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BURTONJUICE. Our Tim Burton retrospective begins now... Every Thursday night until we can't take it no more!
Last week I rented the Disney documentary "Waking Sleeping Beauty" which I was curious to see again after it's strangely quiet public reception. I really enjoyed the documentary and though it ended like one big long self-aggrandizing commercial for the Magic Kingdom and all they bring to the movies, it's first hour is surprisingly frank about the downward slide of Disney animation in the 70s and 80s and the political tug of wars among the big money executives.
But let's get to the subject. Don't you always forget that Tim Burton started at Disney? I know I do. He never gets a line in this documentary but we do see him briefly twice in the behind the scenes footage while the narrator talks about the generational divide at Disney during the animation studio's near-demise in the 1980s.
Ron Miller knew that Walt's guys were retiring fast. He had to raise a new crop of animators but he was cautious about it. It was this interesting cross generational thing where you still had a few of these legendary artists who were in their 60s and approaching retirement and then a bunch of young people in their 20s who were really really exited and sort of passionate about this medium.
It was thrilling to learn from the masters but there was a feeling that somehow we could be making better films."
Burton doesn't look too happy sitting slack jawed in that tiny cubicle, but that's just his face. Surely the budding filmmaker was excited to be chasing his dreams. Even if his now ultra familiar dreams are far more Gorey lite Gothic than Disney cheerful.
Before his star ascended in the early 80s when two shorts Vincent (1982) and Frankenweenie (1984) gained him a reputation within the industry as a truly distinctive and entertaining filmmaker, he made a handful of very rarely screened shorts. I wish I'd attended the Burton exhibit recently which featured them. Have any of you seen these five?
The Island of Doctor Agor (1971) was his first effort at the age of 13. He played Dr Agor. Stalk of the Celery (1979) is a one punchline animated short but you can see Burtonisms especially his love for the mad scientist... though it should be said that Burton's ouevre also includes subversions of this trope, the benevolent (if still mad) scientist. Doctor of Doom (1979) has Burton crashing a party and creating a monster that he sends out to "destroy all beauty." Luau (1982) is a lengthy short that is unfortunately kind of unwatchable on YouTube but it telegraphs a bit about Burton's oddball sense of humor though it also seems a little hornier than his subsequent work. He plays a disembodied head that's the "most powerful force in the universe" and though he tries to turn people into zombies, he doesn't have much luck. At least at first... I gave up 12 minutes in but not before I understood his affinity for Ed Wood. Burton also made a version of the oft- filmed fairy tale Hansel & Gretel (1982) -- which is hard to find -- with the great production designer Rick Heinrichs as his producer. They met at Disney and kept working together.
Oscar winner Rick Heinrichs and Tim Burton at work on Vincent (1982)
It only took their collaboration 17 years later to win an Oscar (Heinrichs for Sleepy Hollow) though Tim Burton has famously never been nominated as Best Director. His sole personal nomination was for the animated feature Corpse Bride.
Where were we? Oscar trivia is so distracting. Oh yes, Vincent (1982). We love it. Disney, rather famously, did not. Too dark!
My favorite favorite favorite part...
He likes to experiment on his dog Abercrombie in the hopes of creating a terrible zombie.
Vincent is just wonderful isn't it? A.
Vincent's Tim Burton's perfect woman? Before we move on to Frankenweenie (The Original) next Thursday tell me if I'm crazy but little Vincent's hallucinated dead wife...
He knew he'd been banished to the tower of doom where he was sentenced to spend the rest of his life. alone with the portrait of his beautiful wife."
She looks SO familiar. A pinch of Lisa Marie? Two cups of Corpse Bride... a scoop of Helena Bonham-Carter in Alice in Wonderland? What Burton woman does this most remind you of?
What's your favorite part of Vincent? And do you think it's too easy to retroactively project meaning on to the early work of famous filmmakers?
I meant to start the Burtonjuice series tonight, a full retrospective of Tim Burton each Thursday night, but that might have to wait one more Thursday. Because we're all Burton'ed out after watching the trailer to Dark Shadowstwice in a row to see if it was for real.
Are you for real, trailer?
The trailer runs its mouth but does not answer.
It blabbers, nudges and winks, spreads its finger claws dramatically then goes back to amusing itself. We're glad someone is amused.
It does appear that Eva Green is having some fun with her role. Particularly fun is the ass on the piano bit and her deranged in-your-face sexuality.
Green reminds me a bit of Lisa Marie here. I know that Tim Burton has long since moved on to Helena Bonham-Carter but don't you kind of miss Lisa Marie? I do.
Production Designer Rick Heinrichs is clearly enjoying this Production Designer's Dream Project.
Tim Burton was one of my very first movie loves. I fell out of love abruptly when Planet of the Apes crash-landed but the divorce was lengthy and complicated. My lawyers cited irreconcilable differences (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), emotional neglect (Sweeney Todd) and physical visual abuse (Eyesore in Wonderland) and we thought we had a great case. But somehow Burton still won in court and our alimony is now paid in movie tickets; we are required to see all his movies no matter how terrible!
But by returning to his first stab at greatness with the upcoming Frankenweenie expansion in October and reuniting with his Batman Returns superstar Michelle Pfeiffer for the upcoming Dark Shadows in May, how can we not feel nostalgic for our failed marriage to that wild haired auteur?
A retrospective calls.
BURTONJUICE begins March 15th and we'll do it each Thursday until we finish the movies and/or we can't stand it anymore whichever comes first. (My bets on the latter.) Will you relive the ecstasy and torture with me? I can't go through it alone! If I ask you to "hold me" by the Christmas decorations, the proper response is (say it with me) "_ ____" even if you don't have scissors for hands.
Andreas here with a pair of trailers from beloved directors -- and both death-centric comedies, at that. First up, Richard Linklater's Bernie:
YES
The most obvious reasons: Slacker, Dazed & Confused, Waking Life, etc., etc.
Black and McConaughey both seem to be doing offbeat, atypical work here. I'm curious to see where their performances lead.
And of course, the legendary Shirley MacLaine!
NO
But judging from the trailer, her role looks awfully one-dimensional -- "shrill old lady who dies." Here's hoping it's more fun in the finished film.
This isn't the movie's fault, but wow, that trailer goes for every musical and editing cliché in the book. I'm surprised they didn't use a record scratch instead of a gunshot.
To rework an old and enormously stupid cliché, I could see a movie wherein Michelle Pfeiffer reads aloud from the pfone book for two hours and still feel the ticket price was justified. (Though I'd probably complain if she didn't read some of the names with icy contempt, some with 'girlfriend wha?' mall mom familiarity, and others with erotic surrender just to get the pfull range of Pfeifferisms in there). So even when she's spouting utter nonsense like in this video chat with MTV, I love to watch her.
She's talking about Tim Burton and Dark Shadows and in the first screengrab she's saying:
I hope it's successful so we can do a bunch of them!"
In the second she's saying...
That's what we love about Tim's movies. They're not run of the mill. They don't easily fit into one genre. It always is this 'wait and see' kind of thing.
In both cases: utter nonsense! A) she never does sequels and it took her 19 years to make her second Tim Burton picture so don't get your hopes up for several Dark Shadows follow ups. and B) Tim Burton movies don't fit into a genre because they're their own. If any director has a BRAND it's Burton. There is no waiting to see; we know exactly what we're going to get each time. Whether or not that's still a good thing is the subject of debate.
Thursday, March 22, 2012 at 9:41PM 
Oscar winner Rick Heinrichs and Tim Burton at work on Vincent (1982)
Vincent's Tim Burton's perfect woman?
