, or a large sign usually
attracts sinister intentions.
As observed in many of his movies a merry parade
ends in a scene of mass destruction, as is Batman. A
visit to the chocolate factory in Charlie leads to corrupt
and physical abuse. In Nightmare Burton even
suspects, Santa Clause as a “colorful clown” and the
Christmas holiday too is put under scrutiny. Burton’s
affinity for clowns as the most misunderstood creatures
puts forth the human hypocrisy and duplicity and
opposing the stereotypical believes of man (Burton,
Magliozzi and He 14).
His movies are strewn with scenes where there are
direct conversation between adolescent and adulthood
that actually rebels against authority. And the last, but
most notable aspect of Burton’s creativity are his
heroes who are creatures of varied spheres be it a
forsaken loner sculpting ice and shrubs in Scissorhands
or surviving the Wonderland or slitting throats. They
are always a fair glimpse into the artistic and
imaginative mind of Tim Burton.
Pataphysical Cinema
An interesting term has been coined by Alison
McmAhan, author of the book The Films of Tim
Burton, called pataphysical cinema (The films of Tim
Burton: animating live action in contemporary
Hollywood 3). Pataphysics is the port modern version
of French surrealism and Dadaism.
Such films are characterized by their anti-institution
feeling that tries to make a satire of the existing
academic or scientific system, have an alternative
narrative, use of a lot of special effect, and movies are
made on thin plots and thinly drawn characters
(McMahan 3). Tim Burton is considered to be a
pataphysical filmmaker (McMahan 7).
These movies are representational cinema that floats
through the corridor of mainstream cinema. There are a
lot of messages inscribed in these films in term of
political message. This understanding of pataphysical
films helps understand more of filmmakers like Burton
who are a non-conformist race in the Hollywood.
It is believed that Burton’s storytelling through his
films undercuts the conventional Hollywood movies.
In a way, these movies run in parallel with the natural
storytelling with very little plot and an animated or
special effect filled ‘other’ anti-establishment message.
These special effect filled sections of the movies defies
the conventional avant-garde idea of art in theatre,
films, or any other form of visual arts.
One can argue that pataphysical cinema came into
filmdom from as early as the early twentieth century by
George Méliés who first started making trick films.
These movies are caste with a spectacle behind its
cinema. These movies acknowledge that animation and
video games are an alternative method of storytelling.
New digital technology has amazingly made the line
between animation and live action indistinct
(McMahan 10).
The drag driven model or the animation in films serves
as a voice against the institution and becomes a model
for the pataphysical cinema (McMahan 11). Burton’s
films are fine examples of pataphysical cinema, as
argued by McMahan, travel the fine line between
animation and live action, and successfully mix genres
and trends of filmmaking.
In Burton’s early movies, such as Vincent and
Frankenweenie this post-modern element is found in
abundance. These two movies are prototypes of
pataphysical cinema with their thin narrative that are
planned around portions of silence. Both the movies in
a way are mockingly challenge the suburban
traditionalist attitude and dull way of thinking.
Burton actually uses animation and special effect to
present a character that is nurtured by psychological
motivation and is devoid of any classical trait. This
makes Burton’s movies so different in approach.
Burton adopts animation and special effect to highlight
the anarchic plots that are structured around dazzling
sequences.
In a conventional way, all films are structured around
small sequences like musicals. But what makes these
genre of films different is that the comedy described in
these films are comedies that differ in the conventional
aesthetics of a comedy. In this section, a better
understanding of Burton’s movies is delineated
through the glasses of pataphysical cinema as
described by McMahan.
Both Burton, et al. (Tim Burton) and McMahan believe
that visual art, pop culture, and surrealism have a
strong influence on Burton’s work as an artist and a
filmmaker.
His imagination is strewn with the unthought-of and
rebellious anti-institutional characters. Nevertheless,
are his films really as eccentric and surreal as is
observed by the above-mentioned authors? Are they
representative of Pop Surrealism and pataphysical
cinema? Further analysis into the films of Burton is
done in the following sections to unravel and
rebellious, pop culture addict, weirdo-influenced
imagination of Burton.
Burton’s Movies
Tim Burton’s movies give a different feel to
conventional stories. The gothic element, use of
carnivalesque elements, genders, and many other
elements make them distinct from other dark movies.
However, the most important factor that sets Burton’s
movies aside is their psychoanalytic perspectives. In
the following section I will discuss the movies directed
by Burton.
