Tim Burton movies have a distinct look and feel, especially when studios set him free to be himself. Over four decades, Burton went from being a cult favorite outsider to a blockbuster director. The goth animator who was supposedly fired from Disney for not being child-friendly enough ended up as one of the studio's most distinctive voices. Regardless of budget or scale, audiences know a Tim Burton film when they see it. He rarely compromises, works with actors he loves, explores his fascinations with the macabre, and became one of the highest-grossing directors ever.

A Tim Burton movie can typically be recognized by its love of, as one character in Beetlejuice describes herself, the "strange and unusual." He's a director who loves Edgar Allan Poe and Hammer Horror, German expressionism and high camp, the gory and the melancholy. The weirdos in his films are the normal ones, while the suburban-dwelling regular folks are the ones to be wary of. From Beetlejuice, Batman, and Edward Scissorhands to Ed Wood, Alice in Wonderland, and back to Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Burton always makes movies his way.

20 Alice In Wonderland (2010)

Tim Burton Adapts Lewis Carroll's Fantasy Masterpiece

Tim Burton making a film out of Lewis Carroll's iconic children's novel seemed like the perfect combination of director and source material. However, critics called the result his most uninspired film, a hodgepodge of images and inspirations from the story forced into a hero's journey narrative that misses the entire point of the novel's deliberately languid structure. Most of the cast are trying their best with the material, but Johnny Depp's turn as the Mad Hatter was one of his more disappointing Burton roles.

Still, the film was wildly successful, making Disney over $1 billion and helping to kick off their current age of live-action remakes. That commercial frenzy only makes this film a bigger disappointment in of Burton's work because it seemed to herald a new period of his filmography, where he didn't seem especially enthusiastic about his own movies. Tim Burton said he almost retired because the big-budget studio movies ruined his love of directing films.

19 The Planet Of The Apes (2001)

Tim Burton Re-Imagines The Sci-Fi Masterpiece

It’s easy to forget just how big a deal it was when it was announced that Tim Burton would be remaking the sci-fi classic Planet of the Apes. To be more accurate, Burton called the film his "re-imagining" of the original Planet of the Apes, and that term became a punchline for many a failed remake in the following years. With a $100 million budget from 20th Century Fox, the legendary Rick Baker signed on to design the astounding makeup.

With a cast including Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth, Paul Giamatti, and Helena Bonham Carter, Planet of the Apes seemed like a sure-fire hit. Of all the Tim Burton movies, Planet of the Apes feels the least like a Tim Burton movie. Indeed, one would be forgiven for thinking someone else did all the work, and he took the credit because not only is this film bereft of Burton’s favored styles and ideas, but its approach is so stagnant and could have been done by anyone.

Planet of the Apes did decently at the box office but didn’t inspire a new franchise like Fox had hoped.

The screenplay's attempts to pay homage to the original movie while putting new twists on iconic moments fell flat and were incomprehensible in some cases, including an ending that even Tim Roth didn't understand. Planet of the Apes did decently at the box office but didn’t inspire a new franchise like Fox had hoped. And so, Burton, understandably, moved onto a much smaller project.

18 Big Eyes (2014)

Tim Burton Tells The True Story Of Margaret Keane

After a couple of years of disappointing movie critics, many thought Big Eyes would be a return to form for Tim Burton, a new Ed Wood of sorts to show how adept he is at more conventional biographical dramas while remaining faithful to his roots. The result was less satisfying than that, and it did little to reverse growing critical cynicism. It is based on the true story of Margaret Keane, a painter whose eerie works of children with large emotional eyes were ed off as the work of her exploitative husband.

Big Eyes seemed to have a lot going for it and garnered early awards buzz for the performance of Amy Adams (she would win a Golden Globe but didn't land an Oscar nomination as some had predicted). Big Eyes is duller than anything else, and Christoph Waltz, who hams it up to near-unfathomable levels, seems to think he’s in a far different movie, making for an awkward pairing at times.

All the pieces were there for something special, but Big Eyes is a Tim Burton movie that, bar Adams’ luminous performance, struggles to justify its existence. Despite this, it still won a Golden Globe for Adams and was also nominated for two other awards there, including one for Waltz and one of Lana Del Rey's original song, "Big Eyes."

