Tim Burton movies have a distinct look and feel, especially when studios set him free to be himself. Over four decades, Burton went from being a cult favorite outsider to a blockbuster director. The goth animator who was supposedly fired from Disney for not being child-friendly enough ended up as one of the studio’s most distinctive voices. Regardless of budget or scale, audiences know a Tim Burton film when they see it. He rarely compromises, works with actors he loves, explores his fascinations with the macabre, and became one of the highest-grossing directors ever.
A Tim Burton movie can typically be recognized by its love of, as one character in Beetlejuice describes herself, the “strange and unusual.” He’s a director who loves Edgar Allan Poe and Hammer Horror, German expressionism and high camp, the gory and the melancholy. The weirdos in his films are the normal ones, while the suburban-dwelling regular folks are the ones to be wary of. From Beetlejuice, Batman, and Edward Scissorhands to Ed Wood, Alice in Wonderland, and back to Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Burton always makes movies his way.
20 Alice In Wonderland (2010)
Tim Burton Adapts Lewis Carroll’s Fantasy Masterpiece
Tim Burton making a film out of Lewis Carroll’s iconic children’s novel seemed like the perfect combination of director and source material. However, critics called the result his most uninspired film, a hodgepodge of images and inspirations from the story forced into a hero’s journey narrative that misses the entire point of the novel’s deliberately languid structure. Most of the cast are trying their best with the material, but Johnny Depp’s turn as the Mad Hatter was one of his more disappointing Burton roles.
Still, the film was wildly successful, making Disney over $1 billion and helping to kick off their current age of live-action remakes. That commercial frenzy only makes this film a bigger disappointment in terms of Burton’s work because it seemed to herald a new period of his filmography, where he didn’t seem especially enthusiastic about his own movies. Tim Burton said he almost retired because the big-budget studio movies ruined his love of directing films.
19 The Planet Of The Apes (2001)
Tim Burton Re-Imagines The Sci-Fi Masterpiece
It’s easy to forget just how big a deal it was when it was announced that Tim Burton would be remaking the sci-fi classic Planet of the Apes. To be more accurate, Burton called the film his “re-imagining” of the original Planet of the Apes, and that term became a punchline for many a failed remake in the following years. With a $100 million budget from 20th Century Fox, the legendary Rick Baker signed on to design the astounding makeup.
With a cast including Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth, Paul Giamatti, and Helena Bonham Carter, Planet of the Apes seemed like a sure-fire hit. Of all the Tim Burton movies, Planet of the Apes feels the least like a Tim Burton movie. Indeed, one would be forgiven for thinking someone else did all the work, and he took the credit because not only is this film bereft of Burton’s favored styles and ideas, but its approach is so stagnant and could have been done by anyone.
Planet of the Apes
did decently at the box office but didn’t inspire a new franchise like Fox had hoped.
The screenplay’s attempts to pay homage to the original movie while putting new twists on iconic moments fell flat and were incomprehensible in some cases, including an ending that even Tim Roth didn’t understand. Planet of the Apes did decently at the box office but didn’t inspire a new franchise like Fox had hoped. And so, Burton, understandably, moved onto a much smaller project.
18 Big Eyes (2014)
Tim Burton Tells The True Story Of Margaret Keane
After a couple of years of disappointing movie critics, many thought Big Eyes would be a return to form for Tim Burton, a new Ed Wood of sorts to show how adept he is at more conventional biographical dramas while remaining faithful to his roots. The result was less satisfying than that, and it did little to reverse growing critical cynicism. It is based on the true story of Margaret Keane, a painter whose eerie works of children with large emotional eyes were passed off as the work of her exploitative husband.
Big Eyes seemed to have a lot going for it and garnered early awards buzz for the performance of Amy Adams (she would win a Golden Globe but didn’t land an Oscar nomination as some had predicted). Big Eyes is duller than anything else, and Christoph Waltz, who hams it up to near-unfathomable levels, seems to think he’s in a far different movie, making for an awkward pairing at times.
