First Films by Famous Directors: Tim Burton

Before the mega-budgets and A-list talent, some of the biggest directors in Hollywood started out making little films with friends and family. Others made student films. But however the filmmaker started, these are the movies that launched their careers.

Tim Burton
Born on August 25, 1958 in Burbank, California, Tim Burton was raised in the shadow of Hollywood. Growing up, Burton immersed himself in horror films and low-budget B-movies. His early influences would remain with him throughout his filmmaking career and would provide the impetus for one of the most visually stylistic directors of the modern era.

After high school, Tim Burton won a Disney scholarchip to attend the California Institute of the Arts, where he studied animation. He was then awarded a fellowship from Disney and went on to work as an apprentice animator. One of the films he worked on as animator was Disney's The Fox and the Hound (1981). The Disney style did not suit Burton's Gothic sensibilities, but the company allowed him to pursue individual projects through Disney. One of these projects became Burton's first real movie: Vincent (1982).

Vincent was an homage to Vincent Price, star of many a B-horror movie. Price himself narrates the film. Burton's trademark style is easily recognizable even in this early in this six-minute short, which you can watch HERE.

Predating Vincent, however, are three earlier shorts.

The Island of Doctor Agor (1971)

Doctor of Doom (1979)

Stalk of the Celery (1979)

You can watch an excerpt of Stalk of the Celery HERE.

While most of Burton's early films were animated, he began working that animation sensibility into live action films. One of his earliest was Flying Saucers and Me, which you can watch by clicking HERE. It's not a particularly good film, but you begin to see the themes and visuals that would come to dominate Burton's career.

Watching Burton's early films shows just how little his visual style has changed over the years. Certainly it has evolved, but all the elements are there even in his early work. The stories he gravitates to also seem to derive from this early period. His cast of characters typically features a lonely outsider misunderstood by the outside "normal" world.

These elements would fuse into Frankenweenie (1984). Made under the auspices of Disney, the film was determined to be unsuitable for children and was never released.

Frankenweenie marks the synthesis of all of Burton's films to this point. In it, a young boy reincarnates his beloved dog. Clearly emulating James Whale's 1931 classic, Frankenstein, Burton blends classic horror with childhood innocence to create the proto-typical Tim Burton movie. Frankenweenie also stars Shelley Duvall and Daniel Stern and a young Sophia Coppola. Not bad for your first 'real' movie.

You can view part one of FrankenweenieHERE. The other parts are also available and will appear after viewing hte first part.

Although the folks at Disney deemed Frankenweenie unreleasable, Paul Reubens saw it and decided the 27-year-old Burton would be perfect to direct his big screen debut - Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. A surprise box-office hit, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure launched Tim Burton's big-screen career.

Other Films Directed by Tim Burton

BeetleJuice (1988)

Batman (1989)

Edward Scissorhands (1990)

Batman Returns (1992)

Ed Wood (1994)

Mars Attacks (1996)

Sleepy Hollow (1999)

Planet of the Apes (2001)

Big Fish (2003)

Corpse Bride (2005) co-director