As a young man, Burton would make short films in his backyard using crude stop motion animation techniques or shoot them on 8 mm film without sound. (One of his most famous juvenile films is The Island of Doctor Agor, that he made when he was 13 years old.) He was a very introspective person, and found his pleasure in painting, drawing and watching movies. His future work would be heavily influenced by the works by Edgar Allan Poe he read, and the horror and science fiction films he watched, such as Godzilla, the films made by Hammer Film Productions, the works of Ray Harryhausen and Vincent Price.
Burton graduated from CalArts in 1979. The success of his short film Stalk of the Celery Monster attracted the attention of the Walt Disney Animation Studios, who offered young Burton an animator's apprenticeship at their studio. He worked as an animator, storyboard artist and conceptual artist in films such as The Fox and the Hound, The Black Cauldron and Tron. However, Burton's personal style clashed with Disney's own standards, and he longed to work on solo projects.
From November 22, 2009 to April 26, 2010, Burton had a retrospective at the MoMA in New York with over 700 "drawings, paintings, photographs, storyboards, moving-image works, puppets, maquettes, costumes, and cinematic ephemera," including many from the filmmaker's personal collection. The show also includes amateur and student films, music videos, commercials, and digital slide shows, as well as a complete set of features and shorts.
Burton plans to remake his 1984 short film Frankenweenie as a feature length stop motion film, distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. The film is set to be released on October 5, 2012. He is also set to direct a film adaptation based on the television series Dark Shadows. Johnny Depp will portray Barnabas Collins as well as co-produce the film, and Seth Grahame-Smith is currently writing the script. However, Dark Shadows will be pushed back due to Depp and Burton's commitments to other projects. During Comic-Con 2009, Burton confirmed that Dark Shadows will be his next film.
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The reason why I enjoy Tim Burton so much is due to his creepy innocence in anything he creates and has been an inspireation to my own artistic works. The first time I ever saw anything of his was when I was 10 years old, having seen The Nightmare Before Christmas with my Dad in threatres. Growing up, I was huge fan of Beetlejuice and the Batman films. Ever since then, I've always liked his style and the works he created having seen almost every film with his name attached. He was also inspired by one of my favourite authors, Stephen King.
