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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Tim Burton: Potential Never Realised?

11:26 / 11.11.02

I would say Tim Burton is one of my favourite directors, although I find a lot of his stuff pretty frustrating. For instance, Sleepy Hollow was on tv last night, and it was thoroughly enjoyable, but would've worked better as a full on horror film. As it was, it was too light hearted for me. Same as The Nightmare Before Christmas - I had to switch off after about twenty minutes, the songs just spoilt it totally for me.

However - Edward Scissorhands, Mars Attacks!, the first Batman were all really good, and I still love watching Beetlejuice.

I just think Burton could make a really brilliant horror film. Or am I just biased - is he fine as he is?

11:32 / 11.11.02

I do like a bit of Tim, although he's definitely slipped in recent years. Planet Of The Apes? Planet Of My Arse. My favourite films have got to be Beatlejuice and Ed Wood, with an honourable mention for Batman Returns. Sleepy Hollow is great fun, if only for Christopher Walken's quality turn.

Chris Walken: Raaarrrghhh! Raaarrghh!!
Tim Burton: Cut! Ok, that's great Chris, but could you do it more like 'Raaarrrggghhh! Raarrrrggghhh!!'

I think I agree that he has yet to do his masterpiece. Maybe he'll end up filming Neil Gaiman's Death script. Attack of the floppy haired goth favourites!

11:43 / 11.11.02

Just realised I typed Beatlejuice. That's a whole other film...

The Natural Way

11:51 / 11.11.02

I think "Sleepy Hollow" took a big old studio kicking before its general release. Yep....potential largely unrealised, BUT: Ed Wood! Ed Wood! Ed Wood..........

12:01 / 11.11.02

I will not hear a bad thing said about Nightmare Before Christmas. It's truly wonderful; I get more out of it every time. And the songs are the best bits! I first saw it when I was about 11, I think. Showed it to my parents last Christmas. They loved it, and found it very funny. And then Mum said, "When did you first see this?"

"Oh. Right."

I found it funny

12:51 / 11.11.02

I love Nightmare mostly because I'm a big Oingo Boingo fan, and that movie's the greatest thing Danny Elfman's done...

Tim Burton's next movie? Big Fish

>The story revolves around a dying father (Albert Finney) and his son (Ewan McGregor), who is trying to learn more about his dad by piecing together the stories he has gathered over the years. The son winds up re-creating his father's elusive life in a series of legends and myths inspired by the few facts he knows. Through these tales, the son begins to understand his father's great feats and his great failings.

12:52 / 11.11.02

Keep in mind though, that Burton only created the characters and basic story for Nightmare Before Christmas. Caroline Thompson wrote the screenplay and Henry Selick directed it.

13:05 / 11.11.02

Well.. Edward Scissorhands, Mars Attacks!, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow .. these films just completely malfunction my critical faculties. To my mind they're just *perfect*, although I realise that viewed objectively they're not.

It may be a cliche to say so, but Tim Burton films make me feel like a little kid .. I just get completely lost in them, and exhibit all the correct emotional responses at all the correct moments and completely overlook their flaws.. and as far as I'm concerned, the whole "triumph of the misunderstood freak" stroyline never gets old.. he just does this whole thing that's beautiful and magical and other such cliched words that Disney movies have always claimed to be but never are. Because they're cold corporate shite.

Speaking of which, I'm still hoping against hope that Burton wasn't actually entirely responsible for Planet of the Apes which, to be perfectly honest, was the most arse excuse for a film I've ever paid to see.

Oh, and can we have a shout out for Christopher Walken's superb acting in Sleepy Hollow? "AR! ... AR! ... AR!" Spoken like a true pirate.

14:54 / 11.11.02

Perhaps I should be a little more positive here: I love the (dark) comic book quality of his films. The style can be almost fairytale. My only criticism really is that I think he holds back - just one, no holds barred film would completely knock my socks off, I think.

