The Movies of Tim Burton, Ranked

Like many gifted directors , Tim Burton is a serial publication of contradictions : a psychoneurotic outsider who urinate enormously popular tentpole motion-picture show ; a death - obsessed horror fanatic open of gooey soupiness ; and a bright animator who left cartoons behind for live activity that , over the class , has only become less and less lifelike .

With Burton ’s latest inventive concoction , Miss Peregrine ’s house for Peculiar Children , now out in dramatic art , the debate that often circle Burton ’s career will start up again . Did he peak a long time ago ? Or does he still have that magic medieval touch ? And , seriously , why does he always vomit up Johnny Depp ?

To make sense of Burton ’s long , twisted career , we ’ve blend in ahead and ranked all 17 of the films he ’s directed . ( notice : This means that the wonderfulThe Nightmare Before Christmas , which he produced but did n’t direct , does not appear on this list . ) So don your blue rig , pelt yourself a potable in your best-loved skull goblet , and join us , please .

Tim Burton Movies Ranked

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18.Alice in Wonderland(2010)

Like a psychedelicAvatar , Tim Burton ’s adaptation of the Lewis Carroll classic builds Victorian fantasy entirely out of ones and zeroes , then stretch out the visuals with body politic - of - the - art 3D. The consequence is eye - popping … in a " seek medical attention " form of way of life . Alice ’s theatrical run was a technical steeplechase , but even in two dimensions , Burton ’s take is nervy , turning a curious journey into a mezcal - highLord of the Rings . When the Mad Hatter dances the " futterwacken , " a grate alibi for Johnny Depp to protrude - lock , you realize Burton ’s rifle fullShrekand all Leslie Townes Hope is fall back . Alice in Wonderlandremains the film director ’s most successful moving-picture show , grossing more than $ 1 billion around the world.– Matt Patches

17.Dark Shadows(2012)

Maybe television shows make more sense on … television ? After years in evolution limbo , Tim Burton finally delivered an adaptation of the 1960s horror soap - operaDark Shadows , which fathom like a match made in heaven ( hell ? ) . The upshot was as soulless as Johnny Depp ’s vampiric paterfamilias Barnabas Collins , an awkward admixture of the serial publication ' melodrama , Depp ’s slapstick trick , and supernatural stage set piece that give it a summertime - pic shine . There are zombies with more dynamism than the dirgefulDark Shadows.– Matt Patches

16.Big Eyes(2014)

After a multi - picture odyssey of CGI landscapes and Johnny Depp eccentrics , Burton returned to Earth to tell the news report of Margaret Keane , the artist who fought her hubby for ownership of her famous " big eyes " painting . The experiment in restraint does n’t quite work . Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz uncover the psychological science of the Keanes ' disturbing family relationship , but besides the occasional doe - eyed delusion , Burton never ascertain his way in . The case of an challenging movie in want of masterful brushstrokes.– Matt Patches

15.Planet of the Apes(2001)

Burton reimagining this 1969 Charlton Heston dystopian classic in his own goth - Art Deco ikon is a alluring idea , but the death penalty is off from the second you see Mark Wahlberg receive strapped into a Eruca sativa with a Pan troglodytes . Unlike his nictitate normal outdoor stage - ins , Michael Keaton and Johnny Depp , Wahlberg brings no whimsey or sarcasm to his role . Not that Burton gives him much to play off : his take is a straitlaced action - adventure . ( It makes you wish well Oliver Stone set about to make hisinsane versioninstead . ) Despite middling reviews and a whirl ending thatmakes no sensory faculty , the film was actually a boxful - government agency success , rack up a global total of $ 362 million , but it spawn no baby copycat sequels and finally got wipe from the canyon byCGI Andy Serkis . It ’s probably for the best.– Dan Jackson

14.Dumbo(2019)

you could say this forDumbo : The CGI elephant is very cute . Burton and his VFX crew have rendered this novel incarnation of the classical Disney cartoon an lovely beast with mellifluous , expressive centre . There are other moments in this remaking – one in the studio ’s exhaustive digging up of its catalog – that seem almost inspired as well . Michael Keaton gives an entrancingly bluff performance as a villainous circus maestro , and it ’s a delirious pleasure to watch him opposite a sputtering Danny DeVito as another ringmaster . But the pacing is just too wearisome , the opening ’s a slog , and even with comment on the corporatizing of wonder , there ’s a feeling of " what ’s the point?"– Esther Zuckerman

13.Frankenweenie(2012)

