Tim Burton is one of the most polarizing figures in cinema, to say the least. He is known for creating some of the most interesting and dark visuals, while also trying to recreate those images 1000 times to disastrous results. It can be argued that his bad films are just as bad as his great films are great. Yet, there is something about him that keeps us coming back—even when we feel let down. He’s a director, a writer, a composer and a producer, not only creating his own worlds but helping others create theirs.
Much like Steven Spielberg last year, I’ll be tackling all of Burton’s films, ranking them from what I think is the worst to the best (and luckily, 15 less films to watch than Steve’s). Keep in mind, this is just my opinion. You can have your own and even disagree. Just be respectful. Lastly, you will not see Nightmare Before Christmas here, as it is not a Burton-directed film, so please don’t tell me it deserves to be number one.
Anyway, buckle up, grab your cape and cowl, say “Beetlejuice” 3 times, tell ‘em Large Marge sent ya, and let’s get into it. Some spoilers ahead!
19. Planet of the Apes – 2001
This film is infamous, to say the least. To say something positive, Rick Baker’s make-up effects are incredible. AAANNNNDD that’s about it. It’s got some terrible acting by some great actors (Paul Giamatti, Tim Roth, Helena Bonham Carter), a ridiculous “twist” ending that would make Shyamalan blush and some B-movie action that was done better thirty years before. Also, Burton ripped off Kevin Smith (gonna stroke that fire)!
18. Alice in Wonderland – 2010
It was only a matter of time before Johnny Depp played the Mad Hatter, right? To be fair, he’s in his element here, and he’s not terrible, but this film is a mess—which is saying something considering the source material. Alice is a bore, Anne Hathaway’s White Queen looks like she’s asleep and the CGI-creations (both the characters and sets) look dead and uninteresting. Somehow, this film got a sequel (thankfully not directed by Burton, or I’d have to include that, too). Read Pop Break’s original review by Ann Hale.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilqTywuUon8
17. Dark Shadows – 2012
It was only a matter of time until Johnny Depp played a vampire, right? To be honest, this film starts out pretty funny and the acting (sans Depp) is pretty damn good. But the film just never kicks into high gear, throwing random joke after random joke at you—most of which fly over the audience’s head. The visual style is something we’d seen from Burton a million times at this point. I honestly forgot his film happened until this retrospective and I feel most people had as well. Read Pop Break’s original review by Jason Stives.
16. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children – 2016
We’d seen Tim Burton tackle Batman and almost tackle Superman. Here, he takes a shot at the X-Men, but with his Burton twist. Sadly, we just get more dark, gloomy and boring Burton fare. Nothing visually stunning happens here that we hadn’t seen before. He takes his comic film credentials and mixes them with some early ideas and then boom, another Burton movie is made. Read Pop Break’s original review by Matt Gilbert.
15. Dumbo – 2019
Burton’s most recent outing (at the time of this writing) is just uninspiring. Dumbo could have been great, especially with the beautiful first trailer that we got. Unfortunately, it falls into the usual Burton problems: great imagery but a subpar plot. It does nothing original with the source material, but as we saw with Alice in Wonderland, maybe that’s a good thing. Read Pop Break’s original review by Michelle Coraci.
14. Charlie & the Chocolate Factory – 2005
Hot take: this movie is not as bad as everyone makes it out to be. In fact, it’s not bad at all. It’s weird, for sure, and Depp does not bring the same energy that Gene Wilder does, but it’s very interesting, darkly funny and, shockingly, is closer to the source material than Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Freddie Highmore is great as Charlie as well and though I can’t stand the Oompa Loompa songs in the film, everything else works well enough.
13. The Corpse Bride – 2005
I feel as though The Corpse Bride is a forgotten gem that Burton created the same year as Charlie & the Chocolate Factory. It was Burton’s return to his stop-motion animation roots (no, no, he DID NOT direct Nightmare Before Christmas), crafting a beautiful love story between two Victorian characters who would make Shakespeare characters blush. While the story is great, the visual is stunning, it’s the music that truly shapes this film, crafting a fantastic image that has, at least in this reviewer’s mind, stood the test of time (unlike a lot of other Burton films).
12. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street – 2007
It was only a matter of time until Johnny Depp played a maniacal barber, right? This movie gets a lot of hate for its lack of musical talent, especially in the vocals. I think that’s the point. While Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and the late, great Alan Rickman leave a lot to be desired, Jamie Campbell Bower and Jayne Wisener are fantastic, and Sacha Baron Cohen is manically great. This film also has a touch of Burton’s old style, not just being dark for the sake of being dark and, quite frankly, is just a lot of fun.
11. Big Eyes – 2014
Do most people even know this movie? No? Well, you should, because it was a return to form for Burton in 2014, which is strange, because it was Burton not being Tim Burton. We follow a painter (Amy Adams), a woman who makes beautiful art but has the credit taken for it by her husband (Christoph Waltz). It shows a divide between women and men’s rights in the 1960s and, while it has the typical strange Burton imagery, it is so different than what we are used to. Read Pop Break’s original review by Dylan Brandsema.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4gf2Av960M
10. Big Fish – 2003
I’m fully prepared to see a bunch of “OH MY GAWD, HOW IS BIG FISH SO LOW ON THIS LIST, WTF!?!?” reactions. It IS a great film, however, it has not aged well. I know it means a lot to Burton—and probably to some fans of the film. It looks fantastic, and it has fantastical imagery, but if you’re not in the mood for it, Big Fish can actually be quite boring.