Animation Movies
Dark animation movies were the beginning of s
signature style of Burton that he carried forward in his
later movies. This section discusses a few cartoon
movies made by Burton that shows the inspiration that
he draws for his films. His career began as an animator
with Disney though Burton himself states, “Disney and
I were a bad mix.” (Burton, Salisbury and Depp 9).
He directed The Black Couldron (1985) was a
medieval fantasy of a magical cauldron that could
produce armies of the undead (Burton, Magliozzi and
He 11). Burton produced a series of “satiric killing
machines” that demonstrated his liking for the gory.
The movie showed “monsterous baby incubators that
use infants as ammunition, and other radically un-
Disney-like, anthropomorphic creatures.” (11) during
his stay in Disney, Burton created a lot of projects such
as Nightmare before Christmas, Trick or Treat (1980),
True Love (1981-83), Dream Factory, Hansel and
Gratel (1983), and Vincent.
Burton in his career as an animator had made
innovative and successful use of two-dimensional and
three-dimensional animation. His 3-D animation begun
with Vincent wehre he used “2-D cel animation and 3-
D stop-motion animation” (McMahan 81).
Vincent begins with a 2-D sequence for its title with
Gothic lettering for the title on the wall. The next
sequence shows a cat runs in and jumps into a 3-D
house therefore showing a seamless transition from 2-
D to 3-D. as the cat enters the house Vincent picks it
up and the voice over narration relates: “Vincent
Malloy is seven year old. He’s always polite and does
what he’s told.
For a boy his age he’s considerate and nice. But he
wants to be just like Vincent Price” (McMahan 82).
Saying so, the scene changes with Vincent-the boy
transformed into Vincent Price the mad, scientist
persona. The cartoon movie had a distinctive theme of
death running throughout the movie.
Burton himself says that at one point when Vincent is
asked by his mother to go outside and enjoy the sunny
day, Vincent says “I am possessed by this house/ I can
never leave it again.” (McMahan 85) This is
reminiscent of the Gothic undertone of the movie so
characteristic of Burton’s movies. Vincent’s final
vision of his undead wife and a killer dog and his
eventual collapse on the floor, shows that he was
fantasizing of his own death, as explained by Burton
himself (McMahan 85).
The main theme of the movie is death though no
killing or murder sequence is shown in the movie.
Burton cleverly does not show any killing but
definitely shows the aftereffects or the feeling of
killing and death throughout the movie. The
animations created by Burton had a great impact on the
movie he made in his later career as most of his movies
were reminiscent of a distinctive cartoonish character.
Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985)
The first movie directed by Burton was Pee-wee which
has gained a cult status in moviemaking. It is one of
the most cartoon-like movies created by Burton that is
actually a live-action movie.
Actually, the movie uses two cartoon sections and
several stop-motion animation scenes. Pee-wee is
important as it parodies almost all genres from 1970s
television shows and soaps to late night commercials
for kitchen products: “… from the sporting event
opening, the product placement shots of the bike … the
police series … soap opera series like Dynasty, and
underwater action sequences from Tarzan.” (McMahan
52).
The movie is about Pee-wee who has an obsession and
feeling about his red bike. The movie opens in a dream
sequence with Pee-wee winning a cycle race on this
bike. When we wakes up there is a grown up man who
actually resembles a pubescent boy with childish
antiques and a distinct fear for women.
At times, he is also shown as a mechanical genius with
an elaborate machine set up on the breakfast table and
his childish liking for magic tricks. Pee-wee’s bike is
the envy of all the boys in the bloc and when he refuses
to sell it to the local bully Francis, the latter manages to
steal it from him.
Then Pee-wee emerges on an adventure to look for his
bicycle. The episode of searching for the bicycle takes
the audience through a world of animation, fantasy
characters, and special effects. The characters and the
incidents are definitely cartoon inspired – the way Pee-
wee enters a café with two large dinosaur statues, he
hops on a freight train and sings hobo songs, ultimately
reaching Alamo but not finding the bicycle.
The whole movie is based on narrative style of a
cartoon with little connection or logic to what is being
done by the characters. Critics have often stated that
Burton’s movies lack a classic narrative style however,
they often judge Burton’s movies benchmarked on
classic Hollywood narrative style. However, Burton
does not confirm to this style. In the Hollywood classic
narrative style, the protagonist usually has a moral
revelation that alters his/her life, however, in Pee-wee
no such thing occurs.