All the pieces were there for something special, but Big Eyes is a Tim Burton movie that, bar Adams’ luminous performance, struggles to justify its existence. Despite this, it still won a Golden Globe for Adams and was also nominated for two other awards there, including one for Waltz and one of Lana Del Rey’s original song, “Big Eyes.”
17 Dark Shadows (2012)
Remaking The Classic Supernatural Soap Opera
The 1960s series Dark Shadows was ground-breaking in its day, a gothic soap opera at a time when the genre was mostly focused on realist domestic drama. It’s not hard to see why Tim Burton would be so drawn to it as a child, and Johnny Depp also cited the big screen adaptation as a dream project. The story of a vampire who awakens in the 1970s and moves in with his descendants is ripe for melodrama and fish-out-of-water humor, but so many of the jokes land oddly flat.
Its saving grace comes in the form of an extremely game Eva Green, who is having the time of her life as the witchy antagonist.
It never settles on a tone and struggles to juggle kitsch with horror. As gorgeous as it looks – and, as always with a Tim Burton movie, the details are astounding – there’s little going on beneath the surface. Its saving grace comes in the form of an extremely game Eva Green, who seems to be having the time of her life as the witchy antagonist.
16 Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children (2016)
A Nove Adaptation That Seemed Perfect For Burton’s Style
Based on the series of popular young adult novels by Ransom Riggs, it’s easy to see why Tim Burton would be drawn to a story about strange kids with superpowers living in a gothic mansion with a mysterious woman who can turn into a falcon. The great hook of the books was the use of vintage photographs collected by the author, giving the story a unique visual language that seemed tailor-made for the big screen.
While Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children certainly gives Burton a large canvas to indulge his pet favorites, and it’s always a delight to see Eva Green embrace her most witchy qualities as an actress, the film is still one of his weaker efforts. Burton has oft been accused of prizing style over substance, caring more about production design than plotting. That’s not always a bad thing, especially when he does aesthetics so well
However, with Miss Peregrine, the plotting is so dense and the world-building deeply convoluted that viewers are unable to overlook how much Burton cannot be bothered to deal with such things. The overstuffed story, combined with some puzzling editing choices, hampers his ability to make a good old-fashioned Tim Burton movie. It earned three nominations at the Teen Choice Awards and was nominated for Best Fantasy Film at the Saturn Awards.
15 Dumbo (2019)
Tim Burton Remakes The Disney Animated Classic
Grading any live-action remake of a Disney classic can prove tricky since the formula dictates a level of specificity and brand synergy that most run-of-the-mill remakes don’t. When Tim Burton made Alice in Wonderland, that formula had not been perfected, so he got to deviate from the source material more than he probably would have only a few years later (although that may have been an improvement given how terrible that film turned out to be).
With Dumbo, he had to adhere to those norms and also had to turn a child’s fable that’s barely an hour long into an epic movie twice that length. Dumbo is not necessarily a bad film. Indeed, it’s understandable why some critics call this a high point in Burton’s later filmography. However, it’s hampered by the need to be a Disney live-action remake, even when it’s creatively impossible to be so.
What may be Disney’s simplest tale has become an overstuffed blockbuster
While there are moments that soar, such as those flying scenes and actors giving it their all, like a gloriously camp sinister Michael Keaton, the changes made for adaptation prove more confusing than anything else. What may be Disney’s simplest tale has become an overstuffed blockbuster with war veterans, dead mothers, and a subplot about the evils of selling out to a major corporation. It is also when Tim Burton thought about quitting directing completely.
“Honestly, after Dumbo, I really didn’t know. I thought that could have been it, really. I could have retired, or become… well, I wouldn’t have become an animator again, that’s over.”
It’s not without its charms, and the final act has some great action bears, but Dumbo feels like something that should have returned to the basics.
