10 Best Tim Burton Films
With the recent home video release of Tim Burton’s sixteenth feature film Frankenweenie, it’s about time we compile a best of list for the mercurial filmmaker. The director who took the macabre and put a modernist spin on it – a Gothic Frank Tashlin if you will – has made some pretty interesting films, both visually and story-wise, and I have collected the ten best right here.
Now since there are ten films on this list, and Burton has made just sixteen, that obviously means there are six films that did not make it. But since both Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Dark Shadows are nothing more than average at best, and the director’s version of Alice in Wonderland and his Planet of the Apes remake are somewhere in the realm of the atrocious, I am left with just two films to include in a runners-up list: 1989′s Batman and 2012′s Frankenweenie.
Anyway, enough of this introductory hoopla, let’s get on with the show.
10. Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (1985)
Burton’s debut feature and the movie that made, for better or for worse, Paul “Pee Wee Herman” Rubens a star. This is an extremely fun and extremely silly screwballesque comedy adventure thingamajig that may stand somewhere well beyond proper identification or categorization.
9. Corpse Bride (2005)
Take your wife and make a ghoulish undead cartoon version of her, have her voice said ghoulish cartoon version and of course throw in an animated Johnny Depp (your other “wife”) and put it all up on the big screen with hilariously macabre musical numbers. Sounds good to me.
8. Big Fish (2003)
A strange and unusual bear of a movie, but probably, next to Ed Wood, the closest thing Burton has ever done to a sentimental, grown-up movie. This is not meant as a dig on his other work – I actually prefer the less grown-up stuff – but just an observation.
7. Sleepy Hollow (1999)
Dripping with even more Gothic ooze than the normal (relative term) Burton film, this Washington Irving tale is spot on gruesome. Plus, how can a film not be great fun when you have Christopher Walken as the Headless Horseman of legend and lore.
6. Batman Returns (1992)
The superior of the Burton era Dark Knight films, it is highlighted by Michelle Pfeiffer as the best damn Catwoman this side of Julie Newmar and a great turn by Danny Devito as Oswald Cobblepot himself. Granted, it can’t hold up against Nolan, but c’mon.
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11 Comments
That’s a good list. Here’s my list of the films by Tim Burton that I’ve seen so far.
Ed Wood – number one…perfect choice. Bit surprised to see Mars Attacks make the top 5 as it’s so disjointed but great to see Edward Scissorhands and Beetlejuice make the top spots as they are my favorites.
Yeah, Mars Attacks is oft-maligned, but I still love it.
Given that the only movies on here that I think are any good are Batman Returns, Sleepy Hollow, Mars Attacks!, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, and Ed Wood– and given that of those, I really only think Ed Wood and Sleepy Hollow qualify as thoroughly good movies– I’m probably not someone who should be commenting on the “best” of Burton’s filmography. But I guess I already have.
Ed Wood is, I agree, the perfect choice for #1.
Nice rankings here. Damn hard to disagree with your top pick, love Ed Wood. Pee Wee’s Big Adventure will always hold a place in my heart, as will Edward Scissorhands and especially Beetlejuice. God, I just love those.
I am glad to see Sweeney Todd so high up on your list. Tim Burton is easily one of the more intriguing directors out there. Almost every project that he releases, I must avert some attention toward, whether good or bad.
Its a great list although I would always include Batman toward the top of my Burton list.
This is a fine list
I quite like Burton but haven’t seen all his movies. I need to watch Ed wood soon as it is in your first list.
So happy to see Mars Attacks in your top 5. It’s just a crazy beast of a film. Loads of fun.
I think we are in the minority when it comes to Mars Attacks, but there it is anyway.
It is with great shame that I must admit I have yet to get around to seeing Ed Wood, so I cant comment on that one. For me his best one I’ve seen is Edward Scissorhands, with my favorite being Beetlejuice. While I liked Sweeney Todd, I’d have to drop it to 4 and bump those two up.
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