17 Dark Shadows (2012)

Remaking The Classic Supernatural Soap Opera

The 1960s series Dark Shadows was ground-breaking in its day, a gothic soap opera at a time when the genre was mostly focused on realist domestic drama. It's not hard to see why Tim Burton would be so drawn to it as a child, and Johnny Depp also cited the big screen adaptation as a dream project. The story of a vampire who awakens in the 1970s and moves in with his descendants is ripe for melodrama and fish-out-of-water humor, but so many of the jokes land oddly flat.​​​​

Its saving grace comes in the form of an extremely game Eva Green, who is having the time of her life as the witchy antagonist.

It never settles on a tone and struggles to juggle kitsch with horror. As gorgeous as it looks - and, as always with a Tim Burton movie, the details are astounding - there's little going on beneath the surface. Its saving grace comes in the form of an extremely game Eva Green, who seems to be having the time of her life as the witchy antagonist.

16 Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children (2016)

A Nove Adaptation That Seemed Perfect For Burton's Style

Based on the series of popular young adult novels by Ransom Riggs, it's easy to see why Tim Burton would be drawn to a story about strange kids with superpowers living in a gothic mansion with a mysterious woman who can turn into a falcon. The great hook of the books was the use of vintage photographs collected by the author, giving the story a unique visual language that seemed tailor-made for the big screen.

While Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children certainly gives Burton a large canvas to indulge his pet favorites, and it’s always a delight to see Eva Green embrace her most witchy qualities as an actress, the film is still one of his weaker efforts. Burton has oft been accused of prizing style over substance, caring more about production design than plotting. That’s not always a bad thing, especially when he does aesthetics so well

However, with Miss Peregrine, the plotting is so dense and the world-building deeply convoluted that viewers are unable to overlook how much Burton cannot be bothered to deal with such things. The overstuffed story, combined with some puzzling editing choices, hampers his ability to make a good old-fashioned Tim Burton movie. It earned three nominations at the Teen Choice Awards and was nominated for Best Fantasy Film at the Saturn Awards.

15 Dumbo (2019)

Tim Burton Remakes The Disney Animated Classic

Grading any live-action remake of a Disney classic can prove tricky since the formula dictates a level of specificity and brand synergy that most run-of-the-mill remakes don't. When Tim Burton made Alice in Wonderland, that formula had not been perfected, so he got to deviate from the source material more than he probably would have only a few years later (although that may have been an improvement given how terrible that film turned out to be).

With Dumbo, he had to adhere to those norms and also had to turn a child's fable that's barely an hour long into an epic movie twice that length. Dumbo is not necessarily a bad film. Indeed, it's understandable why some critics call this a high point in Burton's later filmography. However, it's hampered by the need to be a Disney live-action remake, even when it's creatively impossible to be so.

What may be Disney's simplest tale has become an overstuffed blockbuster

While there are moments that soar, such as those flying scenes and actors giving it their all, like a gloriously camp sinister Michael Keaton, the changes made for adaptation prove more confusing than anything else. What may be Disney's simplest tale has become an overstuffed blockbuster with war veterans, dead mothers, and a subplot about the evils of selling out to a major corporation. It is also when Tim Burton thought about quitting directing completely.

"Honestly, after Dumbo, I really didn’t know. I thought that could have been it, really. I could have retired, or become… well, I wouldn’t have become an animator again, that’s over."

It's not without its charms, and the final act has some great action bears, but Dumbo feels like something that should have returned to the basics.

14 Corpse Bride (2005)

Tim Burton Directs A Stop-Motion Gothic Horror

Tim Burton didn’t direct the animated film most closely associated with him, The Nightmare Before Christmas. Despite his name being all over the posters and the visuals being so recognizably Burtonesque, the work of direction fell to stop-motion animation legend Henry Selick (Coraline). Audiences wouldn’t get an animated Tim Burton movie until 2005, when Corpse Bride came out, the same year as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. However, the film lacked the spark of The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Wearing its Edgar Allan Poe influences on its sleeve, Corpse Bride has moments of that trademark Burton macabre approach but little of the emotional punch that made Nightmare so memorable. The film is at its best when it plays around with Burton’s skewering of societal norms, depicting the underworld as the most vibrant place while the land of the living is grey and smothered by expectations. While not as memorable, it still received an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature.

