All Tim Burton Movies Ranked Worst to Best (Including Dumbo)

Tim Burton Movies have a distinct look and feel, especially when studios set him free to be himself. Over four decades, Burton went from a cult favorite outsider to a blockbuster director. The goofy animator who was supposedly fired from Disney for not being kid-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 fascination with the macabre, and became one of the highest-grossing directors ever.

A Tim Burton movie can typically be recognized by his love, as one character in Beetlejuice describe yourself the “Strange and unusualHe is a director who loves Edgar Allan Poe and Hammer Horror, German Expressionism and High Camp, the money and the melancholy. The weird ones in his films are the normal ones, while the winners of the suburban-dwelling regular people should watch out. of Beetlejuice, BatmanAnd Edward Scissorhands to Ed Wood, Alice in WonderlandAnd 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 of Lewis Carroll’s iconic children’s novel seemed like the perfect combination of director and source material. However, critics called The result is his most uninspired film, A hodgepodge of images and inspirations from history forced into a narrative of a hero’s journey that misses the whole point of the novel’s thoughtful loving structure. Most of the cast were trying their best with the material, but Johnny Depp’s turn as the Mad Hatter was one of Burton’s more disappointing roles.

Still, the film was wildly successful, Making Disney over $1 billion And helping to kick off their current age of live-action remakes. The commercial frenzy only makes the film a bigger disappointment in terms of Burton’s work, as it seemed to mark a new period in his filmography, where he was not particularly enthusiastic about his own movies. Tim Burton said he almost retired because big-budget studio movies ruined his love of directing movies.

19

Planet of the Apes (2001)

Tim Burton reimagines the sci-fi masterpiece

It’s easy to forget how big a deal it was when it was announced that Tim Burton would remake 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 ApesAnd the term became a punchline for many failed remakes in the following years. With a $100 million budget from 20th Century Fox, The legendary Rick Baker joined in to design the amazing makeup.

With a cast including Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth, Paul Giamatti and Helena Bonham Carter, Planet of the Apes It was like a sure-fire hit. Of all the Tim Burton movies, Planet of the Apes Feels the least bit like a Tim Burton movie. Indeed, one would be forgiven for thinking that someone else did all the work, and he took the credit because not only is the film free of Burton’s favored styles and ideas, but his approach is so stagnant and could have been done by anyone .

Planet of the Apes Did decent at the box office but didn’t inspire a new franchise as Fox had hoped.

The screenplay’s attempts to pay homage to the original movie while putting new twists on iconic moments fall flat and are incomprehensible in some cases, including an ending that even Tim Roth didn’t understand. Planet of the Apes Did decent at the box office but didn’t inspire a new franchise as Fox had hoped. And so Burton, understandably, moved on to 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 true 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 big 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 Amy Adams’ performance (She would win a Golden Globe but did not land an Oscar nomination as some had predicted). Big eyes is noodling like anything else, and Christoph Waltz, who hums it up to almost unfathomable levels, seems to think he’s in a much different movie, which makes for an awkward pairing at times.

All the pieces are there for something special, however Big eyes is a Tim Burton movie that, with Adams’ light 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 for Lana Del Rey’s original song, “Big Eyes.”

17

Dark Shadows (2012)

Remaking the classic supernatural soap opera

The 1960s series Dark shadows was groundbreaking in its day, a gothic soap opera at a time when the genre was mostly focused on realistic domestic drama. It’s not hard to see why Tim Burton would be so drawn to it as a child, and Johnny Depp has also cited the big screen adaptation as a dream project. The story of a vampire who wakes up in the 1970s and moves in with his descendants is ripe for melodrama and fish-out-of-water humor, but so many jokes land strangely flat.;

His saving grace comes in the form of a completely game Eva Green, who has the time of her life as the Vichy 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 amazing – there’s little going on below the surface. His saving grace comes in the form of a completely game Eva Green, who seems to be having the time of her life as the Vichy antagonist.

16

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (2016)

A new 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 become a falcon. The great hook of the books was the use of vintage photographs Collected by the author, give the story a unique visual language that was tailor-made for the big screen.

While Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children Certainly giving Burton a large canvas to indulge his pet favourites, and it’s always a joy to see Eva Green embrace her most witchy qualities as an actress, this film is yet another one of his weaker efforts. Burton is often 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 PeregrineThe plot is so dense and the world-building deeply convoluted that viewers can’t overlook how much Burton can’t be bothered to deal with such things. The overstuffed story, combined with some puzzling editing choices, hampers its 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 classics can be tricky since the formula dictates a level of specificity And sort of synergy that most run-of-the-mill remakes don’t. When Tim Burton made Alice in WonderlandThat formula wasn’t perfected, so he had to deviate from the source material more than he probably would have just a few years later (although that might have been an improvement given how terrible that film was).

with DumboHe had to adhere to those standards and also had to turn a children’s legend that is barely an hour long into an epic film twice as long. Dumbo is not necessarily a bad film. Indeed, it is understandable why some critics call this a high point in Burton’s later filmography. However, it is hampered by the need to be a Disney live action remake, even when it is creatively impossible to be so.

What could be Disney’s simplest tale has become an overstuffed blockbuster

Although there are moments that soar, such as the flying scenes and actors giving it their all, like a gloriously camp evil Michael Keaton, the changes made for adaptation prove more confusing than anything else. What could have been Disney’s simplest story became an overstuffed blockbuster with war veterans, dead mothers and a subplot about the evils of selling to a major corporation. It’s also when Tim Burton thought about quitting directing altogether.

“Honestly, after Dumbo, I really didn’t know. I thought that might have been it, really. I might have retired, or become… well, I wouldn’t have become an animator again, that’s over.”

It is not without its charms, and the final act has some great action bears, however 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 did not direct the animated film most associated with him, The Nightmare Before Christmas. Despite his name being all over the posters and the visuals being so recognizably Bertonesque, the job of direction fell to stop-motion animation legend Henry Selick (Coraline). Audiences wouldn’t get an animated Tim Burton movie until 2005, when dead bride came out, the same year as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. However, the film lacks the spark of The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Wearing his Edgar Allan Poe influences on his sleeve, dead 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 skewing of social norms, depicting the underworld as the most vibrant place while the land of the living is gray and smothered by expectations. Although 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 The fox and the dog And The Black Cauldron. While there, he dubbed in short films. FrankenvenieOne of his first live-action productions was a short film about a boy who brings his dog back to life after being 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 that he did this with Disney in 2012 was not lost on anyone.

Remade as stop-motion animation, Frankenvenie is one of Burton’s more tightly constructed stories thanks to its 87-minute running time. Filmed in black and white and full of old horror references – this might be the most easter egg-packed Tim Burton movie ever made – Frankenvenie is a simple tale that still manages to nail the sheer sadness of losing a beloved pet, even after he is brought back to life.

After making several massive films, one after another, with mixed results, there is something to be said for a Tim Burton movie that goes back to the basics, even if it doesn’t have enough energy to sustain it. 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 Willy Wonka and 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 benefited Warner Bros. in getting their approval for the film. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is much 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 on full display here and feels like a perfect fit for Burton’s brand of happiness. 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 top-tier Burton is a shoe-horned-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 fantasy of his world. The film received 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 television debut in 1981. The frantic entertainer, both terminally delightful and utterly 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. Play Pee-wee’s Big Adventure is not a film that cannot be described as a Tim Burton movie in the traditional sense.

This is Reuben’s creation through and through. However, moments that are passed over reveal the kind of director Burton would become, such as the big 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. Play 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 reins of Batman to the director.

10

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street (2007)

Tim Burton is making a musical based on the Broadway stage play

Legendary composer Stephen Sondheim is arguably the most influential figure in musical theater of the past few decades. However, he is not someone whose work is 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 small 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 mythical 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 gives it their all, improvising the story with such verve and enthusiasm to the point that the audience almost forgets that this is one of the most depressing musicals ever written. Although decent enough, the singing can’t help but let the story down on several levels. 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

Although the typical Tim Burton movie is discussed in terms of its gothic style and macabre tone, it is often overlooked how incredibly serious 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, this insane homage to 1950s science fiction B-movies is Burton at his most sardonic.

It’s a cynical Generation X approach to the alien invasion genre, where the only notion of sentimentality is shot to pieces with laser guns. Filled with some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, each playing characters more terrifying than the last, Mars Attacks! suffered from being released in the same year as Independence DayAn unabashedly crowd-pleasing blockbuster that has no qualms about playing out worldwide catastrophic destruction for cheers and awe.

in comparison, Mars Attacks! Mocking everything that film does so seriously. That’s no bad thing, as the result is easily the funniest Tim Burton film and one that only gets better with age. A flop on release that opened to lukewarm 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 favorite classic movie in 1988 Beetlejuice. The 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 Beetlejuicewhich brought back most of the main cast while adding Jenna Ortega as Winona Ryder’s daughter.

