Tim Burton Is Legendary, But How Many Great Movies Has He Actually Made?
Hollywood is showing no sign of slowing down when it comes to greenlighting sequels decades after the originals hit theaters. The latest of these is Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, featuring the return of director Tim Burton and stars Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder. And the best part is that itās a pretty good sequel. Check out IGNās Beetlejuice Beetlejuice review for more.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice being a critical success was no sure thing. Burton may be one of the most acclaimed living American directors, but his career has yielded quite a few duds. In fact, Burton is a director whose lofty reputation hinges on a handful of truly great films from a specific portion of his career. Now that Beetlejuice Beetlejuice has hit theaters, letās take a look back at Burtonās filmography and why his reputation has endured despite directing more misses than hits.
New Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Official Trailer ScreenshotsThe Ups and Downs of Tim Burtonās CareerFollowing an early career as an animator, Muppet performer, and short film director, Burton basically exploded onto the scene with 1985ās Pee-weeās Big Adventure. Even in his first feature-length project, Burtonās unique voice and sense of style were readily apparent. In fact, star and Pee-wee creator Paul Reubens specifically picked Burton to direct the big-screen spinoff based on the strength of Burtonās vision in 1984ās Frankenweenie (a short that Burton would later remake as a feature-length film in 2012).
Burton would quickly go on to create a string of hits in the late ā80s and early ā90s, including 1988ās Beetlejuice, 1989ās Batman, 1990ās Edward Scissorhands, and 1994ās Ed Wood. These films became a showcase for his unique storytelling voice and visual sensibilities. They were presented as dark fairytales featuring lonely social outcasts, usually inhabiting Gothic landscapes. Whether Burtonās films are entirely fictional or based on real-life events, he developed a knack for focusing on a specific type of oddball dreamer. Are Johnny Deppās Edward Scissorhands and Michael Keatonās Batman really so different?
Burton also quickly began to show a tendency to collaborate with the same partners again and again. Keaton, Depp, and Reubens appeared frequently in these early films. The filmmakerās distinctive eye was also bolstered by the equally unmistakable music of Danny Elfman (who to date has scored all but three of Burtonās films).
The first decade-and-a-half of Burtonās career was basically all hits.
The first decade-and-a-half of Burtonās career was basically all hits, apart from perhaps 1996ās Mars Attacks! However, that came to a screeching halt with the release of 2001ās Planet of the Apes remake. While a showcase for how far makeup and costuming had come since the 1968 original, Burtonās Apes was nonetheless a complete critical misfire and a pale shadow of the Charlton Heston classic.
From there, Burtonās track record became far more spotty. 2003ās Big Fish is an enjoyable, if perhaps overly sentimental, meditation on the importance of stories and the relationships between fathers and sons. 2007ās Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a competent adaptation of the Broadway musical. And 2014ās Big Eyes was a brief return to form that proved Burton still knows his way around a biopic.
But in between those few hits are an awful lot of misses. 2005ās Charlie and the Chocolate Factory may be more faithful to the Roald Dahl novel, but itās another remake that falls well short of the original film. 2010ās Alice in Wonderland is the poster child for Disneyās live-action remake obsession. It made plenty of money, for sure, but itās also a bloated, plodding mess. 2012ās Dark Shadows is far from Burton and Deppās finest hour. And 2016ās Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children delivers a disappointing answer to the fascinating question of āWhat if Burton directed an X-Men movie?ā For a director who once fired on all cylinders, Burton has become an artist who seems to flounder more often than not.
The director is widely regarded as one of the great American filmmakers, but that reputation is mostly built on a specific, early part of his career. So what exactly went wrong?
Why Arenāt There More Great Burton Films? Why did Burtonās track record as a director tank so suddenly and dramatically in the ā00s? Itās hard to pinpoint an exact reason why things went south so abruptly with Planet of the Apes. But at least in part, it probably has a lot to do with the great contradiction of Burtonās artistic career. Heās a director known for crafting deeply sentimental and personal films, yet he very rarely works with original material.
