Tim Burton: Interviews

“Why are people looking for escape in movies? . . . Because it’s . . . a form of recapturing not a ‘childish’ impulse, but a way of looking at the world as if it were fresh and interesting.” Starting his career as an animator for Disney, Tim Burton made his feature film directorial debut with the visually dazzling, low-budget Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. When it became a surprise blockbuster, studios began to trust him with larger budgets and the whims of his expansive imagination. Mixing Gothic horror, black comedy, and oddball whimsy together, Burton’s movies-including Batman, Beetlejuice, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, among others-veer from childlike enchantment to morbid melancholy, often within the same frame. These interviews show his progression from an inarticulate young director to a contemplative and dry-witted artist over the course of twenty years. In later interviews, he opens up about his experiences in therapy and how his childhood fantasies still affect his art. Tim Burton: Interviews reveals a man who has managed to thrive inside Hollywood while maintaining the distinctive quirks of an independent filmmaker. Kristian Fraga wrote and directed the award-winning PBS documentary The Inside Reel: Digital Filmmaking. He is a founding partner of Sirk Productions, LLC, a Manhattan-based film and television production company.