Burtonized

Little introduction is needed for one of Hollywoods hottest directors. Tim Burton is someone that has inspired and entertained fans for over two decades with his own visionary style and art. He started off as a small Disney artist and, more recently, designed a new balloon for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

People all over the world eat his stuff up and then beg for more. Let's have a little background on this guy.

Burton was born in 1958, in the city of Burbank, California, to Jean Burton, the owner of a cat-themed gift shop, and Bill Burton, a former minor league baseball player who would later work for the Burbank Park and Recreation Department. As a young man, Burton would make short films in his backyard on Evergreen Street using crude stop motion animation techniques or shoot them on 8 mm film without sound. As a young man he was always a deeply introspective person and spent much of his time watching Edgar Allen Poe inspired works and horror/science fiction films. Burton graduated from CalArts in 1979. The success of his short film Stalk of the Celery Monster attracted the attention of the Walt Disney Animation Studios, who offered young Burton an animator's apprenticeship at their studio. He worked as an animator, storyboard artist and concept artist in films such as The Fox and the Hound, The Black Cauldron and Tron. However, Burton's personal style clashed with Disney's standards, and he longed to work on solo projects. Before long, through the popularity of his own short films, Burton began taking on bigger projects like Beetlejuice and his big break project Batman.

From then on most of us know the rest. He went on to create much loved films like Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Nightmare Before Christmas, Sweeney Todd and the Corpse Bride. As you look at these titles you can see a connection with most of them. They are about people in a darker world than we are in today trying to deal with themselves. 

Let's face it. Tim has GOT talent. He has a wonderfully unique style of art and design that has a universal appeal. Who would have thought that a guy whose art didn't fit in at Disney would go on to rival it someday. 

Thats what I love about Burton. He does his own thing and he does it well. On a personal note he also has not let his love for animation die. In fact I would go as far as to call Burton one of the modern patron saints of Stop Motion. I also love how he didn't try to get rid of his own style or to try and make it something it wasn't. I feel like lots of folks are so desperate to draw "just like disney" that we forget that our own style of art is just as important and useful. 

I would say that the story of Tim Burton reminds us that again and again.

Burton is now currently working on his next stop motion film 'Frankenweenie' as well as his new live action film 'Darkshadows' starring Johnny Depp (duh)