On the other hand it denies the normal behavioral
pattern followed by Hollywood movies that Pee-wee,
despite his self-absorption, makes a lot of friends
wherever he goes. In a way, the plot of Pee-wee is
“circular and episodic” indicating that each of the
events and scenes are “structured around a gag or a
series of gags” expressing the cartoon like character of
the movie (McMahan 54). In a way, with Pee-wee
Burton ushered in a new genre of movie making which
has been termed as pataphysical films (McMahan 58).
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1999)
The story of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was set in
1799. It is about Ichabod Crane (Johnny Depp) who is
a forensic detective with the police department. He is a
scientist in the Victorian style, caught in the schema of
“Gothic revival America” (McMahan 68). However,
the police department reluctant with the methods of
Crane, sends him to a remote village of Sleepy Hollow
where a series of mysterious murders have been
reported.
But as Crane enters the village, which reflects a
bucolic farm village with Dutch architecture, all the
doors are closed at his approach. Incidentally, he enters
a house that was hosting a party and gets introduced to
the other characters i.e. Katrina Van Tassel and Bram
von Brunt. Katrina’s father, Baltus Van Tassel, who is
also the wealthiest man in the village invites Crane to
stay in his house as long he has to solve his mystery.
Crane meets the elders of the town who tell him that a
headless equestrian who was killed two decades back
in the Western Woods was responsible for the
mysterious deaths in the village. The mystery once
unraveled shows that Lady Van Tassel, second wife of
Baltus’, had initially entered as a nurse to care for his
first wife (Katherine’s mother) to avenge a grievance to
her family and to get rich. Soon she kills Baltus’s first
wife and seduces him to marry her.
She was a witch who uses her powers to bring back the
dead Hessian who kills anybody at her bidding. She
also makes hessian kill all Ichabod meets the first night
at Sleepy Hollow. Ichabod a man of science at first
rejects the stories of Hessian but when he witnesses the
death of Magistrate Philipse he realizes that it is
actually true and appears to have a nervous breakdown.
However, once he regains consciousness he declares
that even though the horseman is supernatural, he is
controlled by a human and goes ahead to investigate
the case from a rational and scientific perspective. His
method makes him first suspect Baltus, who is killed
by the Horseman, and then Katherine. But then his
reasoning makes him suspect Lady Van Tassel and he
returns to the village just in time to save Katherine
from death. In the end, the Horseman carries Lady Van
Tassel to hell (McMahan 70).
The movie is strewn with Gothic elements as it has
been stated that Sleepy Hollow “was the first Gothic
horror movie in Tim Burton’s career” (McMahan 71).
But even in this movie Burton is found to make a
“hybrid genre film that combines two structures – fairy
tale and horror” (71).
The fairy tale like element is seen when Ichabod is sent
on a quest to look for the missing links between the
murders and the Horseman. He eventually solves the
problem and links the fairy tale like magic element of
the Horseman with his scientific forensic reasoning.
Here Burton uses to show masculine as the hero in
Ichabod and his scientific methods and the feminine is
the witch and her witchcraft.
The horror influence is seen at its best in the creation
of the character of serial-killer-psychopath incarnated
Lady Van Tussel who is a typical character out of any
low budget horror flicks. In Ichabod too Burton
presents a contradiction of his scientific love of
rational investigative forensic and his distaste for
“dirty, messy, insect-like, or at all scary” (McMahan
73).
According to Burton in Ichabod he portrayed a teenage
girl: “male action adventure hero who’s portrayed like
a thirteen-year-old girl” (McMahan 73). This is a
similar approach that Burton shows as in Pee-wee
where a grown up man shows the characters of a
pubescent boy.
Sweeny Todd (2007)
Sweeny Todd is an adaptation of musical and theatrical
drama based on a serial killer from London. The movie
begins one night with a ship that brings the characters
into London. London is shown as a dark city
accentuating the Gothic elements of the movie. The
real name of Todd is Benjamin Barker, who has been
framed by Judge Turnip, sexually abused his wife, and
took his daughter into his care whom he intends to
marry (Lee 68).
The world depicted by Burton is a world of men where
the strong and powerful can easily ruin the life of the
less privileged men. Todd takes revenge on his
vindicator through a series of murders that are shown
in the film. One of the striking elements of the film is
its adherence to cannibalism especially transformation
of Todd’s victims into meat pies that are devoured by
Mrs. Lovett’s customers. Todd initially intended to
take revenge on Turnip but starts getting pleasure out
of his killings.
