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Justin Behunin James Reddoch Film 1023 April 29, 2014 The auteur theory of Tim Burton The auteur theory is a theory that the director is the author of the film and the directors films share consistent traits. Tim Burton films have a distinctive style with similarities in art, design, themes, and characters within his films. His films have a melancholy tone with gothic themes and designs. His characters usually are on the outside of society not fitting in with the normal crowd. The worlds created in his films are often an altered view of monster stories or fantastic creations of his imagination. Mark Salisbury states in the book Burton on Burton, Burtons characters are often outsiders, misunderstood and misperceived, misfits encumbered by some degree of duality, operating on the fringes of their own particular society.(xviii) Characters that would normally be considered monsters are portrayed in unexpected ways to the audience. Comparing Tim Burtons films and the influence he has on all aspects of their creation and design is what makes Tim Burton an auteur. One of the film forms Burton employs is stop motion animation, a form that is rarely used in modern films. This can be seen in films such as The Nightmare Before Christmas, Frankenweenie, The Corpse Bride, and used for special effects in his other films. His films often contrast the differences between the normal world and the fantastic worlds he creates. In the book The Films of Tim Burton author Alison McMahan discusses the complexity of Tim Burtons auteur status in which Burton constructs and repeats stories of his past, from monster films and from Roger Corman films. (236237) On his narrative style McMahan states, his brand consist of certain kind of narrative that often features a more reactive than active hero, and a layer of comedy, often black comedy or satire.(237)

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He uses satiric representations of society and establishment with characters considered outsiders of society that are odd and unique. When his characters try to fit in they only gain the acceptance of the few and are often misunderstood. His film designs have a gothic feel and are usually have a darker feel often including duality. Characters that normally would be monsters in other films are portrayed as misunderstood creatures looking for acceptance and not monstrous in nature. Other characters of his perceive the world differently than most people and their views and ideas causing them to be outcast as well. To show that Tim Burton is an auteur requires an analysis of his films. Tim Burtons The Nightmare Before Christmas is a fantastic tale in which Burton takes the Spooky nature of Halloween and mixes it with Christmas. The movie and the title is inspired by the tale of The Night Before Christmas. The world created in this film is called Halloweentown, which is dark and spooky like the holiday itself. It features ghosts, ghouls, and all the monsters youd expect to see from spooky tales. The town itself has a spooky feel with a fantastic landscape with flowing designs and shapes. The design of the houses and town are slightly crooked and consist of a lot of darker colors such as black, grey, and dark green which help bring life to Tim Burtons vision. In Roger Eberts review of this film he comments, Everything looks strange and haunting. Even Santa Claus would be difficult to recognize without his red-and-white uniform. The main character is Jack Skellington the Pumpkin King. Even though he is beloved by all those in Halloweentown he feels misunderstood by the citizen and longs for more than the life of just coming out to scare people each year on Halloween. Jack wanders through the town graveyard and into the forest while he searches for meaning to his existence. Jack stumbles on an area in the forest that leads to the doors that are entry ways for the different holiday towns. Jack stumbles into Christmastown where he is filled with wonder and excitement as he explores this new world to him. After visiting Christmastown, Jack decides to have Santa Clause kidnapped so he can take over the

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role of Santa Clause by delivering presents thus taking over the Christmas holiday and putting a spooky Halloween twist on it. Instead of the normal Santas sleigh Jack is rides a flying coffin pulled by skeletal reindeer lead by his ghost dog Zero who has a glowing red nose like Rudolphs. In the real world kids and parents are shocked at the spooky and creepy presents that are delivered by Jack, several of which attack the people they were delivered to. Jacks plan goes disastrously wrong for him when the military mobilizes and blast Jack out of the sky. As he is falling he shouts Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night, which is a famous Christmas saying. After realizing the error in his ways he returns to Halloweentown to free Santa Clause so Christmas can be saved. His experience with Christmas reinvigorates him and gives him new enthusiasm for Halloween. This movie is a wonderful tale that artfully brings a Halloween twist to Christmas. A recurring theme in Burtons films is death or dead things brought to life and the Corpse Bride is no exception. According to Salisbury the Corpse Bride is classic Burton in that it proposes dual worlds of the living and the dead, and yet, contra to convention, the austere, grey land of the living by no means diminishes or overshadows the more colorful land of the dead.(252) The Corpse Bride, like several of Burtons other stories, has some basis in folk lore. McMahan claims the corpse bride is based on a Russian folk tale where the brides at Jewish weddings were targeted and killed, then buried in their wedding dresses. (98) The main characters in this film are Victor, Victoria, and the Emily, the corpse bride. Burton creates the living world in a Victorian style with a gothic feel. He satires the idea of rich peoples believe that marriage should be between people of the same status. Vitorias parents arent happy their daughter will be married to the son of a wealthy fish merchant. The reason they decided to have her marry Victor was because their wealth had run out and hopes the marriage will renew

