EssayUnit5: AnimationJamie Tibbott1105170

Intro - 120 words

This essay will investigate critically Tim Burton within his animation career and how his work has progressed from what it once was to the modern day. Gothic Fantasy, The films of Tim Burton will look into the life of Burton analysing how his childhood affects his work. 'the films of Tim Burton' by Mcmahan will show in depth each animation through references to childhood and other films and animators. Tim Burton, by Merschmann will help look into films indivudally such as nightmare before christmas. Gothic fantasy by Edwin page, takes a look into burton behind the movies and into each film seperately.

Main body

Tim Burton is an animator/film director who grew up in a suburban town in Burbank California, where he was surrounded by a town of similar people with very low ambition and people that conform and adapt to the surroundings, in a dislike for change. People would argue Tim Burton would not be where he is today without his childhood references to guide him through his stories with such personal attachment to characters scenes and locations Tim Burton uses past experience to effectively tell a story and adapt characters and distorted imagery to the animation. Now known and famous for his unique style, Tim Burton thrives in the film industry with his expressionistic stylings and unique personality shown through his animations.

Burton started his animation career with Stalk of the celery monster, which was all hand drawn and typical Tim Burton styling and dark humour. However the 6 minute short “Vincent” was the pinacle of animation in which he was recognised. Disney gave him Sixty thousand dollars to create something of his own, so he created a story about a boy who wanted to be Vincent price, with narration from Vincent price himself, using drawn and stop motion animation to create it. “ Vincent includes aspects which are of personal significance to Burton himself, such as Edgar Allen Poe, and drawing” (Smith.J, 2000:20) which is clear as his work has always been inspired by his past and influences, and in comparison with several aspects of the world such as paintings and very early horror films which created this blend of dark humour and 'Burton-esque' characters. And also as stated within the book 'Tim Burton by Jim smith and J Matt hews' “ a film that might be termed 'Cabinet Of Doctor Caligari 'meets Ray Harryhausen, crossed with Nosferatu' ( pg 20, Tim Burton) which shows the depth of influence in which Tim Burton had to show the work he did today knowing that influence revert back through the history and childhood of Burton.

Through Vincent Tim Burton managed to team up with his idol of his childhood Vincent price who narrated the whole story, and this project meant a lot to Burton in reference to his past of watching all Vincent films and being inspired and influenced heavily by them, therefore when this opportunity happened it was like inserting his emotion into the piece through his response and inspiration of Price. “ Where does Burton's admiration for Vincent price come from? It's probably to do with Price's acting style, with his gravity, seriousness and old-fashioned elegance in even the crudest scenario's” (Merschmann.H, 2000:14) which shows Tim burtons take on the humour of Vincent price inserting all these elements to become something new. Burton managed to reference heavily Edgar Allen Poe even taking some lines from the story of “The raven” and inserting once again another inspiration from childhood, which arguably Burton went through this phase of collaborating all his influences and childhood emotions to create this new style which is now

recognised as Tim Burton’s work.

In 1993 Burton created the nightmare before Christmas, using stop motion and 3d animation such as the avant garde stylings of Jan Svankmajer and The Brother Quay and in relation to gothism closely related when looking back through the animations to which they all produced, however Burton would be seen in the modern day to be the director who brought a new style of culture to the teen world of Gothic society. Arguably through the release of the film Nightmare before Christmas. In the book, a child’s garden of nightmares ”People will look at the movie and go ,” oh this is really great,” and a lot of stop-motion will be gone, and some of it will be really great. Some will be really bad.”(Woods.P, 2002:106) which shows that Burton believes that the film is a place-holder in time for stop-motion, and people will look back upon it as reference for projects and how it changed animation and inspired other films such as toy story and other animations up to date.

All though Tim Burton is heavily influences millions of people in the world today, he is not without his enemies, Burton has comprised a series of people who dislike his work, and the way in which he works. For example people believe that Burton has fell into a trap in modern day society of which he cannot escape, Kim Newman reviews Nightmare before Christmas and states ”as it deals with the frustrations of a one-note creator who wants to break out and do something else. Only to learn that he should stick with what he does best. (Newman.K, 2002:108) which shows how Burton has fell into a state of no escape and is fading out through current work losing many fans and making people believe that he could just be a “one trick pony” working in the same way with the same style and not stepping outside the box because it could break him instantly and would no longer be seen as “Burtonesque” therefore leaving him in a state of a hard progression.

With this current day expectation of Burton, arguably he is no longer the inspiration he once was for the workings of nightmare before Christmas and corpse bride which wasn’t as big of a hit with the public, the animation scene has changed in relation to CGI therefore cutting Burton's skills as an animator to a breaking point.“Although star directors like Selick and Burton both have stop-motion features in production, It seamed like that their original version, that stop-motion would change animation as we knew it.”(Mcmahon.A, 2005:98) this is from the release of Jurassic park and Toy Story which created this whole new genre of animation and made Burton’s work, ultimately “old news” however the key animation nightmare before Christmas has a quality to remain as Burton’s key film of his life, although Henry Selick states that he did most of the work and Burton was the creative overseer. And therefore his name was attached to the film and is seen as his work giving everyone else involved demotion in comparison to Burton.

This fault when everything is revealed is something that frustrates people in the audience and critics having the Tim Burton label means that he is responsible for everything when in fact he plays a minor role alongside several people in the business who pulled together to create this vision of Burton's to create it and bring it all to life. When in fact Tim Burton was producer for Nightmare before Christmas, and directed by Henry Selick. However in relation to corpse bride, Burton returned to his infamous actors which he uses in most of his films, and causing the animation to be less anticipated due to nightmare before Christmas being so popular with the audiences and creating an audience which expects the same thing and not attracting other audiences."Better Off Dead" would have been a better title choice for Tim Burton’s self-indulgently macabre attempt at creating an animated underworld of gleeful singing corpses” (Smithey.C, 2005 ) This shows some peoples opinions on the animations are heavily biased and he believes that Burton made dying look better than living, which in a twisted sense is Tim Burton's dark humour which helps him gather the audiences which he doesn’t aim for but to reveal a part of himself and his childhood and emotions within the animation and whoever appeals to it, will.

Conclusion

Burton is highly respected in many cases of his unique style which arguably has been influenced down the years from Edgar Allen Poe, Vincent price, The brothers Quay, paintings and several other aspects which made his career thrive into the reputation of today. All though his work is now very alike it is clear that Burton managed to inspire millions and has made animations which will be looked at through the future as some of the strangest contemporary animations to date. His childhood had a great effect on his whole life and the key aspect of wanting to return to that feeling of being a child again to relive the pains and strangeness of his past will always convey through his animation and directing.

Bibliography

merschmann, H, 2000. Tim Burton The Life and Films of a Visionary Director. 1st ed. London: Titan.

page, E, 2000. Gothic Fantasy The films of Tim Burton. 1st ed. London: Marion Boyars.

mcMahan, A, 2005. The films of Tim Burton. 1st ed. London: continuum books.

woods, P, 2002. Tim Burton a childs garden of nightmares. 1st ed. London: Plexus.

Smithey.C, Corpse bride review, 2005, Taken from:http://www.colesmithey.com/capsules/2005/10/tim_burtons_cor.html

Accessed 17/04/2012