Tim Burton, a longtime Disney associate, is one of his generation’s most significant filmmakers. He started his career as an animator at the House of Toplino before being hired by Warner Bros.
His work with Disney includes the live-action remakes of Dumbo, Ed Wood, Nightmare Before Christmas, Alice in Wonderland, and Frankenweenie. The filmmaker, however, concluded that it was time to quit his partnership with Disney while working on the movie featuring the flying elephant.
My story began with them – Burton said at the Lumière Festival in Lyon. I have been hired and fired several times during my career there. Dumbo’s problem is, and that’s why I think my days with Disney are over. That film is entirely autobiographical in a way. I realized I was Dumbo, working in this awful big circus, and I needed to get away.
The status of superhero movies was another topic on which Burton commented. The filmmaker is amazed by how powerful Batman, which debuted in 1989, continues to be. Batman contributed to the creation of several cliches in the genre.
It was fascinating to be at the beginning of it all. And it is also extraordinary to see how, in some ways, not much has changed, the tormented superhero and the strange costumes, but it was exciting for me at the time. A novelty, let’s say.
The funny thing now is that people say, “What do you think of the new Batman?” and I start laughing and crying because I come back with a time capsule to when, practically every day, the studios were saying, “It’s too dark, it’s too dark.” Now in comparison, mine seems like a lighthearted game
