Kevin Wozniak
Tim Burton could be considered one of the most important directors for children who grew up in the 80s and 90s because he taught us, intentionally or unintentionally, what a director was. I was a child at this time and Tim Burton was the first filmmaker whose films I understood to have a specific style and tone. When I would see a trailer for a new Tim Burton movie, I knew roughly what to expect: gothic tones, a mix of darkness and humor, real sets, live-action with a mix of animation and puppetry, movies about outcasts and loners. These were, and still are, the hallmarks of a Tim Burton movie, and even at a young age, I was able to recognize that, which then helped me understand directors better and understand filmmaking better.
Tim Burton has been making movies for nearly forty years. His career started with one of the greatest cinematic starts to a career, which featured six to eight films (depending on your opinion of the last two) that could be considered the best of his career. I can’t think of a director who has come close to starting their career off with such an impressive run of great films. But since that run, which ended at the turn of the century, the quality of Burton’s films hasn’t been as strong as it was in the 80s and 90s. While he has made good films since 2000 and seen them have success at the box office and with awards, it’s his bad films that overshadow his talents, making people question his talents as a director. I still believe nobody makes a movie like Tim Burton and whenever he drops a new film, I get excited to see what he has in store for us next.
Ranking Tim Burton’s films was a big task. Twenty films over forty years was a lot to digest, but it is a fascinating filmography of really high ups and really low lows. Yet no matter the quality of the film, Burton has established himself as a visual and technical master and an underrated director of actors. We may know what a Tim Burton movie is, but there is nobody who can replicate his style, energy, and mix of mediums. Here is my ranking of the films of Tim Burton.
20. Alice in Wonderland (2010)
If there is one thing Tim Burton is known for, it is the visuals of his movies. Whether it’s the costumes, the production design, or the cinematography, you can usually count on the visuals of a Burton movie to be good even if the rest of the movie is not.
Which is why Alice in Wonderland lands at the very bottom of my Tim Burton ranking. Plain and simple, this movie is horrid to look at. I understand it was made during the peak of movies being made for 3D, but this movie is nothing but CGI goop, which is depressing coming from a man known for practical sets and effects. The movie’s ugliness is coupled with a messy plot and terrible performances, notably by Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter.
Alice in Wonderland is, however, Burton’s most successful film at the box office, making over $1 billion worldwide, and somehow won two Academy Awards for Best Costume Design and Best Art Direction.
19. Dark Shadows (2012)
Dark Shadows seemed like a movie right up Burton’s alley. Adapted from the 1960s TV show of the same name, the film follows an imprisoned vampire (Johnny Depp) who is inadvertently freed in the 1970s, to find himself in a very different world he does not recognize. The film stars Eva Green, Helena Bonham Carter, Jackie Earle Haley, Chloë Grace Moretz, and Michelle Pfeiffer along with Depp.
Nothing about Dark Shadows works. It is a boring and forgettable movie and felt more like someone trying to impersonate Burton and failing than an actual Tim Burton movie. It can’t find the right tone and isn’t sure if it wants to be a soap opera like the original show or a dark comedy, the performances are stale, the plot is boring, and the drama doesn’t exist.
18. Planet of the Apes (2001)
There was a lot of hype around Planet of the Apes before its release in 2001. Burton was one of the hottest directors around, the original Planet of the Apes was a sci-fi classic, and it starred Mark Wahlberg who was an up-and-coming star at the time.
To say the film was a disappointment would be an understatement. This was Burton’s first major misstep as a director, and it was a giant misstep. From the convoluted plot to the terrible characters to the baffling twist ending, Planet of the Apes failed on almost every level and was slammed by critics and audiences upon its release.
That said, I don’t think Planet of the Apes is the abomination many claim it to be. Yes, the human characters are terrible, and their performances are even worse, but the performances by the actors playing the apes, most notably Tim Roth, Michael Clark Duncan, and Paul Giamatti, are good and Rick Baker’s makeup is astonishing even to this day. The level of detail and realism is unbelievable.
