Top Tim Burton Movies – Ranked

The film industry is composed of many unsung heroes, and Tim Burton is one of them. While actors like Keanu Reeves, Tobey Maguire, and Zendeya Maree get all of the lights and attention, there are people behind the screen. These people includes — writers, directors, sound experts, and costume professionals. They are working tirelessly to ensure the movie is a success. In this article, we will be giving Tim his flowers and ranking his most popular movies.

While some of you might be quite familiar with Tim Burton, there are still people who may not yet grasp the genius of the American film director, writer, producer, artist, and ex-animator. As you can see from the description above, Tim Burton is a versatile film director who is well-well-known for films such as Alice in Wonderland, Batman, and Batman Returns.

History of Tim Burton

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The word genius is often misconstrued as a person whose genes give them an edge mentally. This mythical explanation of outliers has been shattered by down-to-earth documentaries revealing the most-revered beings for what they are — normal humans who worked their way to success.

The story of Tim Burton took a similar trajectory as an introspective kid with inspiration from his childhood heroes, Roald Dahl and Dr. Suess, to make cursory films in his backyard with the aid of early stop motion animation methods and an inaudible 8 mm film. He took his preteen gifts seriously and studied character animation at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts).

As an apprentice under Walt Disney Productions’ animation division, Tim worked in the capacity of a storyboard artist, animator, graphic designer, concept artist, and artificial director. He lent a hand to the production of popular films like Tron, Black Cauldron, and The Fox and the Hound, but unfortunately, his concept art was not used in the final versions of those films. Undeterred by the denial, Mr. Burton made his first film at Disney in 1982.

The short film was an adaptation of a self-written poem about his lifelong idol and motivation, Vincent Price. It’s noteworthy to state that the six-minute film was narrated by Vincent himself. According to Vincent, the film is the most gratifying thing that ever happened”.

His second film under Disney, which doubles as his first live-action production, Hansel and Gretel, was aired once and pressure, acutely shelved. Despite his initial hurdles with live-action film production, he went on to produce hits such as Batman and Edward Scissorhands.

Top Tim Burton Movies – Ranked from worst to best

Tim Burton has created a couple of hits and misses. His story is not complete without both aspects of his life.

Dark shadows

There are few producers that can spin a television show into a full-fledged movie, and the chances of success are pretty low as the cult-followers of such shows might simply be unimpressed or disappointed.
Tim Burton knew his chances of success were slim, yet he took on a television show called Dark Shadows.
The Gothic horror soap opera was lived from the middle 60s up to the early 70s.

The movie, Dark Shadows, depicts a story of a vampire character Barnabus Collins (played by Johnny Depp), who was cursed with eternal life and buried alive after he broke the heart of a witch. What a horrific fate! He was able to escape the grave after two centuries and chose the path of vengeance. I

n the process, he rejoined the Collinwood society and found love once again. The adamant witch rediscovered Collins and forced him into a sexual relationship. Collins ended up killing Angelique, the witch in a fierce battle.

At the end of the movie, his lover (Victoria) requested to be turned into a vampire, or she would commit suicide. Before she jumped off the cliff, he bit her neck and turned her into a vampire.
Dark Shadows was one of the worst Tim Burton movies. The star power of Johnny Depp could not save the movie and its strange plot. It garnered multiple terrible reviews. On Rotten tomatoes, it had an average rating of 5.30/10.

Planet of the Apes

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When asked if he would direct a sequel to Planet of the Apes, Tim Burton gave a stunning reply. He said he would rather “jump out a window.”
That tells you how poor the reception of the movie was. The movie was a remake of the original Planet of the Apes film, which was so good to the point that the film producer immediately bought the film rights when it was brought up by Allan Bernheim, the writer’s literary agent. The original series only had four sequels. This version was a loose Burton’s adaptation of the initial version.
In his version, Burton depicted the story of an astronaut who goes by the name Leo Davidson. On discovering a new planet dominated by apes, he intended to relinquish their tyrannical dominion.One would think that a remake of a film with such history and public approval can do no wrong.
However, the Planet of the Apes remake was a flop according to critics. The Burton film got multiple Golden Raspberry awards for the worst remake. If you don’t know, the Golden Raspberry Award is dedicated to the worst cinematic ventures.

Alice in Wonderland

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Alice in Wonderland is a story of a girl who was led by a rabbit in a blue coat to a fantastical wonderland in her dreams. There, she rediscovered her friends, and they helped her come to the realization of her true destiny which was to kill Jabberwocky and relinquish the tyrannical Red Queen of her power.
The 2010 movie garnered average reviews across IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, and Vudu. It starred top actors like Anne Hathaway, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Crispen Glover, Mia Wasikowska, and Matt Lucas. The voice of the legendary Alan Rickman was also featured in Jim Burton’s movie.
Consistency, they say, is the secret of success. However, doing the wrong things never leads to success regardless of how many times the subject acts. Despite the poor performance of the fantasy film, he pushed further with Alice looking through the glass. Both films received negative reviews from critics. Alice in Wonderland.