Looking back at Burtonās filmography, nearly everything is either an adaptation (Pee-wee, Batman, Planet of the Apes, Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, etc.) or a biopic (Ed Wood, Big Eyes). Itās rare to see Burton working with a wholly original story. The few exceptions include 1990ās Edward Scissorhands, 2005ās Corpse Bride, and 1993ās The Nightmare Before Christmas (undoubtedly the greatest Tim Burton movie Burton didnāt actually direct).
As mentioned before, Burton developed a real knack early on for honing in on protagonists who exist as lonely outsiders in society. Pee-wee is a lovable goof who really wants his bike back. Batman is a reclusive, orphaned millionaire who beats up criminals by night. Edward Scissorhands is a tortured artist. Ed Wood is a dreamer who doesnāt let his total lack of ability stand in the way of making art. This is how Burton achieves a deeply personal tone in his work despite rarely writing his films himself.
Looking at Burtonās post-golden age work, that personal quality often feels diminished.
But looking at Burtonās post-golden age work, that personal quality often feels diminished. In Planet of the Apes, Mark Wahlberg plays a bland, musclebound protagonist wholly unlike Burtonās usual heroes. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory should have been a natural fit for Burtonās talents, but Deppās version of the character just comes across as weird and unlikable. Alice in Wonderland falls similarly flat, despite the natural pairing of director and source material. Burtonās later films simply feel hollow in a way his earlier work most certainly doesnāt.
It doesnāt help that Burton has never shown a tendency to latch onto specific writers in the same way he does actors and composer. The screenwriters who helped shape his early hits are generally nowhere to be found in his later work. In some cases thatās because they passed away in the ā90s, as with Beetlejuiceās Michael McDowell and Warren Skaaren. But there are other writers with whom Burton found great success working together early on, yet for whatever reason that collaboration didnāt continue into the 21st century.
Edward Scissorhands writer Caroline Thompson illustrates this problem perhaps better than any. That film is widely regarded as both one of Burtonās best and most intensely personal films. Again, thatās despite the fact that Thompson, not Burton, was the one who wrote the script. She revealed that the character Edward was heavily inspired by Burton himself – a person with a deeply artistic soul who has trouble communicating in polite society.
In a 1991 interview with Newsweek, Thompson said, āHe is the most articulate person I know but I couldn’t tell you a single complete sentence he has ever said. This script is my love poem to Tim Burton.”
Thompson has collaborated twice with Burton in the years since, both times on animated projects (The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride). Itās hard not to wonder what might have been had they continued to work together more frequently. How many more films with the deeply intimate quality of Edward Scissorhands might their collaboration have produced?
Itās telling that Burtonās best film of this century, Big Eyes, is one that reunited him with the Ed Wood writing team of Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski. These are writers who clearly understand Burtonās unusual sensibilities and know how to craft a story that both dramatizes the life of a real celebrity yet also feels like a Tim Burton movie. Again, itās a shame Burton hasnāt collaborated with Alexander and Karaszewski more often.
Ultimately, the flaws in Burtonās more recent work tend to come down to story more than visual style or acting pedigree. Burtonās two great flaws have been in failing to choose projects that gel with his inimitable style, and in not cultivating the same sorts of creative bonds with writers that heās enjoyed with Depp and Elfman. Better scripts and a more intimate focus on oddball protagonists are what Burton needs to shine. Thatās exactly what we havenāt gotten with many of Burtonās more bloated recent films, particularly Disney fare like Alice in Wonderland and Dumbo. That bloat inherently clashes with the more personal and off-kilter approach where Burton normally shines.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice may be another return to form for the director, but is there any reason to hope this trend will continue? Or is this another Big Eyes, merely a fleeting blip on the radar for an acclaimed director whose best work seems to be behind him?
What do you think? Will Burton ever recapture the glory of his ’80s and ’90s work? Cast your vote in our poll and let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.