17. Big Eyes (2014)
Big Eyes tells the story of Margarette Keane (Amy Adams), the artist behind the iconic Big Eyes paintings, and the insane legal battles she had to through after her husband (Christoph Waltz) took credit for her paintings.
Following two of his most reviled films Alice in Wonderland and Dark Shadows, Big Eyes felt like Burton trying to get the critics back on his side by making a seemingly awards-friendly biopic starring two of the most sought-after actors working at the time on a mere $10 million budget. Though the change of pace was good for Burton and the performances by Adams and Waltz are strong, the film’s uneven tone and pacing make it a slog to watch, ultimately making this a miss in Burton’s filmography.
16. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (2016)
Following a pretty rough streak of movies (most listed above), Burton directed Miss Peregrine’s School for Peculiar Children, an adaptation of the young adult novel of the same name, and it felt like Burton was finding himself again. The film follows Jacob (Asa Butterfield) an unremarkable boy who, through clues left by his deceased grandfather (Terence Stamp), discovers Miss Peregrin (a ravishing Eva Green) and her school of children with powers and special abilities. This discovery causes a threat that bends space and time.
While overstuffed with a lot of plot going on, it features a lot of elements of Burton’s best films. It had cool sets, creepy creatures, and some child-like whimsy mixed with dark elements. It may have made a better mini-series, but this was one of Burton’s better outings of the 2010s.
15. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a strange movie. Burton’s adaptation of the classic Roald Dahl book has the same premise is the same, as Charley Bucket (Freddie Highmore) finds a golden ticket that gets him and his grandfather a tour of Willy Wonka’s (Johnny Depp) chocolate factory with other kids who found golden tickets, only for those other kids start disappearing through freak occurrences during the tour. Burton expanded on this story by showing us a backstory of how Wonka found the Oompa Loompas and Wonka’s troubled relationship with his father (Christopher Lee), who was a dentist to refused to let Wonka have any candy, which added an emotional layer to the film.
The visuals of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory are what carries the film. Said to be a combination of psychedelic, inflatable pop art, and 1960s Russian American Space Race, this is one of Burton’s most unique-looking movies due to the color pops and structure design of everything. The only thing holding back Charlie and the Chocolate Factory from being a potentially great movie was Depp’s performance as Wonka. Taking inspiration from game show hosts and children’s TV characters, Depp’s performance never fully clicks with what the movie is doing. It needed more subtlety and a different look, one that didn’t resemble Michael Jackson with a bob cut.
14. Dumbo (2019)
The 2010s saw a surge in Disney adapting their classic animated films into live-action films. It started in the 2010s with Burton’s Alice in Wonderland and the decade ended with four adaptations, one of the being Dumbo, which was also directed by Burton.
Dumbo was a significant improvement from Alice in Wonderland and is one of the best Disney live-action adaptions. You can’t help but feel like Burton sympathized with the story of an outcast who becomes a megastar in a smaller traveling circus and gets noticed by a big, evil circus that doesn’t care about its performers. Burton made a magical film with deep emotion and a terrific ensemble cast.
13. Corpse Bride (2005)
Inspired by a 17th-century folk tale, Corpse Bride follows Victor (voiced by Johnny Depp), a shy groom who practices his wedding vows in the presence of a deceased young woman (Helen Bonham Carter) who then rises from the dead and agrees to marry him.
Corpse Bride was Burton’s first feature animated film, though he didn’t do it alone. Partnering with Laika, the studio behind stop-motion gems like Coraline and ParaNorman, and co-directing the film with Mike Johnson, Burton found the perfect partner to bring this fantasy stop-motion love story to life. The characters are uniquely designed, with a range of expressions and motion, and the production design, especially when we’re in the afterlife, is dazzling. While only a brisk 77 minutes, Corpse Bride is a strong entry in Burton’s filmography and earned him his first Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature.