14 Corpse Bride (2005)
Tim Burton Directs A Stop-Motion Gothic Horror
Tim Burton didn’t direct the animated film most closely associated with him, The Nightmare Before Christmas. Despite his name being all over the posters and the visuals being so recognizably Burtonesque, the work of direction fell to stop-motion animation legend Henry Selick (Coraline). Audiences wouldn’t get an animated Tim Burton movie until 2005, when Corpse Bride came out, the same year as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. However, the film lacked the spark of The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Wearing its Edgar Allan Poe influences on its sleeve, Corpse Bride has moments of that trademark Burton macabre approach but little of the emotional punch that made Nightmare so memorable. The film is at its best when it plays around with Burton’s skewering of societal norms, depicting the underworld as the most vibrant place while the land of the living is grey and smothered by expectations. While not as memorable, it still received an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature.
13 Frankenweenie (2012)
Tim Burton’s Best Directed Animated Feature
Tim Burton’s career began at Disney, where he worked as an animator and concept artist on The Fox and the Hound and The Black Cauldron. While there, he dabbled in short films. Frankenweenie, one of his first live-action productions, was a short film about a boy who brings his dog back to life after he’s hit by a car. The short allegedly got Burton fired, with Disney claiming he shouldn’t have been spending company resources on something too scary for kids. The irony he made this with Disney in 2012 was lost on nobody.
Tim Burton recently received the 2022 Lumiere Award for Lifetime Achievement, honoring his visionary contributions to cinema.
Remade as stop-motion animation, Frankenweenie is one of Burton’s more tightly constructed stories thanks to its zippy 87-minute running time. Filmed in black and white and chock-full of old horror references – this may be the most Easter egg-packed Tim Burton movie ever made – Frankenweenie is a simple tale that still manages to nail the sheer sadness of losing a beloved pet, even after he’s brought back to life.
After making a few massive films, one after the other, with mixed results, there’s something to be said for a Tim Burton movie that goes back to basics, even if it doesn’t have enough energy to keep it going. The film earned five nominations at the Annie Awards, was nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Feature, and finished on several best-of lists in 2012.
12 Charlie And The Chocolate Factory (2005)
Tim Burton Remakes Willie Wonka & The Chocolate Factory
Author Roald Dahl famously hated the first adaptation of his book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He disliked the changes made to deviate from the novel and opposed the decision to focus on Willy Wonka over Charlie Bucket (he also didn’t care for the casting of Gene Wilder, preferring British comedian Spike Milligan for the role).
When it came time to remake the film, it went through various stars (Nicolas Cage, Adam Sandler, and Bill Murray were all considered for Wonka) and directors before Tim Burton joined the project. Burton was also the Dahl estate’s choice for the job, which benefitted Warner Bros. in getting their approval for the film. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is far more faithful to Dahl’s book, not only in terms of plot but also in tone.
Dahl’s deliciously sinister approach to children’s fiction is fully displayed here and feels like a perfect fit for Burton’s brand of glee. While some CGI hasn’t aged well, the chocolate factory has never looked more sumptuous. Johnny Depp may have gotten all the headlines for his pseudo-Michael Jackson homage performance as Wonka, but the real star of the Tim Burton movie is Freddie Highmore as Charlie.
What stops it from being top-tier Burton is a shoehorned-in backstory for Wonka that can easily be boiled down to “daddy issues.” The film is much smarter when it reveals nothing about why Wonka is the way he is and lets the audience indulge in the pure imagination of his world. The film got an Oscar nomination for Best Costume Design and even a Grammy nomination for the song “Wonka’s Welcome Song.”
11 Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (1985)
Pee-Wee Herman’s Best Movie
Paul Reubens’ Pee-wee Herman has remained a beloved character for kids and adults alike since his TV debut in 1981. The frantic entertainer, both terminally delightful and completely bonkers, made the leap to the big screen in 1985, and a post-Disney Tim Burton was looking for a new job. Reubens, a fan of Burton’s Disney shorts, hired him and gave him his feature directorial debut. Pee-wee’s Big Adventure isn’t a film that can neatly be described as a Tim Burton movie in the traditional sense.
This is Reubens’ creation through and through. However, moments peppered throughout reveal the sort of director Burton would become, such as the Large Marge scene that remains nightmare fuel for an entire generation. Burton manages to keep Reubens on a tight enough leash so Pee-wee’s unpredictability doesn’t derail the entire movie.
