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Summary
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Tim Burton's lowest-rated films are all remakes, including Dark Shadows and Planet of the Apes.
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Despite some failures, Burton has a successful track record with remakes, such as Batman and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
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Burton's willingness to continue remakes and adaptations shows his persistence and creativity in the face of negative reviews.
Look into Tim Burtons decades-long, revered career, the most shocking element of his record comes from his lowest-rated work. Burton is now a connoisseur of all things spooky, but actually He started working at Disney from 1981 to 1984. The director was sadly fired while making the short film FrankenvenieWith the production company claiming that the weird short is too scary for children. Burton has since teamed up with Disney again on multiple other features, despite his friction with them in the '80s.
Burton didn't let the Disney firing slow him down, as he produced the Frakenweenie Short film anyway. From there he went on to direct Play Pee-wee's Big Adventure In 1985 and Beetlejuice In 1988. Decades later Frankenvenie Rejected by Disney, Burton turned the film into an acclaimed 2012 stop-motion animated feature of the same name. His sad feature Beetlejuice is getting a new life this year with the upcoming sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Although these are beloved works of Burton's, not all of his films met the same fate.
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Tim Burton's 4 worst-rated movies on Rotten Tomatoes are all remakes
Burton's worst-rated film is Dark Shadows
Looking at Burton's worst-rated films on Rotten Tomatoes, the bottom four are all remakes. The ill-received titles include Dark shadows, Planet of the Apes, DumboAnd Alice in Wonderland. All four of these films received poor scores on the critics' aggregate site, with the lowest-rated film of his career Dark shadowsA vampire film released by the director in 2012. Alice in Wonderland is Adapted from the Lewis Carroll book and classic Disney animated film of the same name.
Film |
Year |
RT critics score |
RT audience score |
---|---|---|---|
Alice in Wonderland |
2010 |
50% |
55% |
Dumbo |
2019 |
46% |
48% |
Planet of the Apes |
2001 |
43% |
27% |
Dark shadows |
2012 |
35% |
46% |
While Dark shadows Could be the lowest-rated work of Burton's career, it is Planet of the Apes which has gained the most notoriety. Burton made a particular stylistic choice with this remake, as he chose to use practical makeup effects instead of using CGI technology for the primate characters, making the reboot more similar to the 1968 version. In 2001, it was more boring than interesting, and the film was hated by critics and audiences. Like these Planet of the Apes franchise continues to this day, Burton's version is constantly cited as one of the worst.
Tim Burton clearly knows how to make great remakes and adaptations
Other Burton remakes are great
Looking more holistically at Burton's career, this pattern is somewhat confounding. His track record with the likes of Dumbo And Alice in Wonderland would, at first glance, indicate that the director should stay in his lane and avoid covering classic works. However, it's not the case that all of Burton's remakes are poorly received. In fact, Burton's versions of Batman And Batman Returns Both are certified fresh, the latter making it into his top 10 rated films.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is another well-regarded Burton remake. While resented by some die-hard Gene Wilder fans, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Still sitting at nine. 8 on the overall rating of Burton's films, with an 83% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Focusing more heavily on Willy Wonka's relationship with his father rather than just the children, Burton's take on the story shows a desire to reimagine the story, rather than simply remaking 1971's. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. The projects show that Burton is still skilled when it comes to remakesDespite some bad scores.
Tim Burton's biggest flops show he's willing to take risks
Burton continues to make remakes and adaptations
While it would be seemingly easy for a director to get discouraged by all the blowback from his remakes, that didn't seem to deter Burton. While the director has done some original work, including BeetlejuiceHe continued to work on remakes throughout his career in general. Even beyond remakes themselves, many of Burton's films are at least adaptations. Big fish is based on the novel of the same name, and Wednesday is a television spinoff of The Addams Family. So, even when Burton isn't remaking past films, he's adapting.
Even when some of his films fail critically, a great aspect of Burton's direction is that they are never empty, always offering a unique take on their source material.
Burton's persistence in making remake films seems to imply that the director is unfazed by the negative reviews. over the years, Burton continued to do any projects he wantedDo that be Frankenvenie, Ed Wood, The corpse brideOr a live-action version of Dumbo. Even when some of his films fail critically, a great aspect of Burton's direction is that they are never empty, always offering a unique take on their source material. Hopefully, this freshness will continue as Tim Burton Embarks on his next projects, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice And Wednesday Season 2.