The movie takes a more morbid turn as Mrs. Lovett
and Todd emerges on a killing spree that evades their
desire to rebel against the unequal class system in
seventeenth century England. But the taste of murder
makes them forget their desire to bring equality, rather
they too are engulfed in the cruel society and brings
out the cannibalistic idea of serving “human meat to
other humans” (Lee 71). Therefore, their idea of
brining equality is to serve the same food to all
indistinctively but also at the cost of cruelty against the
innocent.
Burton made a number of movies with his
characteristic treatment and discussion of all may not
be possible in this paper. However, all these movies
show a definitely distinct character and use of certain
elements are continuous in all of Burton’s films. The
next section discusses the various elements of Burton’s
films.
Analyzing Burton’s Movies
This section analyzes Burton’s movies based on a few
broad characters that are distinctly observed in
Burton’s movies such as use of themes such as Gothic,
fairy tale, gender and pop culture.
Fairy tale
Tim Burton’s love for fairy tales has been observed in
most of his movies where his gothic characters often
assume fairy tale like character. The elements of fairy
tale is most observable in Burton’s romantic fantasy
tale of Edward Scissorhands. The movie is about a
mild natured young man who was a creation of
scientific experimentation gone wrong and was fitted
with long scissors.
The young man, Edward, was marginalized from
normal society due to his queer appearance and
therefore was rejected by society. This movie was shot
in a sunny suburban neighborhood of America unlike
Burton’s signature love for dingy, dark urban labyrinth.
The movie is strewn with pulp-like characters out of a
comic book (like the neurotic housewife, a religious
fanatic, and a hairstylist who was a nymphomaniac) are
largely grotesque. In the end of the movie, Edward
saves a child from being hit by a car. As he was trying
to comfort the boy he accidentally cuts the face of the
child, which irate the townspeople who try to kill him.
Edward and Kim (his female friend) escape tot eh
castle where Edward used to stay and as they try to kiss
Kim’s jealous boyfriend Jim, who is killed in a
struggle with Edward, interrupted them. In the end
Kim tells the townspeople that Edward was dead too.
The movie is a fairy tale or parable and is shown as a
story being told by a grandmother to her
granddaughter. The grandmother tells the
granddaughter that it never snowed in the town until
Edward came to the town.
The movie ends as slivers of snow are blown out of the
castle window onto the peaceful town. The movie has a
characteristic ending of a fairy tale. In his other movies
too, Burton played with fairy tale elements and
presented them in a dark background as observed in
Sleepy Hollow or Sweeney Todd. In his own words
Burton says that fairy tale is mostly misrepresented by
popular culture as “all white” which is actually a
misinterpretation of the tales:
I think it does have to do with whatever that young
impulse is – whatever you want to call that. Who are
we? How are we created? What else is out there? What
happens when you die? All that stuff is unknown.
Everything is under the umbrella of life and death and
the unknown, and a mixture of good and bad, and
funny and sad, and everything at once.
It is weirdly complicated. And I find that fairy tales
acknowledge that. They acknowledge the absurdity,
they acknowledge the reality, but in a way that is
beyond real. Therefore, I find that more real. (Burton
and Fraga, Tim Burton: interviews 66).
In Scissorhands Burton depicts a fairy tale in the
narrative structure of the film. However, in a more
sophisticated manner with humor and pathos mingled
with the basic story. Burton’s work from Scissorhands
to Big Fish is reminiscent of the fairy tale narrative
structure. In a way, Scissorhands could be called
Burton’s version of Beauty and the Beast.
Gothic imagery
In order to understand the Gothic elements in Burton’s
movies it is unavoidable to understand what is meant
by Gothic. In the 17th and the 18th century, as science
and its predominance in man’s thinking became
predominant, it emerged an era of enlightenment that
questioned age-old social and religious teachings. The
forbearers of Enlightenment wanted to bear the light of
rational thinking on the magical and gullible thinking
of the past.
In other words, from the scientific rational, the Gothic
was chaotic and the new enlightened way of life was
more orderly. In a way, the Gothic was therefore,
connected with the “dark” side of human life.
Therefore, with the advent of the twentieth century
cinema, Gothic themes had always enthralled the
audiences and the filmmakers. This new genre of films
created a horror movie genre.
The creepy Gothic feel in Burton’s movies is a
signature style that can be found in all his movies
starting from Vincent through Sweeney Todd and
Alice in Wonderland. Gothic imagery are indisputably
present in all of Burton’s movies. In Edward
Scissorhands, Edward is found in the attic of a Gothic
castle that is found to be the dwelling place of the
protagonists in many of Burton’s creations.