It’s also the film that introduced Burton to Oingo Boingo frontman Danny Elfman and birthed the most committed creative partnership of their careers. Pee-wee’s Big Adventure made nearly six times its original budget back, put Burton’s name on the map, and the rest is history. This was the movie that convinced Warner Bros. to hand the reigns of Batman to the director.
10 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street (2007)
Tim Burton Makes a Musical Based On The Broadway Stage Play
The legendary composer Stephen Sondheim is arguably the most influential figure in musical theater of the past several decades. However, he’s not someone whose work has been favored by Hollywood for adaptation. His deftly complex compositions and operatic approach to the medium make him a tricky prospect for any filmmaker hoping to translate his work to cinema. Of the scant number of Sondheim movie adaptations, Burton’s Sweeney Todd is easily the best.
Another seemingly perfect match of material and creator, the Tim Burton movie version of the mythic barber who murders his clients and turns them into pies, includes heavy influences from Hammer Horror. It’s a proudly bleak story of bad people doing bad things, with a body count and volume of spilled blood high enough to rival any slasher movie.
Everyone involved is giving it their all, imbuing this narrative with such verve and enthusiasm to the point that audiences almost forget this is one of the most depressing musicals ever written. While decent enough, the singing cannot help but let the story down on some level. Sondheim’s lyrical style demands the strongest voices, and while Helena Bonham Carter and Johnny Depp have their charms, the music deserves more.
The film received three Oscar nominations…
Still, when everything else in the story is firing on all cylinders, it’s an element that’s easy to forgive. The film received three Oscar nominations, winning for Best Art Direction, and three Golden Globes, winning for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and Best Actor for Johnny Depp.
9 Mars Attacks! (1996)
Tim Burton’s Satire Of 1950s Sci-Fi Movies
While the typical Tim Burton movie is discussed in terms of its gothic style and macabre tone, it’s often overlooked how incredibly earnest his work is. Burton isn’t afraid of sentimentality or emotional catharsis, even when it seems at odds with his bleak visuals. The exception to this rule is Mars Attacks! Based on a series of Topps trading cards from the 1960s, the madcap homage to science-fiction B-Movies of the 1950s is Burton at his most sardonic.
It’s a cynical Generation X approach to the alien invasion genre, one where the mere thought of sentimentality is shot to pieces with laser guns. Chock-full of some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, each playing characters more awful than the last, Mars Attacks! suffered from being released in the same year as Independence Day, an unabashedly crowd-pleasing blockbuster that has no qualms with playing worldwide catastrophic destruction for cheers and awe.
By comparison, Mars Attacks! mocks everything that film does so earnestly. That’s no bad thing, for the result is easily the funniest Tim Burton film and one that’s only gotten better with age. A flop upon release that opened to tepid reviews, Mars Attacks! definitely deserves a revisit.
8 Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)
Tim Burton Returns To One Of His Most Beloved Movies
Tim Burton was thinking of quitting after making Dumbo and he didn’t make a movie for five years. However, he got the chance to return to his beloved 1988 classic movie Beetlejuice. That movie was his first original feature film, made three years after he got his first break by bringing Pee-Wee Herman to the big screen. There were 36 years between that and his release of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which brought back most of the main cast while adding Jenna Ortega as Winona Rider’s daughter.
It also convinced Burton to keep directing movies, as it rekindled his love of what he does:
“[Beetlejuice Beetlejuice] did reenergize me. Oftentimes, when you get into Hollywood, you try to be responsible to what you’re doing with the budget and everything else but sometimes you might lose yourself a little bit. This reinforced the feeling for me that it’s important that I do what I want to do, because then everybody will benefit.”
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was a huge success, succeeding at the box office while also pleasing fans of the original. The movie has a Certified Fresh 77% Rotten Tomatoes rating by the critics, who praised Michael Keaton’s return to form as Beetlejuice and Burton’s use of practical effects and visual jokes. Fans loved it even more, with an 82% Popcornmeter score.
