Although the typical layman would immediately label him an oddball, those who are a little bit more familiar with Tim Burton would say that he’s a beautiful mess. Burton was born August 25, 1958 in Burbank, California. He lived in typical suburbia, along with his brother and parents, although he never felt very attached to them. He felt much closer to the films of Vincent Price and the writings of Edgar Allan Poe. While his parents wanted him to go play outside and be “normal,” he would rather soak into a 1950’s horror movie, or just withdraw into his own mind, into his own world. When asked about his childhood, he responded, “I guess if there was a flavor [of childhood], I guess childhood was a kind of surreal, bright, depression,” (Breskin 38).
Aside from watching horror movies, Burton spent most of his adolescence drawing. He went on to win a scholarship to the California Institute of the Arts, awarded to him by Disney. After being unsuccessful working in the Disney atmosphere, where the animation was too cheery and uniformed for him, he went on to make distinctive box office hits. Those who have interviewed Burton can easily see what a mess he is. The language of English seems second to the visual process with which he thinks. He must translate this process into words, which may take a little time and energy. He’s disconnected from the world. He is both funny and morbid. He labels himself a “happy-go-lucky manic depressive,” (Breskin 39).
The Essay on The Value of Early Childhood Education
Nelson Mandela, the well-know statesmen, once said, “Education is the great engine to personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that the son of a mineworker can become the head of the mine that the child of a farm worker can become the president of a great nation. (date, page #)” Image that when you have children will you give your children ...
Burton is very serious about his creations, yet appears to be a flake. He has always felt that he was an outsider, in his society, and in his family. Burton has carried this feeling of being a lone soul inside of the entangled web of the world into every single one of his films. As an artist at Disney, his first film he worked on was the animated feature The Fox and the Hound. After reviewing his work, Disney decided to give him freedom to be a conceptual artist. “I was just not Disney material. I could just not draw cute foxes for the life of me. I couldn’t do it. I tried, I tried, I tried,” (Breskin 40).
Drawing was his most important form of expression, and he was not able to conform to the Disney spirit. His first animated short film was Vincent (1982).
He made another animated feature while being employed by Disney called Frankenweenie (1984).
None of his work was ever planned to be released by Disney. However, Paul Reubens saw his work and decided that Burton was his director for Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, released in 1985. Then came Beetlejuice in 1988. The amazing success of those two films, and his unique art direction were the determining factors that led to him directing Batman, a big and expensive production that Warner Bros. were sitting on, slowly calculating their prepackaged box office hit. Released in the summer of 1989, Batman set the opening weekend box office record of $50 million, and went on to make well over $400 million worldwide, and more than a billion dollars in Batman paraphernalia. This gave Burton immense freedom and power in Hollywood. He went on to make Edward Scissorhands (1990), Batman Returns (1992), Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Ed Wood (1994), and Mars Attacks! (1996).
His next movie is tentatively titled Superman Lives and is planned to be released on July 4th weekend of 1999. There are certain elements present in each of Tim Burton’s movies. His films can be analogized to cartoons. Just as an animated feature contains only the colors, characters, and architectural style that the director wants, Burton achieves this with live action. This creates a complete world (or two) for the characters to exist. It even seems that he has passed the boundary of realism, and crossed over into surrealism. The Gothic style is most prevalent in his films. Used in the 1950’s horror films and 1930’s German expressionist period that Burton watched over and over again as a child, the Gothic imagery is present or dominating in each of his films. Vincent is his most extreme use of this style. The imagination of a kid is illustrated by the use of stop-motion animation in black-and-white. Long shadows, jagged angles, and distorted perspective are some of the tools that Burton utilizes from the old horror movies. This style is continued on Frankenweenie. For his first major film, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, Burton had to exchange the Gothic imagery for the character and world of Pee Wee Herman, Paul Ruebens, a morning television show for kids.
The Essay on Gothic Style in Britain
Gothic style has been enduring father of architectural design in Britain. Its development was complex and contradictive as it offers extraordinary vision of forms, shapes and angles. Nevertheless, the style has found its recognition. Usually, on distinguishes four major developmental stages of gothic style: Norman Gothic dated 1066-1200; Early English Gothic dated 1200-1275; Decorated Gothic dated ...