9. Sleepy Hollow – 1999
Sleepy Hollow, quite frankly, is awesome. It’s a gore fest, a straight up horror movie that focuses on Ichabod Crane (shockingly played by Johnny Depp) and The Headless Horseman (played by a hammy Christopher Walken). There is a lot of Burton fun to be had here, from the gray, dark sets contrasting beautifully with the bright, bright red of the blood that splatters the screen. The film is overacted (but not to a fault), with everyone playing their characters perfectly, obnoxiously and, quite frankly, kind of disgustingly. This movie doesn’t get a lot of love. It should.
8. Frankenweenie – 2012
Is there a story more beautiful than a boy and his dog? A parody of Frankenstein and a remake of Burton’s 1984 short film of the same name, Frankenweenie is Burton’s best animated film, whether it’s a directed film or produced (HOT TAKE)! Made in black-and-white, the film is shockingly gorgeous, the dog himself looks great and the voice acting is as top notch as it gets. Sadly, the film did not do well, which just means you need to go and find it and watch it now. I’ll wait. Read Pop Break’s original review by Luke Kalamar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guzE63lQYRg
7. Mars Attacks! – 1996
Yes, Mars Attacks! is stupid. I’m fully aware. But that, friends, is its charm. Crammed from beginning to end with an all-star cast which includes two characters played by Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito, Glenn Close, Natalie Portman, Sarah Jessica Parker, Martin Short, Annette Benning, Pierce Brosnon and even Tom Jones, amongst others, as they battle an alien invasion from Mars. While the CGI does not hold up quite as nicely as one would hope, that’s part of the B-movie charm. It looks poor quality and maybe that’s what Burton was going for. The film is also pretty damn funny from beginning to end and there’s enough death to satisfy.
6. Pee-wee’s Big Adventure – 1985
How is a comedy so damn scary? Burton’s first big screen feature, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, starring Paul Reubens, is a sight to behold. It shows off everything we came to know and love (and hate) about a Tim Burton film, from dark and scary imagery, gigantic and exaggerated sets and over-the-top acting. This film is a lot of fun, shows off why we love Reubens so much as Pee-wee and has some awesome imagery that everyone remembers (Large Marge, the clown, Pee-wee’s bike) and, yes, gave birth to the legend of Burton.
5. Batman Returns – 1992
I love Tim Burton’s Batman films, but I have to put aside my comic book fan stigmas while watching them, because they do not hit the source material very well. With Batman Returns, Burton took the story of Batman to Christmas in Gotham with the darkest and most disturbing imagery he has ever had (and has been trying to recapture ever since). Everything works here, from the amazing sets, matte painting and backdrops, to Danny Elfman’s score to the sexualized Catwoman and psychotic Penguin. Lest we forget Michael Keaton’s Batman himself, who plays both normal and damaged at the same time, perfectly embodying the Bat. And, of course, there’s an over-the-top Christopher Walken performance.
4. Batman – 1989
1989’s Batman beats out Batman Returns because of one reason and one reason only: Jack Nicholson as The Joker. Burton created a great Gotham City, Keaton a dark and interesting Batman, but Nicholson, as per usual, stole the show, creating a maniacal, scary and hilarious Joker that just wanted his face on the one dollar bill and to be a famous artist (I mean, he’s no Picasso). What more is there to say? You’ve seen it, and it’s great.
3. Edward Scissorhands – 1990
This is Burton’s best mix of color on black, as he puts Johnny Depp’s Edward, aka Robert Smith of The Cure, into the ugliest version of suburbia one could imagine (bright homes that look exactly the same). Edward is easy to relate to if you grew up an outcast who received weird glances based off your looks—as though you don’t belong in their perfect world. It’s charming, funny, dark and sad, everything that makes a Burton film a Burton film. Winona Ryder is great, Dianne Weist is phenomenal and it’s the last time we ever got to see Vincent Price on screen. Scissorhands is a spectacle, one that is hard to explain, but when you see it, you feel it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZr28SlINxY
2. Ed Wood – 1994
It was only a matter of time until Johnny Depp…okay, okay I’ll stop. Ed Wood stars Depp as the infamous titular director, a man who was known for making the absolute worst films of all time. This film covers Wood’s creation of Plan 9 From Outer Space, from the writing, the production, the casting and the release—all of which left Wood cracking under the pressure to succeed. The film also focuses on his life as a cross-dresser, which some in the film attribute to his fragile psyche (I don’t necessarily agree to this, just how it’s depicted). This film dials back the imagery we are accustomed to, focusing on traditional camera angles and the acting ability of the film’s top star. It’s a perfect movie, but sadly, not perfect enough to beat…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E__AoONUh6g
1. Beetlejuice – 1988
Duh. What else could it be? Who doesn’t know this film? How dark yet bright it is, the comedic horror of it and the cream of the crop acting that comes with it, from Keaton’s titular character to Winona Ryder and Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis. The phenomenal practical effects still hold up to this day (don’t fight, you’ll lose), the movie can still scare you whether you’re 9 or 29, and it has so many one-liners that many people can still quote to this day. Unlike some of Burton’s lesser films, where you can point out everything you don’t like about them, it becomes harder to say exactly why you like his good films…and that is not a bad thing. Films like Beetlejuice (and quite frankly, most of this top 5) are so universally loved, you don’t need to say why you love them, just that you do. Beetlejuice is one of the rare times I’ll say a movie is perfect.