7 Batman Returns (1992)
Tim Burton’s Batman Sequel
Batman Returns is technically a Batman movie, but it’s far more of a Tim Burton film than one that can be accurately described as a faithful adaptation of DC’s most beloved detective. It’s something of a minor miracle that Burton even got this film made as it’s a trippy homage to German expressionism that doesn’t seem to care all that much about Batman.
Burton’s focus is far more on Danny DeVito’s gloriously grotesque take on the Penguin – a man literally raised by sewer penguins – and Michelle Pfeiffer’s tour de force turn as Catwoman. Burton turns Gotham’s eclectic band of misfits into his own ensemble of oddities and blends high camp with over-the-top horror.
Batman Returns is a far less coherent movie than Batman and the plotting falls apart in the third act, but it’s not hard to see why it’s still beloved by fans. While the film made money, it wasn’t the gargantuan hit its predecessor was, much to the disappointment of Warner Bros., so Burton left the franchise and was replaced by Joel Schumacher. But what remains is easily one of his most entertaining movies.
6 Sleepy Hollow (1999)
Tim Burton Adapts The Headless Horseman Legend
The best Tim Burton movies happen when he throws caution to the wind and freely indulges his stylistic whims. If there’s bloodshed, then all the better. At best, his take on the legend of Sleepy Hollow is choppily paced with plotting that often feels thrown together at the last moment, but its old-school horror imagery sliced with knowing melodrama is endlessly enjoyable.
Sleepy Hollow is easily one of Burton’s prettiest movies, the sort of lavish affair that could only have been made by someone who has watched a lot of Christopher Lee vampire movies and wants to achingly recreate every piece of production design. How could it not look great at every turn when Colleen Atwood is designing costumes and the cinematography duties fall to the now legendary Emmanuel Lubezki?
Burton works incredibly well with camp, and while Sleepy Hollow doesn’t entirely indulge that whim, it is always aware of how silly its concept is and isn’t afraid to play around with that, from rolling heads to Depp as Ichabod Crane being sprayed with the reddest blood in horror cinema at inopportune moments. Sleepy Hollow features a veritable murderer’s row of talent, from Depp to Christina Ricci to legendary British talents like Richard Griffiths, Miranda Richardson, Michael Gambon, and Ian McDiarmid.
5 Batman (1989)
Tim Burton With The First Modern-Era Batman Movie
Handing over the reins of the Batman cinematic universe to the mostly unknown Tim Burton in 1989 was a major risk for Warner Bros. Granted, superhero movies weren’t the zeitgeist-defining juggernaut they would become, and the very idea of making a serious film out of a comic book at the time was seen mostly as a joke by other studios. Yet the choice of the then-30-year-old Tim Burton proved unexpected compared to earlier rumored directors like Ivan Reitman and Joe Dante.
The gamble paid off, and Batman became the second highest-grossing movie of 1989. Nowadays, in a post-Nolan and DCEU world, it’s easy to dismiss Burton’s Batman as a weaker movie, nowhere near as sophisticated as what would follow. However, that would ignore the film’s cultural impact and its genuine skill and enjoyment factor. Considered too adult for family audiences on release, it’s the giddily frenetic tone of the movie that makes it such a thrill to watch.
It may not be as much of a Tim Burton movie as its sequel, but
Batman
is a more consistent affair…
The production design that Burton’s films would become famous for is on full show here as Gotham City comes to life in the most exciting way possible. Jack Nicholson as the Joker may be the over-the-top villain the film was sold on, but Michael Keaton’s Bruce Wayne remains an underrated addition to the canon as he nails the quiet madness of DC’s tortured hero. It may not be as much of a Tim Burton movie as its sequel, but Batman is a more consistent affair, blending Frank Miller with the 1960s series to striking effect.
4 Big Fish (2003)
Tim Burton’s Story Of Tall Tales & Daddy Issues
One of the most prevailing themes in Tim Burton movies is father issues. So many of his films feature fathers or father figures who have complex relationships with their sons, from Edward Scissorhands’ creator to Willy Wonka’s stern dentist father. Nowhere is that more evident than in Big Fish, his 2003 adaptation of the novel by Daniel Wallace.