The visual elements of Sleepy Hollow and Sweeney
Todd are Gothic in character. Burton’s films based on
fairy tale narrative such as Edward Scissorhands, The
Nightmare Before Christmas, and Sleepy Hollow and
his myth films such as batman, Batman Returns, Ed
Wood, and Planet of Apes are all set in modern Gothic
background and have been called examples of modern
Gothic (McMahan 67).
The reason being in the predominance of a “gloomy
and mysterious settings, menacing or nostalgic
soundtracks, the oppressive weight of the past upon the
present, supernatural and human evil, and a set of
décor that is usually an excessive combination of
medieval and rococo design style.” (McMahan 68)
Classic Gothic tales were characterized by human evil
in form of a father figure as in case of the creator of
Edward Scissorhands and Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood or
the aristocrat as oppressors as shown in Judge Turnip
in Sweeney Todd. The use of Gothic imagery is clearly
found in all of Burton’s movies, which were essentially
gothic in character in their very inception. Burton’s
movies show his likeness for the dark and light facets
of human life.
In Vincent, Burton pays homage to Vincent Price,
Edgar Allen Poe and other horror films made in of the
mid-20th century. The animation movie is drawn on
the Expressionist horror movie style and Burton uses a
stark contrast of a black and white palette.
The movie shows the horrors in human mind through
Vincent who is a boy who conforms to the otherwise
conventional way of a “normal” life. Vincent’s
association with the darker side of life and his
experimentations to reveal the darker side of life is
Gothic in character. Further, use of dark background
also helps in accentuating the Gothic feel.
In Edward Scissorhands Burton makes full use of a
Gothic narrative and grapples with the fearful unknown
that lies underneath the perfectly ‘normal’ suburban
life. It therefore, brings in the two worlds together the
dark, dejected world of Edward with the bright sunny
life of the townspeople.
In a way, Burton experiments with the idea of the
classical Gothic and transcends its meaning as the
classical Gothic and Burton’s re-invention of a modern
Gothic in the mind and heart of the townspeople is
collided in the film. Here on the key ideas taken from
classical Gothic narrative is putting normal people in
weird and extraordinary situations.
However, with the Edward being brought in the
depthless life of the pastel colored town, Edward is
asked to conform to the ideals set for him by the
normal understanding of the townspeople. But he is
soon dejected as a freak when Edward exposes mask of
normalcy behind which the suburban town hid itself.
In Ichabo, in Sleepy Hollow, Burton creates a Gothic-
style hero who fights with the superstitious unnatural
magic that encumbers the village of Sleepy Hollow
with his own belief in science and rational thinking.
The Gothic element in the movie is accentuated with
Gothic style background, castle, and the woods. This
movie is reminiscent of the Gothic mingling of rational
scientific mind and the unnatural, irrational, old age
superstitions in magic and the supernormal.
Burton’s portrayal of Gotham city is also a depiction of
the Gothic hero in batman who is a solitary soul
roaming around in a bat-suit at night and through the
dingy alleys of Gotham City.
Sweeney Todd is dark movie at its best that unveils the
evil residing in human conditions. As seen in Lady
Van Tussel in Sleepy Hollow who unleashes on a
murderous road with the headless Horseman, in
Sweeney Todd the protagonists too walk the path of a
murderous rampage and unleashes the demons residing
inside their soul. The fire of revenge consumes the
protagonists in the film. The reason, like Batman, is a
past trauma in Todd’s life that left him a divided being.
This desire for revenge disassociates Todd, as well as
Batman, from being the man he used to be therefore
traversing the path of bloodlust. In the barbaric
rendering of Sweeney Todd, Burton re-emphasizes on
the Gothic theme of the movie. Like the classic Gothic
tales that infuses nightmares, Sweeney Todd infuses
nightmares of cannibalism, an inexplicable human
crime and the ultimate treachery of tricking the
unwitting to commit this demonic act.
Another feature of Gothic tales is a disconnect with the
things that are normally accessible to human beings. In
case of Sweeney Todd is the disconnect of the natural
human feelings due to the past tragedy and separation
with his family. His wronged past suffocates of all
humane feelings from him and disassociates him from
the man he once was.
All these movies have a definitive Gothic feel and
Burton accentuates and plays with the normal and the
Gothic to bring forth the darker side of human mind
and heart rather than the scene or background.
Therefore, the Gothic elements in Burton’s movies are
more in the darker side of human mind than in the
landscape and architecture.
