Tim Burton Interviewed on the Treatment

Elvis Mitchell interviews Tim Burton, on the Directing both movies, The Corpse Bride and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the same time, in a KCRW interview aired on 2-15-2006.  He directed some other films, such as Beetle Juice and Batman. Tim Burton is an artist who went to Cal Art for animation and also worked at the Disney Factory in animation with many famous and great people. 

            It was a wonderful interview where Tim Burton talks about animation, and specifically stop motion.  He talks about working at the Disney Factory and also the people that he worked with, such as the animators of The Fox and the Hound and other films, but also about attending Cal Arts and having teachers who also worked at the Disney Factory.  He goes over art and creations and how people need to create.  He also goes over how people are always against the villians and the monsters, but he was on the flip side and felt for them.  How they had emotions and feelings and he believed that were the victims. 

            “… hand-made artistry that went into it, I think that there is something important about that medium.  Like Pinnocio, bringing the inanimate object to life…”  He is talking about stop motion and how it is a medium that is made to show emotion and all the hand-made work that went into it.    He is speaking of the animation medium of stop motion.  This is when a camera is used and each scene is a combination of thousands of still films.  In this medium each movement is done slightly and a picture is taken until the movement is achieved on film.  This is a slow and intensive craft that most companies have abandoned, like Pixar.

            “Everyone needs an outlet, whether it is music or writing… that helps us let go of some emotional or creative steam.”  Tim Burton is a big fan of art and creating things from one’s own mind and less for the masses.  His work has a dreamy side, artistic and creative, but an outlet for his expression.  Tim Burton has an exhibit at the LACMA a few years back and a lot of his early art work was displayed, such as his earlier animations, such as The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories” shows that he is very true to his artwork and his style is always very consistant. 

             The last quote that I have from Tim Burton on the interview is, “I think they were all different, some were really great at layouts…. You can see their passion, even after so many years, you can see their passion.”  This quote shows that the most important thing to Tim Burton is passion and being true to it.  He tells of working at The Disney Factory and being surrounded by brilliant people and still he could not do what they wanted him to do.  While drawing the fox for the movie The Fox and the Hound, he realized that he could not keep drawing the fox as a cute big eyed animal.   He knew that he was not being true to his art and his passions.

            I have always been a fan of Tim Burton and his art, not only is he a great director he is an artist and a passionate person. He speaks true and one can tell there is no lie in him.  He draws and makes what he loves.  He says that as a child he loved to read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and then he makes it into a movie.  He can recreate a book into a film and he also has the ability to create original works.