Bursting with primary colors and shapes, he effectively creates a semi-surrealistic atmosphere that Pee Wee lives in. Burton’s passion for imagery can be undeniably exhibited in his next feature Beetlejuice. The bureaucratic office of the afterlife and the interior design of the Deetze’s (Jeffery Jones, Catherine O’Hara) again show Burton’s flare for the dark, Gothic scenes. The floor tile gives an illusion of jagged spaces where people walk over. The sculptures of Mrs. Deetze, and her wardrobe are further examples of Gothic in Burton’s movies. The ultimate example of modern Gothic set design can be comprehended in Tim Burton’s most famous and profitable motion picture, Batman. Together with set designer Anton Furst, Gotham City was constructed. Forlorn, depressive, but strangely beautiful, Gotham City is the epitome city congestion, crime, and the people that are stuck in it. The mood is forever utter gloom as the sun’s rays are absorbed by a sad sky and the tall Gothic buildings, and never beam onto Gotham’s streets. Further emphasizing the entrancingly dark, Gothic style are the Wayne Mansion, the 1950-ish Monarch Theatre, the “Gothiem Museum” (a mistake in production), and the brick and steel Axis Chemical building.
The Gotham Cathedral is home to an amazing sequence of action and style. First, we see the Batwing (which is visually stunning in its own right) crash into the steps of the tall Cathedral. As the Joker, Jack Nicholson, approaches and kidnaps Vicki Vale, Kim Basinger, (who is visually impressive in her own right) he tells his henchmen, “Transportation from Gotham Museum, five minutes.” He then looks up, and glances at the spires and gargoyles and the elevation of the structure. “Make that ten minutes.” As Batman, Michael Keaton, enters the Cathedral hurt and stunned by the crash he slips, catching his balance on the last row of a church pew. As all of Gotham is exhausted, we see the Cathedreal is older and most effected by the decay when the pew falls over and creates a domino effect of crashing pews. Combined with the technique of tilting the camera (which is present throughout Batman and the 1950’s horror films) creates a ravishing Gothic look. Then, the Joker with Batman in pursuit must climb the fragile cobwebbed steps that angle and angle to the top. As the Joker reaches the top, he loosens an giant old bell that is seen crashing down the narrow stairwell of Gotham Cathedral.
The Essay on How did WWII change America and the World
The World War II remains the bloodiest and deadliest crisis in world history. It involved the best ever battle lines, enormous armed forces, along with the most destructive weapons in the history of the world (Martel 245). The worldwide disagreement that was regarded as or labelled World War II emanated from the 1930s great depression, a turmoil that undermined, destabilized and weakened ...
The black metallic bell falling down the brick enframed stairwell is just one of the many enduring images of Batman. The bleakness and depression of a city was never surpassed until Batman Returns was released two years later. Bo Welsh was hired this time around. He created a more stylized city that mixed one form of bleak architecture right next door to the other, which created the ultimate feeling of confusion and hopelessness. In addition, Burton only let the audience see Gotham City in sunlight for two scenes. Again, like a cartoon, he creates Gotham City not on the conventions of realism, but rather a few selected elements of reality, then exaggerates them out of proportion. The Gothic scenery followed Burton in the film between his Batman’s, Edward Scissorhands. The castle of Edward, Johnny Depp, dominates the skyline of suburbia below it. The castle is even more gloomy than the original City of Gotham because it has sharper Gothic angles, a barren lawn, and is always covered in a dense fog. This is a reflection of Burton’s newfound power in Hollywood to express his freedom. Edward himself, dressed in a black leather bodysuit with silver hinges, white skin, long black hair, and of course his long scissors, is a personification of Gothic.
One of Edward’s talents with his scissor-hands is topiary. The dinosaurs and bears he creates on the lawns of the townspeople provide striking imagery. By this time in Burton’s career, he created a series of films that were distinctive to all the rest. Disney capitalized on this by titling his next movie Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. Burton returned to stop-motion animation to produce a movie that is set in Hallo’ween land. The film received much criticism because many people believed that the motion picture was too dark and shadowy for children. But it allowed Burton to create another ghastly beautiful world. Even the characters were frighteningly beautiful, with thin appendages and without eyes. The least visual of his movies, Ed Wood, was set in the 1950’s. In a film about the real life of Ed “worst director of all time” Wood, played again by Johnny Depp, and his actor Bela Ligosi, an Oscar winning performance by Martin Landau, he compromised for the intrusion of reality by filming in black-and-white. Just as the creation of a visual world is elementary to Burton, the contrast of that to a completely different world is apparent in all of his films as well.
The Review on Of Mice And Men Film And Book Contrast
Of Mice and Men Film and Book Contrast In my essay I will explore similarities and differences of the novel Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck and the movie Of Mice and Men directed by Gary Sinise. In particular, I will examine the way Gary Sinise and John Steinbeck saw the tragedy and the relationships between George and Lennie, pointing out the differences of the accents set in the film ...