13 Frankenweenie (2012)

Tim Burton's Best Directed Animated Feature

Tim Burton's career began at Disney, where he worked as an animator and concept artist on The Fox and the Hound and The Black Cauldron. While there, he dabbled in short films. Frankenweenie, one of his first live-action productions, was a short film about a boy who brings his dog back to life after he's hit by a car. The short allegedly got Burton fired, with Disney claiming he shouldn't have been spending company resources on something too scary for kids. The irony he made this with Disney in 2012 was lost on nobody.

Tim Burton recently received the 2022 Lumiere Award for Lifetime Achievement, honoring his visionary contributions to cinema.

Remade as stop-motion animation, Frankenweenie is one of Burton's more tightly constructed stories thanks to its zippy 87-minute running time. Filmed in black and white and chock-full of old horror references - this may be the most Easter egg-packed Tim Burton movie ever made - Frankenweenie is a simple tale that still manages to nail the sheer sadness of losing a beloved pet, even after he’s brought back to life.

After making a few massive films, one after the other, with mixed results, there’s something to be said for a Tim Burton movie that goes back to basics, even if it doesn’t have enough energy to keep it going. The film earned five nominations at the Annie Awards, was nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Feature, and finished on several best-of lists in 2012.

12 Charlie And The Chocolate Factory (2005)

Tim Burton Remakes Willie Wonka & The Chocolate Factory

Author Roald Dahl famously hated the first adaptation of his book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He disliked the changes made to deviate from the novel and opposed the decision to focus on Willy Wonka over Charlie Bucket (he also didn’t care for the casting of Gene Wilder, preferring British comedian Spike Milligan for the role).

When it came time to remake the film, it went through various stars (Nicolas Cage, Adam Sandler, and Bill Murray were all considered for Wonka) and directors before Tim Burton ed the project. Burton was also the Dahl estate's choice for the job, which benefitted Warner Bros. in getting their approval for the film. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is far more faithful to Dahl's book, not only in of plot but also in tone.

Dahl's deliciously sinister approach to children's fiction is fully displayed here and feels like a perfect fit for Burton’s brand of glee. While some CGI hasn't aged well, the chocolate factory has never looked more sumptuous. Johnny Depp may have gotten all the headlines for his pseudo-Michael Jackson homage performance as Wonka, but the real star of the Tim Burton movie is Freddie Highmore as Charlie.

What stops it from being top-tier Burton is a shoehorned-in backstory for Wonka that can easily be boiled down to “daddy issues.” The film is much smarter when it reveals nothing about why Wonka is the way he is and lets the audience indulge in the pure imagination of his world. The film got an Oscar nomination for Best Costume Design and even a Grammy nomination for the song "Wonka's Welcome Song."

11 Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (1985)

Pee-Wee Herman's Best Movie

Paul Reubens' Pee-wee Herman has remained a beloved character for kids and adults alike since his TV debut in 1981. The frantic entertainer, both terminally delightful and completely bonkers, made the leap to the big screen in 1985, and a post-Disney Tim Burton was looking for a new job. Reubens, a fan of Burton's Disney shorts, hired him and gave him his feature directorial debut. Pee-wee’s Big Adventure isn’t a film that can neatly be described as a Tim Burton movie in the traditional sense.

This is Reubens’ creation through and through. However, moments peppered throughout reveal the sort of director Burton would become, such as the Large Marge scene that remains nightmare fuel for an entire generation. Burton manages to keep Reubens on a tight enough leash so Pee-wee’s unpredictability doesn’t derail the entire movie.

It’s also the film that introduced Burton to Oingo Boingo frontman Danny Elfman and birthed the most committed creative partnership of their careers. Pee-wee’s Big Adventure made nearly six times its original budget back, put Burton’s name on the map, and the rest is history. This was the movie that convinced Warner Bros. to hand the reigns of Batman to the director.