It also convinced Burton to continue directing movies, as it rekindled his love for what he was doing:

“[Beetlejuice Beetlejuice] Reenergized me. A lot of times when you get into Hollywood, you try to be responsible for what you do with the budget and everything else, but sometimes you can lose yourself a little bit. It reinforced the feeling for me that it is important that I do what I want to do, because then everyone will benefit.”

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Was a huge success, succeeded at the box office and also pleased 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 a Popcornmeter score of 82%.

7

batman returns (1992)

Tim Burton’s Batman sequel

Batman Returns is technically a Batman movie, but it’s much more of a Tim Burton film than one that can accurately be described as a faithful adaptation of DC’s most beloved detective. It’s something of a minor miracle that Burton even got the film made as it is A trippy homage to German Expressionism that doesn’t seem to care that much about Batman.

Burton’s focus is much more on Danny DeVito’s gloriously grotesque take on The Penguin – a man literally raised by channel penguins – and Michelle Pfeiffer’s tour de force 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 much 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. 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 is bloodshed, then all the better. At best, his take on the legend of Sleepy Hollow is choppily paced with plotting that often comes together at the last moment, but his old-school horror pictures laced with knowing melodrama are endlessly enjoyable.

Sleepy Hollow is easily one of Burton’s prettiest movies, the kind of extravagant affair that could only be made by someone who has watched a lot of Christopher Lee vampire movies and wants to recreate every piece of production design. How can 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 stock and time Sleepy Hollow He does not completely indulge the whim, he is always aware of how stupid his concept is and is not afraid to play with it, from rolling heads to deep as Ichabod Crane is sprayed with the reddest blood in horror movies in illegal moments. Sleepy Hollow Hates a true murderer’s row of talents, 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 Batman movie in the modern era

Hand 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’d become, and the idea of ​​making a serious film out of a comic book era was mostly seen as a joke by other studios. However, the choice of the then-30-year-old Tim Burton proved unexpected compared to previously rumored directors like Ivan Reitman and Joe Dante.

The gamble paid off, and Batman became the second highest-grossing movie of 1989. Now, in a post-Nolan and DCEU world, it’s easy to dismiss Burton’s Batman Like a weak 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 mature for family audiences on release, it’s the film’s giddily frenetic tone that makes it such a thrill to watch.

It may not be as much of a Tim Burton movie as its sequel, however Batman is a more consistent story…

The production design that Burton’s films would become famous for is on full display 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, however Batman is a more consistent affair, blending Frank Miller with the 1960s series to striking effect.

4

big fish (2003)

Tim Burton’s Tale of Tall Tales and Daddy Issues

One of the most prevalent 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 strict dentist father. Nowhere is that more evident than in Big fishHis 2003 adaptation of the novel by Daniel Wallace.

Nowhere is it more affecting or, as the story of a man trying to figure out how much of his father’s fantastic tall tales from his youth are true allows Burton to delve into these themes with a Southern Gothic twist. Big fish is one of Burton’s more overtly sentimental movies, but he’s smart 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 excited son, two men who just want to understand each other before they run out of time. The settles in Big fish are, as expected by Burton, stunning, but the emotional core of the film elevates it to top-tier Burton. Burton has never been afraid to make his audience cry, however 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

After 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, although 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 weirdness with ease.

At the heart of the Tim Burton movie is the comic 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 weirdness of his character. The movie follows two ghosts who want to scare new tenants of their beloved home and make the mistake of calling the demonic Beetlejuice to help them.

While the parody of 1980s yuppies moving to the countryside is well-worn by now, the jokes Still country, and Catherine O’Hara once again reminds viewers that 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. Of course, it’s still very Burtonesque, and there’s no better subject for such a story than Ed Wood, who is often declared the world’s worst director. In his second film with Johnny Depp, Burton took the story of Woods and told a celebratory tale of ​​a scrappy underdog who fights the system to make art with his band of ragtag friends.

Rather than making 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 has been misunderstood by history. Instead of looking to 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 on Ed Woods 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 has 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 asked to give an example of the title that best exemplifies what it means to be a Tim Burton movie, they would look no further than Edward Scissorhands. Made after Burton gained A-list status after the success of BatmanThe film is a love letter to everything he holds dear – From gothic romances and universal monster movies to fairy tales and parodies of suburbia.

His re-imagining of Frankenstein makes the vision a difficult young man with scissors for hands, who wants nothing more than to associate with the ” normal world”. However, he is quickly fetishized and ostracized by those he wants to please. Even close to 29 years later and after so many parodies, Edward Scissorhands remains amazingly effective and deeply moving.

This is the film that changed the game for Tim Burton and made him who he is, as well as his 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 of his career and is widely regarded as one of the best movies that Tim Burton Ever made.