Master of Macabre

Tim Burton's films have a strange mysterious pull on audiences. To say he has a dark sense of humor would be an understatement. Vanity Fair recently wrote an article on the director entitled, "Death Becomes Him." Perhaps this statement best sums up the director. He is truly in his element when delving into the darker side of life. What is fascinating about Burton, is that he successfully walks the fine line between, the dark genre of gothic, and the candy coated world of Disney. In fact, his early career began at Disney working on the failed animated telling of The Black Cauldron, at the time thought to be too dark for Disney. Perhaps the world was not ready for Burton form of storytelling, yet Disney would return to Burton for his film Nightmare Before Christmas. Burton now has a eclectic assortment of films, that all seem to share a morbid, fantasy quality. Although Burton's films unabashedly enter into darkness, the audience is always shown a glimmer of hope and beauty; perhaps not a traditional sense of beauty, but beauty nevertheless. This is particularly true of his early film Edward Scissorhands, that forged Burton's gothic niche, and was effortless in its ability to captivate in its audience. This film was funny, quirky, morbid, and surprisingly poignant; bringing us to another magical element of his film: the cast. The director surrounds himself with muses who often look like they have walked off his sketchbook. Burton's filmic successes often share one thing: Johnny Depp, whose elegant scarecrow looks lend themselves to his characters. More recently in Barber of Seville, Depp showed the world another of his many talents, his singing voice: the beauty among the darkness. Johnny Depp many be Burton's lucky charm but his true muse is gothic queen herself, Helen Bonham Carter. Despite the fact that Depp and Boham Carter are often a whimsical couple onscreen, offscreen it is the director who holds the heart of the queen. Although they are probably not the most popular couple in hollywood, they certainly do make bed head look chic. Both Johnny Depp and Helen Bonham Carter, have an amazing gift for caricature. These two acotrs also give life to Burton stop motion characters, by lending their voices. In keeping with the proper custom, Carter and Depp will once again be featured in the upcoming film Alice in Wonderland. His newest film will take a step towards the digital world of animation, with its blending of live action and digital overlay. This version of the familiar tale will not surprisingly be a rather untraditional telling, as he creates a new story using character from both of Lewis Caroll's books: Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.
Burton's stop motion films are always delicately crafted; a perfect art form to describe the worlds that he imagines.
Tim Burton's work is currently on display at the MoMa Gallery in New York. Those lucky enough to see the exhibit, will be treated to hand sketches of concept art, storyboards from previous films, and character sculptures used in some of his stop motion films.
He truly is the master of macabre, constantly returning to the world of fairytales as the source for his storytelling. It is excited to think what Tim Burton's imagination will create next.

Tim Burton's films have received an average rating of 83% on RT.

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