If Tim Burton hadn’t been born on August 25, 1958, there wouldn’t be such artist & director who expresses himself this amazingly with his style and visual talent.
I bought the Tim Burton Collective the other day, which I take as a gift to Tim on my own celebrating this day. It has lots of facts and trivia about his films, which tempted me to share this since there is not a lot of copies of this collective.
As a child Tim Burton has been raised by his grandparents when he decided to leave the “mom’s house “ and start his own independent life away from family pressure. I think this rebellious character is present with most of the directors, and possibly it is a good way of finding the peace and freedom! He first started with drawings and posters he created for Burbank City Poster competitions and soon enough his talent has been exposed by Disney, which he couldn’t really adapt with. After working with Disney for a while he had the chance to direct his first feature film: Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (1985). With his first film he showed the first signs of being an auteur.
In his films common features are a lot that leads him to be a persistent auteur. His protagonist is usually an outcast, a miss-understood hero that is actually too naïve and good hearted for the world they are living in. This character is usually said to represent Burton himself, depending on the fact that in most of interviews he describes himself as a “loner and an outcast”: Except my favorite film of his The Beetlejuice (1988). Beetlejuice is believed to be the “bio-exorcist” who tricks the recently deceased to be set free again from the little after-life world he is prisoned in.
Burton’s camera angles are usually persistent there are not a lot of weird angles. He mostly portrays his scenes with colors and acting. Each character, he sketches and draws beforehand and choses the right actor for it, that usually ends up with one of his favorite actors Johnny Depp and his life partner Helena Bonham Carter. Both actors fit perfectly to Tim’s gothic and German Expressionist style. He is influenced by his favorite director Vincent Price whom he made a short stop motion about that I added the link of to the end of the review. The short has references to Edgar Allen Poe. Of course by the combination of these great film and poet masters a great piece of art comes to life. Burton states in his interviews that he grew up with the films full of vampires, monsters and blood, which are fairly common in his movies! – I just have to state that as I’m writing this review in a café there is a boy drawing Tim Burton characters right next to me, what a great coincidence!- Tim is also known with his obsession to black and white stripes, not just in movies but even in real life he can be spotted wearing black and white striped socks all the time which he explains as they help him to stay calm when lots of crazy ideas are running through his mind.
I also admire the fact that he makes films for the sake of doing art. This can clearly be proven with the fact that he still does not give up on the good ol’ stop motion animation method. His dark and gothic style is most present in his animations such as; The Corpse Bride and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Lots of evil looking souls who are actually better spirited than the good and nice looking humans! Tim is trying to give the message that just because someone is an outcast and weird that doesn’t mean that they are the bad character in real life. It really is amazing that Tim has an unlimited imagination that produces extra-ordinary and beautiful characters each second of his life and that’s what makes him a great artist.
There are a lot to state about Tim Burton, which I would have to express in separate film review, that I’m hoping to do soon. Here are the best Burton films to watch; Beetlejuice, Edward Scissor-hands, Alice in Wonderland, Sweeney Todd, Mars Attacks!, Sleepy Hollow, Big Fish, Charlie’s Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride, Dark Shadows, and the upcoming Frankenweenie. Upps! I just realized that I actually wrote down most of his films! Well what are you waiting for? Start watching them already and enjoy the great journey of a master: Tim Burton.
Happy (Belated) Birthday Tim!