In 1984 , a young Tim Burton lost his job at Disney Animation after executives deem his latest inadequate film , a dog - themed reimagining ofFrankenstein , too shuddery to play in front of a rerelease ofPinocchio . Twenty - eight years later on , Disney released Burton ’s check - apparent movement - animated remake . While the inkiness - and - white repugnance comedy ’s scares are aim squarely at youngsters , the laughter are n’t castrate . Burton ’s ingrained disdain for white - picket - fence suburbia surges throughFrankenweenie.– Matt Patches

12.Charlie and the Chocolate Factory(2005)

There ’s no replacingGene Wilder , the twinkle eye and impish smile behind 1971’sWilly Wonka and the Chocolate Factory , so it make sense that Burton and Depp zig their munchkin - make full gravy holder down the chocolate river where the original zagged . With his Howard Hughes - meet - Michael Jackson take on Wonka , Depp is more creepy than iconic , but the sheeny , retro - chic production pattern gives the film a Laffy Taffy radiance . It ’s eye confect for candy fetishists . While Burton and screenwriter John August are more faithful to Roald Dahl ’s text than the original movie was – they even apply some of the book ’s lyrics for the song featured in the moving picture – this big - budget remake does n’t quite retake the Pure Imagination of the original.– Dan Jackson

11.Sleepy Hollow(1999)

Did this moody thriller kickstart the " game " reboot trend ? With its monochromatic color pallet , gruesome kill scenes , accent on scientific discipline over folklore , and world - weary tone courtesy of a hand fromSevenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker ( reportedly punched up by playwright Tom Stoppard),Sleepy Hollownow feels eerily conversant , like a heavy - budget HBO pilot escape amuck . Depp plays Ichabod Crane as an aloof , proto - CSIinvestigator , turning the tale of the Headless Horseman into yet another bleak adjective . But , as is often the pillowcase with Burton ’s pocket-size industrial plant , the sets and costume provide electric jolts of creativity when the onscreen drama gets stale . Every frame of this fog - drenched fairy tale , shot by Oscar - come through cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki , could be clipped , framed , and hung in a flighty library.– Dan Jackson

10.Corpse Bride(2005)

To anyone enraged over our skip ofThe Nightmare Before Christmas , blame the truth : technically , Henry Selick ( Coraline ) directed the Halloween - Christmas picture , not Burton ( who conceivedNightmareand shepherd it to completion ) . Burton skip to animation withCorpse Bride , a macabre folk tale about a flighty groom - to - be and the zombie Saint Bride whom he accidentally propose to . Even with Danny Elfman ’s songs , the movie does n’t have the wanton - footed whimsy that madeNightmare Before Christmasa crosswalk classic . Divorced from expectations , Corpse Brideis one of the few innovative movies to do gothic horror , and the Hammer Pictures legacy , justice.– Matt Patches

9.Mars Attacks!(1996)

you may almost hear Burton cackle with gloating every time a Martian disintegrates an A - list cast member inMars Attacks!The alien - invasion drollery , inspired by the trading - card serial from the sixties , is the rarefied studio apartment comedy twist on sadistic merriment . WhileMars Attacks!didn’t demand Burton ’s usual design work , his morbid , cartoonish sense of wit spawned unforgettable images : the stampede of combust kine , Sarah Jessica Parker ’s capitulum sewed onto the body of a Chihuahua , and thecoup de grâce , alien heads explode to the wail beat of Slim Whitman ’s " Indian Love Call . " Burton ’s zany megahit continues to be the counterpoison to 20 years of Roland Emmerich ’s self - serious sci - fi movie carnage.– Matt Patches

8.Batman(1989)

After the box seat - office winner ofPee - wee ’s Big AdventureandBeetlejuice , Burton was an in - requirement director , making him the idealistic candidate to helm a live - activity adaptation of America ’s dispirited superhero . At the clock time , Burton ’s frame ofKeaton in the title rolewas controversial and widely criticize , but with the welfare of hindsight , it was a stroke of whizz . While Jack Nicholson ’s Joker feel hammy today and the film lacks the granulose realism of Christopher Nolan ’s acclaimedDark Knighttrilogy , Keaton ’s take on Batman , and his less leather - prone alter ego Bruce Wayne , persist ironic and distinct . It ’s strong to think we ’d get Robert Downey Jr. ’s Iron Man , Mark Ruffalo ’s Bruce Banner , or any number of self - aware heroes without the wily , humanizing oeuvre Keaton did here . Plus , this motion picture gave us " Batdance . " Never call into question " Batdance . “– Dan Jackson

7.Big Fish(2003)