Gender
In Sleepy Hollow Burton portrays the supernatural and
the magic as female characterized through Lady Von
Tussel while the male lead character Ichabod portrays
the scientific reasoning.
Gender portrayal in Burton’s movies run from wicked
witch to dutiful daughter to the wicked child. In Sleepy
Hollow, Ichabod stands between these women and
their claim over the patriarchal society. Lady Van
Tussel is a classical portrayal of women who hunger
for power as their own and not through a man as
irrational, conniving, and heartless.
Burton shows Tussel as a dangerous feminist who uses
the man she betrayed to do the killings the she herself
wishes to commit. Tussel demonstrates an anti-
patriarchal force but not actually a feminist. She
actually uses her anger to meet personal goals rather
than for all female race. On the other hand, Katherine
uses her power to protect her father and Ichabod.
In other movies like Pee-wee Burton shows Pee-wee’s
fear of women and in Edward Scissorhands women in
the town are portrayed in a typical pulp-comic like
characters each with a distinct and unnatural character.
In Sweeney Todd again Burton brings forth the
heartless Mrs. Lovett who aids and actually gives the
idea of cannibalism to Todd. As in Alice in
Wonderland Burton depicts women as one who lack
identity through shape shifting. Gender though
transcends stereotypical roles in Burton’s movies; it
has a distinct character with usually women playing the
evil character.
Pop culture
The influence of popular culture and its adaptation in
Burton’s movies are evident. Burton in his movies
have shown a clear influence of fairy tales, fables,
horror movies made in the mid-nineties and the pulp
(comic) fiction.
Burton’s adaption of these styles are distinct in his
movies as he makes a parody of pop culture comic
characters in depicting his female characters in the
suburban town of Edward Scissorhands with distinct
characters of a nymphomaniac to a religious fanatic.
The use of Gothic style horror background and the
pastel shade in Edward Scissorhands that as if comes
out of the comic strips.
In his animation, movies Burton experimented with
proportions and in a way created pop cubism that are
distinct style of his animations (Burton, Magliozzi and
He, Tim Burton 12). Such character is observed in
certain movies as in case of Mars Attack where he
shows self-inflated people and a group of giggling
Martians who destroys the incompetent political,
media, and military machinery of the US (Burton,
Magliozzi and He, Tim Burton 12).
Burton’s movies also are reflections of Pop Surrealism
that Burton experienced as a child (Burton, Magliozzi
and He, Tim Burton 13). The Pop surrealism is
portrayed in Burton’s movies through the depiction of
exaggerated body in Burton’s movies.
Burton was influenced by Japanese transformation toys
in depiction of half human and half animal characters
of his drawings (Burton, Magliozzi and He, Tim
Burton 14) Burton’s movies shows a characteristic
masks that demonstrates the lurking of the evil creature
within. As in case of movies such as Batman films,
Planet of the Apes, Sleepy Hollow, and Edward
Scissorhands the use of mask and armor are evident.
This explains Burton’s love for the mingling of the
carnivalesque and his use of comedy and grotesque
juxtaposing each other. The carnival infused comedy
and drama representing surrealism is shown through
Burton’s use of clowns, puppets, and scarecrows in
Pee-wee, Beetlejuice, Mars Attack!, Big Fish, and
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Conclusion
The imaginative ideas as themes of Burton’s movies
are characteristics of this man-child director. His
movies are a combination of fables, fairy tales, horror
flicks and pop art. His movies represent fairy tales and
the Gothic. Burton uses pop surrealism to present his
idea of imagination and the duality in human heart
masked by their outwards appearance. These are the
running themes of Burton’s movies.
Works Cited
Breskin, David Watson A. “Tim Burton (Cover
Story).” 23 July 1992. Rolling Stone. Web.
Burton, Tim and Kristian Fraga. Tim Burton:
interviews. Mississippi: University Press of
Mississippi, 2005. Print.
Burton, Tim, Mark Salisbury and Johnny Depp. Burton
on Burton. London: Macmillan, 1995. Print.
Burton, Tim, Ron Magliozzi and Jenny He. Tim
Burton. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2009.
Print.
Lee, Sun Hee Teresa. How to Analyze the Films of
Tim Burton. Minnesota: ABDO, 2012. Print.
McMahan, Alison. The films of Tim Burton: animating
live action in contemporary Hollywood. New York:
Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005.
Print.
Tirard, Laurent. Moviemakers’ master class: private
lessons from the world’s foremost directors. New
York: Macmillan, 2002. Print.