12. Frankenweenie (2012)
Burton earned a second Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature for his feature-length adaptation of his 1983 short film of the same name. Like the short, Frankenweenie looks at a boy named Victor Frankenstein (voiced by Charlie Tahan) whose beloved dog Sparky is unexpectedly hit by a car and dies. Victor, a science wiz, attempts to bring back Sparky using electrical impulses through a lightning story, though it leads to more trouble and chaos than he could have imagined.
Frankenweenie is a wonderful homage and parody of classic monster movies like Frankenstein and Godzilla, with giant lizards and fish taking over the small town after Victor’s experiment gets in the wrong hands. The black and white palette gives it that classic, old movie feel, and featuring imaginative animation, Frankenweenie is a charming, heartfelt, exciting movie about the love between a boy and his dog.
11. Mars Attacks! (1996)
Following Ed Wood, Burton’s biopic about director Edward Wood, the king of schlocky genre films, Burton went and made Mars Attacks!, a homage to the B-movies of the 1950s and Irwin Allen disaster movies.
Mars Attacks! is a relatively standard alien invasion movie, where the aliens invade Earth and it’s up to America to stop them. However, Burton’s execution of the sci-fi action along with an all-star cast featuring award winners like Jack Nicholson (playing four roles), Annette Benning and Glenn Close, future stars like Natalie Portman and Jack Black, and even sports icon Jim Brown, all giving fun performances, that makes Mars Attacks! not only a great homage to genre filmmaking but a genuine success in the sci-fi genre.
10. Big Fish (2003)
Big Fish finds Burton working in sentimental territory while also being able to showcase a world of strange people. Billy Crudup stars as a man who is trying to decipher what is fact and what is fiction from his dying father’s (Albert Finney) life. Ewan McGregor is also in the film as the young father and we see through flashbacks some of the extraordinary situations and people he met throughout his life, even if they don’t seem real.
Before signing on to the film Big Fish, Burton’s father passed away and Burton used making the film as a coping mechanism to help him process his emotions. The result is Burton’s most personal and emotional film to date. Big Fish is a lavish, southern fairy tale adventure that features dozens of characters who are as bright and alive as the film’s color palette. Big Fish is a delightful tale about fathers and sons, the stories we tell, and the effect the people we meet have in our life have on us, no matter how big or small.
9. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)
Following a rough 2010s that saw Burton make some of his least successful films critically and financially, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice felt like a return to form. The movie has everything we loved about Tim Burton movies in the 80s and 90s. The sets and costumes are detailed and imaginative. It blended live-action, animation, puppetry, claymation, and visual effects cleverly. It is equally hilarious, dark, and sweet, most importantly, something we haven’t been able to say about a Burton film in a long time.
The new additions to the cast, Jenna Ortega, Monica Bellucci, Justin Theroux, and a few others, are perfect complements to the original cast and story. But, the trio of Keaton, Ryder, and O’Hara give the best performances in the film, not missing a beat since first taking on the roles back in 1988. Seeing all of them together on screen again hit me right in the nostalgia feels and the film shows that Burton still has that spark to be a great director.
8. Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (1985)
While you might not think of Tim Burton when you think of Pee Wee Herman, the eccentric man-child with the whacky voice, Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure was the perfect vehicle for Burton to start his career. Burton took the story of a man trying to find his stolen bike and took us on an odyssey across America, where Pee Wee meets ghost bus drivers, goes to The Alamo, and dances at a biker bar. It’s strange stuff, but right up Burton’s alley, as he showcased his love for quirky characters, his disdain for the suburbs, his knowledge of horror, and getting a great performance by the film’s lead actor, this time being Paul Reubens.
Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure introduced the world to Burton. It got his feet wet in the industry and he showed us a brief glimpse into his mind.
7. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
Though he claims not to be a fan of the musical genre, Burton showed he had a knack for crafting music-centric sequences. Whether it was the “Tequilla” dance in Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, the “Banana Boat” dinner party in Beetlejuice, and even making Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Corpse Bride in 2005, two music-forward films, though not ones I would technically classify as musicals, Burton showed inklings that he understood how to make a musical. Having seen Stephen Sondheim’s play when he was a student and wanting to adapt it to film for decades, it was only a matter of time before Burton made his musical.
Adapting any Stephen Sondheim play to the big screen is a daunting task, but Burton was up to it and succeeded remarkably. The musical numbers are well shot and choreographed, shooting the film in a cinematic fashion while also making the scenes feel like they were ripped right from the stage, Burton stayed true to play while also working with themes and characters he excels at like loners, attacking the wealthy and powerful, alienated children, and forbidden love. Led by outstanding performances from Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, Sweeney Todd is one of the best musicals of the 21st century.
6. Sleepy Hollow (1999)
Sleepy Hollow is the most underrated film of Burton’s career and the meanest. Telling the story of Ichabod Crane (Johnny Depp) and the headless horseman who terrorizes the town of Sleepy Hollow, Burton twisted the film and turned the film into a murder mystery filled with corruption and murder. Along with Depp, the film stars Christina Ricci, Christopher Walken, Miranda Richardson, and a slew of Burton favorites including Michael Gough, Lisa Marie, and Christopher Lee.
Following Ed Wood, a film critics loved but audiences didn’t respond to at the time, and Mars Attacks!, a film mixed by critics and adults, two films that felt like departures from what Burton had delivered in his previous films, Sleepy Hollow felt like Burton reverting to what we knew him for, but doing it angrily. This is Burton’s first R-rated film and he made sure to get the most out of that rating, with plenty of blood, gore, and violence along with some truly disturbing elements that still make my skin crawl. It is also one of Burton’s best-looking films, which says something in a filmography stacked with good-looking movies, and won an Oscar for Best Production Design, along with earning nominations for Best Costumes and Best Cinematography.
Though the film made over $100 million at the domestic box office, Sleepy Hollow feels like it got lost in the shuffle of all the great movies that came out in the fall of 1999, as well being the film that preceded Planet of the Apes, the film that almost derailed Burton’s career. Give Sleepy Hollow a rewatch. It’s a bloody great time.
5. Batman (1989)
It’s a miracle that Batman was made and was as successful as it was. After nearly a decade of trying to get a film made, with dozens of writers and producers attached, and Batman’s popularity rising and falling with every comic that was released, Warner Bros. decided to make a film adaptation following the success of The Killing Joke graphic novel. They hired Burton to direct based on the success of Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure and Beetlejuice and cast comedy star Michael Keaton to don the cape and cowl, alongside Jack Nicholson, arguably the greatest actor working at the time, to play the film’s villain, Joker. While Burton and Keaton’s casting was inspired, fans of the Batman comic did not like these hirings and they didn’t believe that Warner Bros. was going to make a brooding superhero film, especially since the last Batman film, the 1966 film starring Adam West, had become a camp classic.
And yet miraculously Batman works on every level imaginable. Burton created a superhero world that was brooding and sinister, far different from the Adam West version and more on par with Bob Krane’s vision in the comics. Keaton was perfect for Batman and Bruce Wayne and is still considered by many to be the best to ever play Batman. Batman was a huge box office and critical success and set the template for what superhero movies and Batman movies could be.
4. Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Following the success of Batman, Burton went smaller and made a more personal story about how he felt growing up in the suburbs of Burbank California. Edward (Johnny Depp) is an artificial man living in a dark, gated castle at the top of a mountain overlooking a pastel-colored suburb where everything seems perfect. When he is discovered by Peg (a wonderful Dianne Weist), she brings him into this seemingly perfect suburb, only for his life and the lives of everyone in the town
Edward Scissorhands is the film that defines Burton the most as a director. Burton became fully formed as a filmmaker with this film and it is only his fourth feature film. Watching the film, even to this day, you see his growth as a director from Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure to Edward Scissorhands and see a massive leap in terms of control. This film cemented Burton as one of the great auteurs in cinema and he made a style that became synonymous with him for his entire career. This is also the first film he worked on with Colleen Atwood, the brilliant, award-winning costume designer who Burton would work with several times throughout his career.
