How Tim Burton has been inspired by gothic art.

Tim Burton is a gothic artist who and a film director creating dark story’s and recreating classic films with his own spin such as ‘Sweeny Todd the demon barber of Fleet Street’ and ‘Nightmare before Christmas’ . This essay will show how Tim Burton has drawn inspiration from gothic art is his designs from the architecture of his sets to his characters which and draws as concept pieces than captures in his films. I will be looking at what it was about gothic art which has appealed to him so much and how he has recreated the gothic style with his own interpretation. A film director named Vince Pierce had a big role to play in Burton’s life as he had captured Burton’s imagination in his early films. Tim Burton is now very well known for his films as he has created over nineteen films and won eleven Oscars and been nominated for twenty eight within the last two decades. In this article I aim to draw similarities between Tim Burton and gothic art including stone masonry and architecture.

Tim Burton started drawing cartoons when he was a teenager and followed his talent and attended California’s institute of arts studying animation after being given a scholarship by Disney films. Tim Burton later went on to working for Disney on what he saw as mainstream films such as ‘The Fox and the Hound’ in 1981 eventually Disney gave Tim Burton a sense of freedom and he created a short film which was a homage to his idol Vincent Price. He then moved on bigger and better such as beetle juice which was a huge hit and had given him the chance directed the batman film (1989). In the films that Tim Burton had directed gothic surroundings became more apparent especially with his animated films for example ‘Nightmare before Christmas’ and ‘Corpse Bride’ and then in his films like ‘Sweeney Todd’ he created gothic set designs and used characters are that were usually friendly and optimistic but with hidden sadistic mind set which contrasts with their bleak surroundings but also compliments himself with the way he dresses and what he is fascinated by.

Tim Burton’s ‘Corpse Bride’ film captures snippets of gothic art such as the image on the right although this model was made recently and digitally rendered it is very similar to the tomb of Ralph Green and his wife Katharine because of the way Emily (Corpse Bride) maintains an elegant posture what is similar to    way Katharine is laid out in statue form on the tomb. The film also use’s gothic inspiration in the way the cities are set out with the building that lean over you, the large stained glass windows and the towers and steeples all made out of dark wood which makes the set feel more disturbing and gothic this really helps the film have a time and place and there are two cities in this film and both the buildings styles are very similar but the underworld one is just a bit more abstract which Tim Burton tends to do and blow things into a crazy fantasy. In this film Tim Burton use’s words in both dialogue and songs with quite a harrowing nature but because of the style of music it makes it gothic yet enticing.

In one of his more recent films ‘Sweeney Todd’ he tells a tale of a what seems to be a normal guy until his wife is stolen from him and then cast aside by the man who took her so Sweeny Todd is a prime example of a gothic character how he is something what is seen as beautiful then manipulated into a man with a vengeance and he begins to go a bit crazy by killing men you come into his barbers shop then making them into pies with the help of his crazed lover Mrs Lovett who owns the pie shop below. The film show’s Todd as one of the best barbers in London but his surrounding are still very bleak this keeps the gothic style by using very dull colours but with exceptions like on the image to the right this image also shows how he is very laid back but can easily change mood’s similar to a Dr jackal and Mr Hyde scenario. The film also fits the concept of a gothic era with all the death in the film and the plot twist’s filled with deceit, lies and lots of murder, murder is a very important to the gothic era as you see reminders of it everywhere in gothic art and architecture such as when I went to Roslyn chapel and there are two face’s carved into the chapel walls one of the stone mason and one of the apprentice which is shown because the apprentice created a column which was seen as a masterpiece and the stone mason killed him due to jealousy. The film was shot with very low lighting so you get a sense of the unknown, evil and corruption.

Tim Burton’s work in ‘Edward scissor hands’ shows the gothic style by using little perspective as the face of the concept image of Edward scissor hands has some noticeable depth also the face is very similar to Tim Burton himself which suggests votive is used. In the drawing of Edward scissor hands there is no movement and his hands are by his side’s and with all the scars and the dark clothing the subject is gruesome which is one of the most occurring theme in gothic style. Once again Tim Burton has created a character which is surrounded by metaphorical evil even though he is in a colourful neighbourhood this shows how even though he appears the evil character it is the people who surround him such as the neighbours because they intimidate him and make him feel uncomfortable towards the end of the film Edward Scissor Hands is made look like a villain and people begin to turn against him. Tim burton also use’s contrast between the houses he lives in with all its gothic styled gargoyles and statues on the staircase and the colourful paint of the small suburban new builds.

Over all I believe that Tim Burton has been inspired by the work of gothic artist’s just as much as the work of the horror film directors which he idolized as a young adult which I think has helped him make his films some of the best horror/ musical/ black comedy films mainly because of his inspirations and his wide imagination I also believe that Tim Burton has sometimes made his films appear gothic without having the full intention of making them appear so dark and sinister, he also maintains to use actor he has worked with before as he feel a bond with them because they also have similar mind sets to him such as Johnny Depp and Helen Bonhem Carter.