"Tim Burton interviewed on The Treatment"

           On February 20, 2013 The Treatment host Elvis Mitchell interviewed director and animator Tim Burton regarding his career and his stop motion animated film Frankenweenie. Tim Burton's extensive career had begun with his passion in the arts and illustration, landing him an animator position with Disney. Since then he has made his career acting as writer, producer and director for several films such as Beetlejuice (1988), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Sweeney Todd  (2007), and Alice in Wonderland (2010). True to his roots he has also been involved in a few stop motion animated films such as the popular cult classic The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Corpse Bride (2005), and now his latest film Frankenweenie (2012). His films are known for their dark atmosphere and twisted designs but feature characters with likable attributes despite living in undesirable or bleak environments.

           After listening to the interview I found that many of Tim Burton's films are the result of several influences he received in his youth. It is a common circumstance for an artist to impart a piece of themselves in the worlds or the characters they create, that is how the an artist makes something theirs, it actually reflects their image like a mirror. What I found surprising is how fresh he had appeared to have kept these memories alive in his heart to be able to make full movies about them. His characters such as Edward Scissorhands reflect himself appealing to that part of all of us that desires to be understood but his stop motion films are the result of stop motion pictures he had seen in his youth. That innocence and purity of youth gives his films as an appeal that charms many audiences to his movies, attracting them through their own remnants of childhood memories.

         In regard to his stop motion animations Tim Burton stated that he gets excited when on the sets of the films. "They're somewhat crude but there's something beautiful like inanimate objects coming to life." Getting to be on the sets with the puppets opens up a whole new world of action and emotion that can be conveyed. The fact that these emotions come from these puppets, these inanimate objects, and to see them come to life in a scene is a driving force in his films. Tim Burton agreed that the result of the effort that goes into filming a single scene is what makes it worthwhile for many of the animators that work with him on his projects.

         His animations provide the audience with a tactile experience with textures and designs that have become associated with his films. This appeals to our child like wonder of wanting to reach out and touch something with a unique texture once again going back to youth and his characters possess this same curiosity. This purity is present despite the common element in Tim Burton's films where the parents of the character are either not present or have parented the character in a seemingly negative light."No matter how you grow up or what your relationship is, you spend your whole life trying to deal with your parents whether they're alive or dead or whatever. It's something that makes you who you are, haunts you forever, a very powerful relationship." Tim Burton had said that he was never really all that close to his father but his death did affect him and the distant or strained relationship between parent and child in his films can most like be attributed to his own.

        Despite the image of the Gothic and strange film that Hollywood has labelled Tim Burton's films Tim Burton revealed that the aura his films exude is another result of his upbringing and a "normal" part of himself. He grew up in suburbia by a cemetery, which is a cold and morbid place to most people but for him it was a peaceful place to be alone with his thoughts. To others this strange activity would label him as strange for participating in, something he grew up to accept. "I've been an uncomfortable person. I grew up feeling weird in my own surroundings, so things that were deemed normal felt abnormal to me." Tim Burton's films also possess this theme as several of his lead characters are out of place or misunderstood characters in an environment where denizens simply can't relate to them.

        I thoroughly enjoyed this interview and greatly valued what he had to say in regards to family, the magic of stop motion and growing up in an environment where it feels you don't fit in. I found him surprisingly easy to relate to being both an artist and an introvert and I believe there are many others in the world that are labelled as odd when they're just different from the accepted norm that can take Tim Burton's words and journey to heart or as a source of inspiration or maybe just take solace in the thought of someone else who isn't so "normal" making it in the world we live. I would say that Tim Burton gives the film world a bit of lighthearted strangeness. He gives it films where the misunderstood outcasts can come together under the shade of darkness his films provide.