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their wealth. Victors parents are excited for the marriage because they see it as a rise in their status and they can put the fact they are commoners behind them. Burton portrays the land of the living as drab and dull using dark colors giving the town a lifeless feeling. The characters portrayed in the land of the living are formal and proper. The action and songs are dreary portraying the land of the living with less liveliness than the land of the dead. When Vincent is unable to recite his wedding vows at the rehearsal he runs off in shame into the forest. While practicing his vows he inadvertently puts the ring on the finger of Emily becoming unexpectedly married to a corpse bride. When his new bride takes him to the land of the dead Burton shows a lively world that is colorful and the dead are cheery. Victor discovers how Emily met her fate. She was killed by a prospective husband that just wanted her familys money. Victor ends up having to decide whether he wants to stay with Emily or ditch her to return and marry Victoria. When Victor makes it back to the land of the living he finds Victoria already wed to another man. Victor decides to stay with Emily by officially marrying her in a church. Victor is told that in order to get married properly to Emily he would have to drink poison thus becoming a corpse himself. At the wedding Emily stops Victor from drinking the poison when she sees Victoria watching from the side of the church. She doesnt want to deny another woman from having her dreams ruined as her dreams were. The man that married Victoria turns out to be the one that killed Emily. After fighting with Victor over Victoria, Emilys killer unknowingly drinks the poison which causes him to die enabling those dead to seek vengeance on him. One of Burtons early artistic visions he created was Frankenweenie. This film also has inspiration in classic tales of fiction similar to Burtons other films. Ebert describes this move as, inspired by The Bride of Frankenstein and countless other classic horror films in which science runs

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amok. Frankenweenie is filmed in black and white like classic horror films and because of this has the similar dark and spooky feeling typical to Burtons films. The main character Victor Frankenstein like many of Burtons other characters is an outsider to his classmates. Victor spends a lot of time experimenting with science and making short films. Victors best friend is his dog Sparky who stars in the short film Victor shows to his parents at the beginning of the film. Victors father wants the best for Victor and wants him to fit in. Mr. Frankenstein talks Victor into playing sports so his son can become more accepted by Victors schoolmates. At the ball game Sparky dies by being hit by a car while chasing after the baseball that was hit by Victor into the street. After seeing his science teacher animate a dead frog in class he gets the idea to bring Sparky back to life. Unlike Frankensteins monster, Sparky is is the same fun loving dog he always has been when brought back to life. Unfortunately while Victor is at school Sparky gets outside and causes mischief. Sparky fancies the female dog next door and while sticking his head under the fence she gets zapped leaving her with white streaks in her dog hair similar to those the bride of Frankenstein had. Things go terribly wrongs when Edgar, classmate of Victors that resembles Igor from Frankenstein, discovers Sparky has been returned to life. Edgar ends up telling some of the other classmates that Sparky is alive. They sneak into Victors house to learn the secret to bring pets back to life with disastrous results when they succeed. The town is plagued with spooky sea monkeys, a Godzilla like turtle, a half cat half bat creature, and a mummy hamster. Victor, with the help of his undead dog Sparky, succeeds in fighting off the creatures before they destroy the town. Sleepy Hollow is based on the classic tale of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. This film is set in a small town during the fall. The fields have scarecrows with jack-o-lantern heads that help lend to the eeriness of the town and the surrounding forest and fields. The visuals, tone, and color schemes in

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this movie are typical of Burtons films. The town setting uses dark shade of color with overcast skies and mists in the background. This is contrasted with flashbacks throughout the film that are more colorful as well as the city of New York where Ichabod Crane travels from to visit Sleepy Hollow. Ichabod is an outsider to his colleagues who dont agree with his style of detecting homicides which uses advances in science where autopsies are used to help discover the cause of death so clues as to who the victims assailants are can be discovered. In order to get rid of him for a time his colleagues send him to the town of Sleepy Hallow. Salisbury discusses Ichabod as a character by stating, Ichabod Crane can be seen as an outsider to both the town of Sleepy Hallow and his profession.(167) Ichabods unorthodox detective method isnt received well by the town. Some of the town folk tries to run him off by pretending to be the headless horseman, chasing him across the town bridge and throwing a jack o-lantern at him. The only person in town he finds willing to help him is an orphan boy, who is one of the townsfolk, but doesnt feel like he is part of the town. The Headless Horseman is introduced early in the film as this monster who steals the heads of his victims. Hes seen riding down a stage coach and killing the driver and its occupant by severing their heads in order to collect the severed heads to bring them back to the tree of the dead. As the film progresses Ichabod discovers that the horsemans grave had been dug up and his skull had been stolen. The horseman was only a creature summoned from the other world to do the bidding of someone in town only killing those he was commanded to. It ends up the real villain is the Lady Van Tassel. She seeks revenge on all those who she thought had wronged her and anyone who conspired with them. As a child after her father died the owner of the land where she lived evicted her family leaving them homeless.

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Burtons many other films have similar themes often comprised of dual worlds. We see the same characters repeated in his film as well as visual style, design and are direction. The worlds he creates are based in fantasy and fairytale with characters that are often on the outside of their societies. His characters, including his monsters, often turn out to be misunderstood by the townsfolk in which they live. The townsfolk often dislike Burtons main characters because they cant see past their prejudices or superstations to really get to know and understand those they see as outsiders or strangers. In conclusion the stories, themes, film forms, distinctive style and constituent traits of Burtons films is what makes him a true auteur.

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Works Cited Burton, Tim and Mark Salisbury. Burton on Burton. Revised Edition. London: Faber and Faber Limited Bloomsbury House. 2006. Print. Ebert, Roger. Frankenweenie. RogerEbert.com. Chaz Ebert., Oct. 3rd, 2013. Web. April 28th 2014 ---. The Nightmare Before Christmas. RogerEbert.com. Chaz Ebert., Oct. 22nd, 1993. Web. April 28th 2014 McMahan, Alison. The films of Time Burton. Animating Live Action in Contemporary Hollywood. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc, 2006. Print.