Nowhere is it more affecting either, as this story of a man trying to figure out how much of his father’s fantastical tall tales of his youth are true allows Burton to delve into those themes with a Southern Gothic twist. Big Fish is one of Burton’s more openly sentimental movies, but he’s clever enough to dial back the saccharine when necessary.
Albert Finney and Ewan McGregor play Ed Bloom at both stages in his life, while Billy Crudup plays his exasperated son, two men who simply want to understand one another before they run out of time. The set pieces in Big Fish are, as expected by Burton, stunning, but the emotional core of this film elevates it to top-tier Burton. Burton’s never been afraid to make his audiences cry, but Big Fish is his most overwhelming tearjerker. The movie earned an Oscar nomination for its score.
3 Beetlejuice (1988)
Tim Burton’s First Original Feature Film
Following the success of his directorial debut, Burton was dissatisfied with the scripts sent his way until a horror-comedy called Beetlejuice landed on his lap. After extensive rewrites, Burton managed to bring on board a top-notch cast, even though many of them had no idea what to expect from such a strange story. The end result is a hilarious pastiche of classic horror and the poltergeist sub-genre that blends slapstick with stop-motion strangeness with ease.
At the heart of the Tim Burton movie is the comedic tornado that is Michael Keaton’s performance as the title character. He doesn’t so much chew the scenery as tear it to shreds, spewing out one-liners and reveling in the sheer oddness of his character. The movie follows two ghosts who want to scare new tenants out of their beloved home and make the mistake of calling on the demonic Beetlejuice to help them.
While the parody of 1980s yuppies moving to the countryside is well-worn by now, the jokes still land, and Catherine O’Hara once again reminds viewers why she is a comedic national treasure. Beetlejuice won an Oscar for Best Makeup and the BAFTA Award for Best Visual Effects and Makeup. Over 30 years later, a sequel arrived with most of the cast members returning.
2 Ed Wood (1994)
Tim Burton Tells The Story Of The Cult Director
At the height of his fame, when the whole world knew what a Tim Burton movie looked like, Burton did the unexpected and made a conventional biopic. Granted, this is still very Burtonesque, and there’s no better subject for such a tale than Ed Wood, who is oft-declared to be the world’s worst director. In his second film with Johnny Depp, Burton took the story of Wood and told a celebratory tale of a scrappy underdog who fights the system to make art with his band of ragtag friends.
Rather than mocking a very easy target, Burton finds a kindred spirit in Wood, avoiding parody and meanness in favor of genuine warmth for a man he believes to have been misunderstood by history. Instead of leaning into Lynch and Universal monster movies for his cinematic inspiration, Burton goes full Frank Capra with his enriching approach.
On top of being one of Tim Burton’s best,
Ed Wood
may be his most uplifting movie.
The cast is uniformly strong, but Martin Landau’s quietly tragic turn as Bela Lugosi won the lion’s share of praise upon Ed Wood‘s release. On top of being one of Tim Burton’s best, Ed Wood may be his most uplifting movie. Ed Wood won two Oscars, one for Landau and one for Best Makeup (by Rick Baker). It also had three Golden Globe nominations, winning one for Landau. It carries a 92% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
1 Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Johnny Depp’s First Tim Burton Movie
If people were required to give an example of the title that best exemplifies what it means to be a Tim Burton movie, then they would look no further than Edward Scissorhands. Made after Burton gained A-List status following the success of Batman, the film is a love letter to everything he holds dear – from gothic romance and Universal monster movies to fairy tales and parodies of suburbia.
His reimagining of Frankenstein makes the monster a fragile young man with scissors for hands who wants nothing more than to fit in with the “normal world.” However, he is quickly fetishized and ostracized by those he wants to please. Even close to 29 years later and following so many parodies,Edward Scissorhands remains startlingly effective and deeply moving.
It’s the film that changed the game for Tim Burton and made him who he is, as well as its star Johnny Depp. The film was a commercial success; critics loved it, with a 90% Rotten Tomatoes score. It also cemented the beginning of Burton’s most enduring partnership with actor Johnny Depp. It is the most Burton-like movie in his career and is widely considered one of the best movies that Tim Burton ever made.
