Tim Burton Research Paper

Words: 896
Pages: 4

Blue tinted glass, frizzy, unkempt hair and an oddly cartoonish face perfectly describes describe one filmmaker who has made his mark on the industry with his gothic style and imaginative eye. Tim Burton’s creative career spans more than 30 years starting with his formative years working for Walt Disney Animation Studios in California on films, such as The Fox and The Hound and The Black Caldron, to his later work on films like The Nightmare Before Christmas, Beetlejuice, and The Batman trilogy (1998-1995) (Franga 23). Throughout the years, Burton’s work gained a large cult following due to his ability to create lovable loner characters and humanize the outsiders in both the real world and the make believe. Even though Burton has struggled …show more content…
Even though the storyline and character was determined before Burton joined the team, he still managed to insert elements of own personal style into the film. It was at this time, Burton meet and began the start of his over 20 year collaborative relationship with composer Danny Elfman. Soon after, Burton found the chance to direct his own, original feature length film Beetlejuice. An offbeat, dark comedy about a couple who unexpectedly die and find themselves looking to a afterlife spirit named Beetlejuice to help them scare a new family out of their home. It is during this film that Burton’s signature style comes out in full glory. Beautifully saturated colors fill the screen once again and this time so do original designs, creatures, and concepts from Burton’s imagination (McKenna 59). After the success of Beetlejuice, Burton was offered the opportunity to direct the Batman movie. Despite apprehension from both fans of the superhero franchise and critics, Burton found a balance between his dark imagination and the world of the Dark Knight. Much to audience's surprise, the director was successful with the film. After Batman, Burton went back to the originality of his imagination and made the film Edward Scissorhands. This film is one of Burton’s best execution with the main theme of the outsider in town. Edward Scissorhands allowed Burton to make a rather intimate film about an outcast living in the world of 1950-60s suburbia. The film combines elements of monster horror movies and quite, solidarity of being an outcast. One author make the comparison that Burton uses the vessel of Edward as a means to highlight the reality of how society treats outcast and people who are dirrect from the “normal”, she