Mars Attacks

Critics reviews are not the be-all and end-all of a movie. If the movie becomes very successful at the box office and generates a cult following afterwards, the film producer has no reason to regret taking on the movie.
With Mars Attacks, the reviews were different. The Tim Burton film was inspired by a famous trading card game to create Mars Attacks. In the movies Martians met with humans under the guise of peace. Things went south as soon as the Martians landed on earth.
The unsuspecting US President Dale chose to honor the arrival of the Martians against the advice of General Decker. The peace meeting turned bloody when the aliens started attacking and killing humans with rayguns. They attempted to assassinate the President but weren’t successful. The Martians pretended to have repented and offered to issue a formal apology to congress.
Once again, they repeated the massacre, this time; they murdered a high percentage of the Congress. Thanks to the Indian Love Call, the humans defeated the aliens.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for the Peculiar Children

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Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is another novel adaptation by Tim Burton that didn’t particularly sit well with critics. The movie, which featured Eva Green and Samuel L Jackson alongside other well-known actors, tells a story of a young boy called Jake who discovered a home occupied by children with special powers.
A headmistress named Miss Peregrine is also the headmaster of the house. A group of deformed monsters known as hollowgasts assaulted them. The film got various feelings from critics who praised Tim’s visual stylings but detested his narrative.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Charlie and the Chocolate did not live up to the expectations of fans. It’s not a patch on the original novel. The movie starred Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka. While critics loved Burton’s surgical take on Willy Wonka, the fans weren’t as giddy. Although Johnny Depp is the perfect replacement for Gene Wilder. In the film, a young boy named Charlie won a visit to a chocolate factory. Unknown to Charlie, the whole event is a competition with a goal of finding a replacement for Willy Wonka. His pure heart served him well, and he won the contest.

Frankenweenie

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Producers’ ideas don’t always sit well with film companies. Frankweenie is the film that made Disney fire Tim Burton. As its name suggests, Frankenwenie is a Frankenstein story remake in great animation for kids. The heartfelt film is about Sparky, a dead pet dog who died in a car accident. A young boy named Victor Frankenstein revived the dog. On resurrecting his beloved dog, Victor had to battle his disapproving parents and scared neighbors. Sparky ran off when Victor’s parents discovered him. Victor later found Sparky at a cemetery.

His friends, Bob and Tooshiaka approached him, who asked him to help them combat monsters, all of which were at a fair using the same method by Victor. Unlike our previous Tim Burton movie mentions, Frankenweenie was a critical and commercial success. The film grossed more than $81 million at the worldwide Box Office and bagged multiple nominations for the Golden Globes and Academy Awards. Frankenweenie is one of the most successful black and white short films in cinema history.

Big Eyes

While Tim Burton is popular for his dark-themed fantastical movies, he has proved to the world several times that he can excel in other genres including biopics. The Big Eyes movie is based on the true-life story of a phenomenal painter named Margaret Keane. Her husband exploited her, who falsely took credit for her works and basked in her glory until a legal issue emmerges and someone exposed him for his wrongdoings. This Tim Burton’s movie stars Amy Adams and Christopher Waltz. The film was lauded by critics, fans, and award academies around the globe.

Sleepy Hollow

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Tim Burton fans know that he excels most in the horror genre. That’s the reason many love him. Sleepy hollow was a big win for Tim Burton. Washington Irving short story inspired the American drama series. The film depicted a village cursed with the mysterious ghost of the Headless Horsemen (acted by Christopher Walken). A New York detective named Ichabod Walken went to the village to solve the ancient mystery and defeat the headless horseman.

Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Before John Wick became a thing, there was Sweeney Todd, a vengeful barber who slit people’s throats and sent them through a trapdoor in his barbing saloon. Then, he uses the dead bodies as ingredients for his ppie business. His original aim was to avenge the death of his wife and daughter. The corrupt judge killed them. However, many innocent people died in his saloon alongside the judge.

He later discovered that his wife and child were not dead. He unknowingly killed his wife who he thought was a beggar woman.  Toby slaughtered Tod as the latter allowed it to happen when he found out that the beggar woman he killed was his wife. This Broadway musical stars Johnny Depp as Sweeny Todd and Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett. This Tim Burton’s movie won several awards and became a success.

Batman returns

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The first Batman movie performed so well, Tim had to do a sequel titled Batman Returns. Batman was busy stopping the bad guys, Max and Penguin, from destroying the city he loves most (of course, Gotham city). Catwoman was on a vengeance spree throughout the movie.
Batman Returns stars Micheal Keaton as Bruce Wayne with Michele, Pfeiffer, Danny DeVito, Christopher Walken, Pat Hingle, Vincent Schiaveli, Micheal Murphy, and Micheal Gough. The movie is one of the best Tim Burton movies ever. The audience acceptance was on high levels that it became the third-highest-grossing moving of 1992.

Final Thoughts

Tim Burton is undoubtedly a great film producer and witnessing his rise in the movie industry is a honor. Some of the other successful but unlisted Tim Burton’s movies are Dark Knight, Ed Wood, Beetlejuice, Big Fish, Pee Wee Herman, Edwar Scissorhands, and Pee wee’s big adventure.