Tim Burton

Born on August 25, 1958 in Burbank, California (US), Tim Burton – or Timothy Walter Burton – is a director, screenwriter, producer, and illustrator. The son of a cat-themed gift shop owner and a baseball player, Burton started making movies at a very young age. He used to make short films in his backyard as a teenager, using stop motion animation – an activity that he enjoyed a lot more than school. His career began when Disney offered him an internship at their animation division after they saw one of his homemade shorts, Stalk of the Celery Monster (1979). There, he worked on many projects, including The Fox and the Hound (1981) and Tron (1982), gaining experience as an animator, graphic designer, stoaryboarder, and art director.

It’s at Disney that Tim Burton made his first short, Vincent (1982), revolving around a young boy who narrated his own imaginary adventures as the titular hero. The director then moved to live-action with the Brothers Grimm-inspired Hansel and Gretel, which only aired once on US TV and then went on to be screened at various exhibitions.

The live-action short film that audiences know Tim Burton best is what came next: Frankenweenie (1984), a spin-off of Paul Reubens’ character Pee-wee Herman, which also marked Burton’s first collaboration with composer Danny Elfman. For Tim Burton, real fame came with Beetlejuice (1988), which earned the filmmaker an even bigger movie: Batman (1989). Not long after that, Tim Burton and Johnny Depp began a long lasting collaboration which started with the acclaimed Edward Scissorhands (1990), also starring Beetlejuice‘s Winona Ryder. Batman was so successful that Burton was asked to make a sequel, Batman Returns (1992); and around the same time, he also produced The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993).

His career continued to impressed in the 1990s, with a series of acclaimed releases like Ed Wood (1994) and Sleepy Hollow (1999). The latter, which earned Burton an Oscar, two BAFTAs, and many awards, also marked a change for him: the director’s style evolved into something else while still retaining his gothic, quirky influences and trademark. With the 2000s came box office hits like Planet of the Apes (2001), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), Corpse Bride (2005), Sweeney Todd (2007) and Alice in Wonderland (2010), and beloved gems like Big Fish (2003). In 2012, Burton remade Frankenweenie as a feature-length stop motion movie, which was also a hit.

Around that time, he started working on music videos too, like The Killers’ “Here with Me.” Recent releases include Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (2016), Dumbo (2019), and the highly successful Netflix series Wednesday (2022). Tim Burton is currently working on Season 2 of Wednesday, and his Beetlejuice sequel will have its World Premiere at the Venice Film Festival in August 2024.

On this page you’ll find all our reviews of Tim Burton movies, and articles related to the director’s work.