Tim Burton and the ‘Outcast’ Qualities of His Actors: Burton says that’s something he specifically looks for. “Yeah, of course. Like Johnny, I think that’s one of the reasons I responded to him when I first met him on ‘Edward Scissorhands.’ He is sort of looked upon as this handsome leading man but I don't think in his heart he felt that way. That's why he wanted to do ‘Edward Scissorhands’ was because he understood that story of being perceived as one thing and being something else. Does that same thing hold true when it comes to Helena Bonham Carter? “Same thing. If you read the London papers she's one of the worst dressed people in the history of Britain or some sort of posh aristocrat, you know? She is completely misperceived. It maybe bothers her a little bit but once you get labeled, there's really not much you can do about it. But there’s something about it I’m sure she feels.”
Tim Burton on the Inspiration for His Animated Movies: “Mainly it had to do with Ray Harryhausen. He was the guy. If I saw his name, no actor meant anything but his name certainly meant something. I think that's where the love of this animation comes from because you could see an artist at work. His monsters had more personality than most of the actors in the movies. Even if the monster was just a monster, their death scene was always so beautiful and tragic. The final twist of the tail or whatever or the one final breath, he brought such passion into the work. To me he was the guy that not only inspired me but inspired almost any animator.
In fact, several months ago Johnny [Depp], Helena [Bonham Carter] and I went to his house in London. We met him for the first time and he is just such an amazing man and so generous with his time and his enthusiasm and all. Then he went to the set of ’Corpse Bride’ and production kind of ground to a halt that day cause everyone was like, ‘Uhhh…’ I think he not only inspired stop motion animators but any animator.”
Tim Burton Addresses the Question of Whether Children Should See “Corpse Bride:” “I've always had problems with that, with certain adults. I mean I remember people saying that about ‘Nightmare’ and tiny, tiny little kids come up and say that they loved the movie. I think it's more of an adult problem than a kid problem. Because even ‘Corpse Bride’ I find is even softer in a certain way. It’s basically a love story, an emotional story [with] humor. And like any kind of fable or fairy tale, there may be elements that are somewhat unsettling. But that's part of the history of those kinds of stories.
It’s PG, which is appropriate. To me the story is quite just emotional. I personally don't find it dark at all. In the same way of ‘Nightmare…’ In fact I think it’s somewhat less dark in a certain way. I also find that kids, I think adults forget that kids are their own best censors. Some kids like that kind of stuff and some kids don't. I think they are the best ones to judge it.
Adults are like, ‘You can’t see this. You can’t see that it.’ It creates this climate of fear and it makes kids more afraid. I have a child that is under 2 years old and he has watched ‘When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth’ and ‘Viva Las Vegas,’ which isn’t a horror movie but some people might call it scary. It’s about how you present things. If he didn't like something, then he'd run away. If you were like, ‘Oh my God! Elvis and Ann-Margret are about to kiss!!!’ He'd freak out, you know?”
Tim Burton on the McFarlane “Corpse Bride” Toy Line: “That's really important to me, especially on a project like this. It's harder in live action stuff to get things right, but on this it was pretty simple. ‘Make it look like the damn puppet!’ They're so beautiful and they're so right there, you know? It's like that's it and so I hope and I think they'll be good. They should be good because there is no reason for them not to be.
I've always said I am not into mass marketing. If there is one thing that looks cool, then that is fine with me. I'm not interested in a whole bunch of stuff. I hope it will be fine.”
Tim Burton – From Drawing to Making Movies: “I always liked to draw as probably every kid does, and make Super 8 movies like a lot of kids did. And weirdly, I never had the real goal to do that, until in school, I was such a bad student and I remember having to do a report where you had to read a book and write a 50 page essay on it. And I said I can’t read and so I made a Super 8 film on Houdini. It was a book we had to read, and I remember not reading the book, not having to write it, and getting an A+ on the project. I thought this might be a good living to try and do, so I always liked making things. I got into animation - and also luck comes into it as well.”