Pee Wee’s bright world is contrasted by the nightmares he has about the whereabouts of his beloved bike. The primary, happy colors of his life stand out to the dark sequence of Large Marge’s truck, the evil clowns who “operate” on his bicycle, and the Devil himself who plans to melt the bike. In Beetlejuice the world of the Maitland ghosts (Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis) is a warm country home complete with lots of wood. The new inhabitants, the Deetze’s, intrude Gothic styling onto this warm atmosphere. The snakeskin stair rails, the dark colors of furniture, and the horrid sculptures that are on display further distance the Deetze’s from commonplace. A gift that Burton has is to draw the audience into the worlds that he creates. For example, in Beetlejuice, the “weird” world of ghosts is seemly much more normal than the “normal” world of the living. For his Batman movies, Tim Burton mainly expresses the dual worlds as in split personalities of Bruce Wayne and Batman, of Selina Kyle and Catwoman, and of Oswald Cobbelpot and the Penguin. The alter ego’s are just outlets for the revenge that the characters must vent. In the first Batman, the main visual contrast is of the City of Gotham and the newsroom.
The Essay on Compare And Contrast The Movies "Grease" And "The Outsiders"
Although I thought they were two very different movies. To my surprise, ‘Grease’ and ‘The Outsiders’ do have some very similar characteristics. Even though the genres are different, they have similar themes. Not surprisingly, sound and lighting had almost no similarities. However; camerawork is very similar at various points of the two films. ‘Grease’ and ...
The brighter, and almost modern newspaper headquarters serves as a contrast and emphasizer of the Gothic structures outside. In the sequel, the sharp contrast between the Penguin’s (Danny DeVito) campaign office and his home immediately upstairs (as well as the rest of the film) provide impressive contrasts. The castle in Edward Scissorhands is sharply contrasted to the bright and pastel suburbia below it. Dark and eerie, the castle lays in fog and darkness while bright suburbia always looks happy. The Nightmare Before Christmas provides Burton’s most extreme difference between visual styles. The home of Jack Skellington, Hallo’ween Land, is a uncanny world that is capable of giving nightmares to viewers. Christmastown, however, is just the opposite. Layered on bright, soft, happy snow, “Sandy Claws” and other inhabitants are equally amicable. The main contrast of worlds in Ed Wood are mental. Ed Wood and Bela Ligosi see their films as masterpieces while Hollywood and the rest of the world cannot bear to view their movies. Visually, Ed Wood dresses up as a woman to escape his normal world. While the visual aspects of a Tim Burton Film are the first noticed and most enduring, there are characterizational and social ingredients as well.
Every movie made by Burton has an outsider, a character that is misunderstood and does not fit into his/her environment. Pee Wee Herman is the first of these characters. He is most understated an outsider. He even tells Dotie, the woman who adores him even after he pushes her aside for the love of his bike, “There’s things you don’t know about me. Things you wouldn’t understand. Things you couldn’t understand. Things you shouldn’t understand. I’m a loner, Dotie. A rebel.” The next misunderstood character is of Lydia Deetze who is played by a young Winnona Ryder in Beetlejuice. Misunderstood by her parents, and seemingly a social outcast, she finds refuge and company in the world of the ghosts. She says the ghosts of the Maitland’s, “I myself am strange… and unusual.” Burton’s next outsider is Bruce Wayne/Batman. Wayne is eccentric and absent minded and has a set of his own personality quarks. He tells the Joker, “So if you wanna get nuts, come on! Let’s get nuts!” By night, he transforms into the mysterious Batman, who at the beginning of the film is seen a sinister and described by reporter Knox (Robert Whul), “They say he can’t be killed, they say he drinks blood…” Until the end of them film, the citizens of Gotham really have not passed judgement on whether Batman is friend or foe.
The Essay on Taxi Driver Travis Film World
New York City that is depicted in Taxi Driver seems to be too real to be true. It is a place where violence runs rampant, drugs are cheap, and sex is easy. This world may be all too familiar to many that live in major metropolitan areas. But, in the film there is something interesting, and vibrant about the streets that Travis Bickle drives alone, despite the amount of danger and turmoil that ...
In the sequel, Selina Kyle (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Oswald Cobbelpot join Wayne as outsiders. As Catwoman, Kyle proclaims, “Life is a bitch; now so am I,” as Cobbelpot whose parents abandoned him because of hideous deformities declares, “I was my parents number one son; they treated me like number two.” Edward Scissorhands is an outsider to the bright suburbia. He tries so hard to fit in and have friends, but everything or person he touches he ends up hurting. At the end of the film, he is chased off by the inhabitants of the town and realizes that he does not belong in suburbia and he must return to his castle. Jack Skellington in The Nightmare Before Christmas feels like an outsider in his own Hallo’ween Land. He then travels to Christmastown where he is overjoyed by the beautiful, cheerful scenery. But every cordial attempt at interacting with the people of Christmastown fails because he unintentionally scares them. He then understands that he cannot fit in and must return to dreary Hallo’ween Land. Ed Wood and Bela Ligosi are in their own world. They cannot understand why the public does not adore their masterpiece horror films. The rest of the world, however, views Ed Wood as the worst director of all time.