Tim Burton Was Asked Why His Movies Stand Out
Tim Burton’s movies have a memorable visual style that keeps fans coming back to them again and again. The Batman director himself was asked what makes his movies different and his response was unusual. Burton noted that even people who aren’t film buffs can sense his aesthetic.
Tim Burton’s movies take inspiration from a slew of oddities
Burton’s films combine some of the dark, distorted visuals of silent horror films like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari with elements of fairy tales and Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion creations. He’s also heavily pulled from Gothic fiction, such as the Edgar Allan Poe adaptations starring horror legend Vincent Price. While he usually makes color films, he still emphasizes black and white in his color palettes. Even when his movies have subpar stories, they’re usually interesting to look at, whether you are touring the spooky 18th-century woods of Sleepy Hollow or the dingy Underland of Alice in Wonderland.
During a 2007 interview with Total Film, Burton was asked what made his movies “Burton-esque.” “I try not to think about it,” he replied. “No honestly, I’ve always hated labels. It’s like we all get labeled from the day we start going to school.”
How Tim Burton feels about fan reactions to his films
Despite this, the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory director said it’s nice to know that his movies are distinctive. “But I guess I consider it flattering because when you make a movie, you hope at the end that people can recognize you in it, even if they don’t know your work or whatever,” he said. “I mean you watch a Roman Polanski film and you know it’s Polanski. [David] Cronenberg, too. I think it’s a compliment if people recognize something in it, even if they don’t like it.”
A reporter told Burton that even people who know little about movies can sense his aesthetic. “You see, that’s meaningful to me because that has nothing to do with money or box office or anything like that — it just has to do with the connection that I find really strong and emotional,” he said. “And that’s what makes me the happiest, that connection. It’s like [The Nightmare Before Christmas]. That’s had the strangest life because it did OK and then took on a life of its own.”
The movies that inspired a visionary
Vox reports that Burton’s artistry is so famous that it inspired a museum exhibit. In 2009, the Museum of Modern Art presented a popular exhibit called “Tim Burton and the Lurid Beauty of Monsters,” which explored the director’s influences. As part of the exhibit, Burton named a few of the movies that inspired him.
The list included stop-motion movies like Jason and the Argonauts and The Brain from Planet Arous, Gothic classics like the Bela Lugosi versions of Dracula and The Raven, and B-movie oddities like Edward D. Wood, Jr.’s Plan 9 from Outer Space and Bride of the Monster. Put these all together in a blender, and you’ll get a taste of the imagery of films like The Nightmare Before Christmas, Beetlejuice, and Edward Scissorhands. If you’re a Burton fan and want to understand why his work is so unusual, watching any one of these films is a good place to start.
