Tim Burton is a true individual in Hollywood, with a style and flair that are instantly recognizable. He’s cast his quirky gaze over a variety of genres, from comedy to sci-fi, horror to fantasy and even the occasional biopic. As well as certain directorial flourishes, it's his quirky characters who have captured the imagination of generations of cinema-goers.
It isn’t just his own character creations either. Burton has tackled a host of existing properties, twisting beloved characters into new shapes. As we look forward to his ghoulish take on Wednesday Addams (surely a match made in heaven…or hell!), here are some of Burton’s other macabre manifestations.
10 Vincent Malloy (Vincent, 1982)
Written, designed and directed by Tim Burton, the short film Vincent is a tribute to one of the director’s favorite horror actors – the legendary Vincent Price, who also narrates this macabre tale.
Vincent Malloy is very much an author-insert here, dreaming of being just like his hero and acting out all manner of morbid plots in his bedroom. Even the design of the title character looks a little like Tim Burton, especially the wild hair. Malloy would be the blueprint for many-a Burton character in the years that followed.
9 Sally (The Nightmare Before Christmas, 1993)
Despite not having directed The Nightmare Before Christmas, Tim Burton’s stamp is all over the rest of the movie, from the plot, the designs and the many, many colorful characters that populate Halloween Town.
Sally is a wonderful creation, stitched together and filled with autumn leaves. Her (seemingly unrequited, at first) love for Jack is just one beautiful aspect of her character. She’s stubborn, fierce and brave, constantly outwitting her own creator, Dr Finkelstein.
8 Lydia Deetz (Beetlejuice, 1988)
Lydia Deetz is the ultimate Goth girl. Dressed permanently in black, obsessed with all things dark and ghoulish, and with a penchant for seeing dead people, she’s as iconic and as quotable as her demonic ‘friend’ (more on him later).
Lydia is a typical Burton outcast – completely different from the rest of her family, and jaded by the world around her. Another director might have given us a wide-eyed, excitable child to experience the underworld with, but not Tim Burton.
7 Emily (Corpse Bride, 2005)
Emily is a haunted corpse with a tragic backstory, accidentally bought back to ‘life’ by the hapless Victor Van Dort.
Emily is a beautiful, quirky character who fits snugly into the Tim Burton canon. She’s both ghoulish and sweet, with a wicked sense of humor and an amusing little sidekick who lives behind her eyeball. When Emily finally finds her peace, her body slowly dissolves into a swarm of butterflies that ascend up into the heavens.
6 Batman (Batman, 1989; Batman Returns, 1992)
Batman is, of course, one of the most iconic superheroes of all time. He has been redesigned and rebooted so many times, and Michael Keaton’s portrayal, as filtered through the lens of Tim Burton, remains one of the most memorable.
Burton’s Batman is solitary figure, consumed by this persona. As Bruce Wayne, he’s a likable, clumsy eccentric but once he dons the cowl, he becomes a cold, killing machine with little remorse for his vanquished foes. A true element of duality exists – a common trope in Tim Burton movies.
5 Catwoman (Batman Returns, 1992)
Batman Returns was the one where Tim Burton ripped up the rule book, diverting from the path of the comics and putting his own twisted take on the inhabitants of Gotham City. He wasn’t keen on making a sequel to his 1989 hit, but Warner Brothers gave him free rein – an offer he couldn’t refuse.
With Catwoman, he gives us a truly disturbed incarnation of the popular villain. A woman whose mind, whose identity, is completely fractured. Her stitched-together suit is a true reflection of her damaged psyche, which only collapses further when she gets intimately involved with Bruce Wayne.
4 The Penguin (Batman Returns, 1992)
The Penguin as interpreted by the winning combination of Tim Burton and Danny DeVito has to be one of the most grotesque supervillains in cinema history.
As with Catwoman, Burton took the Penguin away from his comic origins, recasting him as a tragic freak who was brought up in a sewer. Somehow, the Penguin manages to be both utterly hideous and strangely sympathetic in equal measure, and the bizarre funeral (complete with penguin pallbearers) in the finale is tinged with sadness.
3 Jack Skellington (The Nightmare Before Christmas, 1993)
Jack Skellington has become, for many, the face of Halloween. Quite fitting too, considering the fact that he is the Pumpkin King after all.
First appearing in a poem written by Tim Burton, Skellington made the transition to the big screen in Henry Sellick’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. Jack is a whimsical character, born in the darkness but yearning for fresh adventure and knowledge. He’s a charmingly naïve figure too, totally oblivious to Sally’s affections until the very end.
2 Betelgeuse (Beetlejuice, 1988)
Existing somewhere between anti-hero and villain, Betelgeuse is a true Burton grotesque. He’s lewd, crude and has mold growing on the side of his face. No wonder Lydia didn’t want to marry him!
Despite being the title character, the “Ghost With The Most” has a surprisingly limited screen-time, but he endures to this day thanks to the scene-stealing charisma of star Michael Keaton, and that instantly recognizable striped suit. Easily one of the greatest Tim Burton creations.
1 Edward Scissorhands (Edward Scissorhands, 1990)
Could Edward Scissorhands be the quintessential Tim Burton character? An eccentric boy with a tangle of untamed hair, who desperately wants to fit in but never quite manages it.
His backstory is as tragic as you’d expect, his creator (played by Vincent Price, of course) dying before he can provide Edward with a pair of hands. Edward lives in a gothic, fairytale castle but ends up in a dull, vapid suburban world, a stranger in a strange land. Definitely a classic Burton trope.