3. Ed Wood (1994)
As evident throughout his filmography, one of Burton’s biggest influences as a director was schlocky, cheaply made horror and sci-fi movies from the 1950s and 60s. So, it was only fitting when Burton made Ed Wood, a biopic about the king of schlocky genre pictures, Edward G. Wood. The film looks at Wood (played marvelously by Johnny Depp) as he tries to make it as a big-name director, only to make films so reviled at the time that he became a laughingstock of the film industry.
Ed Wood is Burton’s most endearing film. Burton’s love for Wood and the types of films he made allows the film to showcase a man who was full of life, empathy, and passion. The gorgeous black and white cinematography and authentic costumes and production design puts right in the middle of 1950s Hollywood. The all-star cast around Depp, including Sarah Jessica Parker, Bill Murray, and Martin Landau, who won an Oscar for his portrayal of Dracula star Bella Lugosi, is one of Burton’s most impressive. Ed Wood is a beautiful portrait of hard work, creativity, and defying the odds, and a love note to old Hollywood independent filmmaking.
2. Batman Returns (1992)
Burton’s movies often look at outcasts, both in how they feel and how they look. A leather-glad, scissored-handed robot-man in a picturesque pastel suburb, a big-eared elephant, a man-child traveling across the country to find his bike. In the superhero movie landscape, Batman Returns is that outcast, because there has never been a superhero film like it before and there hasn’t been one like it since.
Batman Returns is the strangest superhero movie I have ever seen, but also one of the best. Burton, working at the peak of his powers following the success of the first Batman film and Edward Scissorhands, made a dark, gothic, erotic superhero movie where the titular hero takes a backseat to the film’s villains, Catwoman and Penguin, played iconically by Michelle Pfieffer and Danny DeVito.
It’s crazy to think that a studio would allow this film, one that opens with a mother and father throwing their penguin-like baby into the town sewer, to be made let alone be released as a summer blockbuster, and yet Batman Returns was one of the most successful movies of 1992.
1. Beetlejuice (1988)
An argument could be made that any of Burton’s first six films are his best and it would be justified. For me, Beetlejuice is Tim Burton’s masterpiece and frankly, it isn’t close. Working with an inventive script from Michael McDowell and Warren Skaaren, Beetlejuice is a perfect combination of everything we love about Burton. The visual style, and the seamless use of live-action, animation, and puppetry all in the same movie while masterfully mixing humor and macabre. It features memorable characters, none more than Michael Keaton’s portrayal of the titular bio-exorcist, who gives the best singular performance in a Tim Burton movie. The film set the template for Burton’s movies of the future by featuring the familial outcast with the distant parents, the quiet creepiness of the suburbs, a specific visual style, and themes of loneliness, death, and family. This is what we think of when we think of a “Tim Burton movie” and it all started with Beetlejuice.
What elevates Beetlejuice to the top spot is how timeless it is. Watching the film now, nearly 40 years after its initial release, it still feels fresh and electric. Burton’s energy bleeds through the screen and every frame and scene is more amazing than the last. Even having seen the film over a dozen times in my life, every rewatch feels fresh. Along with the jokes still being funny, the horror elements still being effective, and the visuals looking better than most films today, I get something new out of it with every rewatch. Whether it’s a new appreciation for one of the film’s performances, noticing a small detail I hadn’t seen before, or just admiring the details of the set and costumes, Beetlejuice is always a joy to watch and will be a joy to watch for decades to come. Beetlejuice is a perfect movie that stands the test of time and is Tim Burton’s masterpiece.