Can I show off by proxy here? - my sister once went to an interview with him at the South Bank in London and got to ask him a question! Ooooh!

03:37 / 12.11.02

Apparently he came in halfway through Planet of the Apes after the original director left or quit or whatever...

Has anyone ever seen Frankenweenie or Vincent? I haven't but have good things about them. I think Frankenweenie was the one he made for Disney, but they decided it was too disturbing to release...

04:45 / 12.11.02

Frankenweenie is really quite good, despite the appalling title. Saw it on laser a few years back, I think on a Nightmare special edition.

His new on e has started construction near me, and the union's been telling me they will start to hire art dept people soon. Would love to do it, but that would mean giving up other things I'm trying to build here....and that's assuming they'd even hire the New Kid in Town. hm. Something to think about.

But imagine all the spoiler pics I could post...

05:00 / 12.11.02

Tim Burton: wonderful art director and designer. Terrible, terrible storyteller.

I long for the day when he's hired as a production designer, and is teamed up with a better director who can take his imagery and actually place it in a decent story. Then we'll get something special.

Best Burton films: Ed Wood and Pee Wee's Big Adventure. Solid scripts for both. Everything else is kind of a mess with pretty spiral shapes everywhere to distract you.

07:32 / 12.11.02

Did Tim Burton do Pee Wee's Big Adventure? Excellent! I do like Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood and Sleepy Hollow (which I saw for the 1st time on TV this week). But I'm not keen on Planet Of The Apes, Beetlejuice or Mars Attacks. All the ingredients were there for a great film, but Mars Attacks just falls flat for me.

I think we should have a thread discussing Films Christopher Walken Is Most Scariest In because Sleepy Hollow has to be top of that list. RaRRHHH!!! indeed.....

Regrettable Juvenilia

11:15 / 12.11.02

Sleepy Hollow... would've worked better as a full on horror film.

I really can't envisage how you could play Sleepy Hollow as a 'straight' horror film - surely it would have been unintentionally amusing? Unless you're making so many changes to the story/look of the film as to render it completely unrecognisable...

Sticking to Sleepy Hollow specifically, I have to say it's one of the more satisfying Burton films I've seen - I think this is because I largely agree with Cameron about Burton's abilities as a storyteller, but in this film somehow the ridiculously convoluted and pulpy plot seems very in keeping with the otherwise baroque and outlandish elements of the whole thing...

22:29 / 12.11.02

I really like Tim Burton films. I like his style but I love the way he lets his cast go over the top with their performances, the obvious example being Mr Walken in Sleepy Hollow. Johnny Depp really makes me giggle in that film aswell, as he does in Ed Wood (I think by far Burton's best) and yeah, Frankenweenie is super - the way he's captured the whole style of the original Frankenstein with the mood and the lighting but used a very silly story deserves high praise indeed.
Quality stuff.

Knodge - YOUR nemesis!

14:08 / 13.11.02

I agree with Cameron regarding Tim Burton.

Pee Wee's Big Adventure was easily his best work in my estimation. I really do not enjoy his films, although I often like 'parts' of them.

Brigade du jour

05:08 / 21.11.02

tim burton production designer, david lynch director, neil gaiman screenwriter, vincent price digitally-reconstructed voiceover artist ... no, I've lost it. and i was doing so well ... maybe the perfect movie just doesn't exist, ladies and gentlemen

15:30 / 30.11.02

While he's fallen a bit in recent years, between 1988 and 1994, Burton put out some of my favorite films of all time. Beetlejuice is right up there with Ghostbusters as my favorite comedy of all time. The original Batman was a lot of fun, and Batman Returns was probably the best perversion of a mainstream action movie into something darkly personal. Edward Scissorhands is great, and Ed Wood is also brilliant. Nightmare, even though it's more an Elfman and Selick film than Burton, is also spectacular. In each of those films, he really excelled, but things have been downhill recently. Still, having produced all those brilliant films is an enviable legacy.