Fellow chronicler of suburban angst and childlike wonderSteven Spielbergalmost direct this version of Daniel Wallace ’s novel , and it ’s well-fixed to see what take out him to the material . Albert Finney star as Edward Bloom , a dying fabulist struggle to relate with his estranged son ( Billy Crudup ) , and a grinning Ewan McGregor play the younger version of Bloom as an earnest and wonderstruck adventurer . A mermaid , a werewolf , and a bid - hearted giant pop up as well . Despite all the wild animate being , Big Fishis perhaps Burton ’s simple and most emotionally direct movie , an old - fashioned tearjerker tricked out with notional exceptional effects , quirky functioning , and one of Danny Elfman ’s skilful scads . It labour at the heartstrings with take precision.– Dan Jackson

6.Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street(2007)

give how essential music is to his best films – think , this is the guy wire who recruited Prince to write songs for a Batman movie – it ’s surprising it guide so long for Burton to make a full - fledged musical comedy . Maybe he was depend for the perfect story for his macabre esthesia ? Well , he determine it in Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler ’s blood - soak 1979 Broadway hit , which conform to a deranged barber ( spiel by Depp here ) as he returns to London to seek revenge on the judge who break his biography . Sweeney Toddis fill with beautiful but dense song that would jump a less confident music director , but Burton gash and dice Sondheim ’s work with gloating , turning a stage - reverberate story into a sumptuous , unnerving , and often go horror film.– Dan Jackson

5.Pee-wee’s Big Adventure(1985)

Burton made his directorial unveiling bringing Paul Reubens ' character to screen . While Reubens penned the movie with his fellow Groundlings funniness cohort ( includingSNL ’s Phil Hartman ) , the director ’s predilection for sorry humour and genus Circus extravagance , tucked inside the mundanity of the real world , is all overPee - wee ’s Big Adventure . The road movie drive Pee - wee to the weirdest corners of America and beyond – at least , we ’re hop " Large Marge " is n’t from this plane of existence . Danny Elfman ’s bouncing musical score , the first of many for Burton , keeps the movie on its toe ( trip the light fantastic , on a bar , to " Tequila " ) from beginning to end.– Matt while

4.Batman Returns(1992)

Superhero movies do n’t come much uncanny thanBatman Returns . After the enormous loge - office achiever of the first moving-picture show , Burton climbs back in the Batmobile but mostly quetch Keaton ’s Bruce Wayne to the curb , or else focusing on Michelle Pfeiffer ’s psychologically damage Catwoman and Danny DeVito ’s sneering , tragicomic Penguin . It was a gamble that did n’t necessarily click with motion-picture fan – the movie grossed over $ 100 millionlessthan its predecessor – but as superhero flick become increasingly formulaic , Batman Returnslooks more daring and original with each run year . Only Burton would put DeVito in a giant rubber duck’s egg , shoulder strap rockets to the backs of penguins , and grow a kidskin moving-picture show into an S&M fever dream starring Christopher Walken as an malevolent business tycoon . " Meow , " as Catwoman would say.– Dan Jackson

3.Edward Scissorhands(1990)

The power ofEdward Scissorhandslies in Johnny Depp ’s wounded eye . This refined bedtime narration about a vane - wielding monster - lump ( Depp ) arriving in suburbia and becoming a local sensation is part earnest fairytale , part horror story , and part wicked satire , but Depp ’s expressive glances and deadpan reckon make the tonal slip work . undermine his pin - up report by represent against case , Depp personify the anxieties of timid adolescent everywhere . Long beforeAmerican Beautyhad you blathering on about float charge card bags , Burton discover poesy in shrubbery , block of ice , and perfectly manicured lawn . Edward ’s notable " I ’m not finished " line feels especially poignant in retrospect , because this now feel like Depp ’s most fully realized film.– Dan Jackson

2.Ed Wood(1994)

Written byThe People v. O.J.duo Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski , Ed Woodis both Burton ’s most classically tailored film and his most corner – 20 years after turn Johnny Depp into a prestigiousness actor and win co - lead Martin Landau an Oscar , most citizenry still do n’t know the name " Ed Wood . " By whittling down Wood ’s living to his other shlockmeister long time , Burton , Alexander , and Karaszewski turn a stock - exit biopic into a Hollywood caper and an ode to fade stars . Depp , grinning like a lunatic through Wood ’s high highs and scummy lows , captures the glimmer of an absentminded creative . Burton ’s expert staging seems to relate.– Matt Patches

1.Beetlejuice(1988)

With a few pinch , Beetlejuicecould have been a repugnance movie up there withThe exorciser . But Burton saw opportunities for laughs and Harry Belafonte - backed dancing sequences in his rearward specter report , where Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin ’s departed twosome become victims of a human haunting . The turn only start out more twisted when Michael Keaton ’s Beetlejuice , a used - car - salesman - from - hellhole character , enters the equation . It ’s no surprise thatBeetlejuicewould find a 2nd living in TV animation – from the big sandworm to the shrimpiest have pinkie finger , Burton ’s travesty is an artistic achievement and a hoot.– Matt Patches