Every Tim Burton film ranked
As the director turns 65, we're counting down all of Burton's fantastical, whimsical movies, including Beetlejuice, Batman, and Edward Scissorhands
Film Features Tim Burton
It’s difficult to believe that Tim Burton—who turns 65 on August 25—is now old enough to start collecting Social Security. But let’s take comfort in the fact that everyone’s favorite director of whimsical gothic fantasies shows no sign of retiring. He’s currently working on Beetlejuice 2, the long-awaited sequel to his beloved 1988 signature film that stars Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder. Over the years, Burton has frequently worked with Johnny Depp, former partner Helena Bonham Carter, Michelle Pfeiffer, Eva Green, and composer Danny Elfman, creating a weird and wonderful oeuvre that has made the Oscar-nominated filmmaker a hero to outsiders and goth types while simultaneously appealing to mainstream audiences with movies such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, Batman, Batman Returns, Ed Wood, Frankenweenie, Sleepy Hollow, and Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.
In celebration of Burton’s birthday, we’re counting down each of the 19 feature films he has directed so far. This list doesn’t include The Nightmare Before Christmas (which was directed by Henry Selick) or the hit Netflix series Wednesday—we’re only focused on big-screen, feature-length films directed by Burton. Now that we have that cleared up, which Burton gem do you think will end up on top? Read on to find out.
87 Comments
Oh shit, that’s right: they fucking did a live-action reboot of Dumbo and Burton directed it.
Even ranking Dark Shadows 10th out of 19 is putting it about 10 spots too high.
Dumbo is criminally underrated.
I’d place Big Fish much higher, especially over Dark Shadows. Yeh, it’s corny at times, but also kinda delightful and the episodic nature of it works well…
That was my biggest gripe with this list. It’s a great movie and one of the few I’d say surpasses the book it’s based on.
I also agree. It’s a fantastic film. Probably my favorite of his.
I didn’t care for it when I saw it, but I was 18 and way too cool for sentimentality. I suspect I’d enjoy it a lot more now.
I don’t believe these are actually in the intended order here. I really can’t imagine who would put Sweeney Todd or Big Fish lower than Charlie, Alice, Dark Shadows, or Sleepy Hollow.
I’ll go to bat for Sleepy Hollow. It’s a minor work, but it isn’t actively bad like some of the films on this list.
Yeah, it’s fine! But Sweeney Todd and Big Fish are both definitely in the upper third of Burton’s filmography.
then why add ‘ranked’ in the header? But hey, the AI here is young and just finding it’s digital feet…
Came here to say just that. I wouldn’t put Big Fish or even Sweeney (despite, or maybe because, I’ve been a huge Sondheim fanatic for thirty years) in the top 5, but probably right after that and CERTAINLY above Dark Shadows and the mess that is Alice. And of course the descriptions given here don’t explain at all why they’re so low rated.
Co-sign. I think it’s one of his best and certainly better than some of his more mediocre efforts. One of my favorite travel stories was being on an early Monday flight that was 80% men traveling for business. This was when everyone got the same movie on the seatback screen, and on that day the movie was Big Fish. Watching 150 men pretend not to cry at the ending was priceless. I had the exact same experience not long after with Friday Night Lights.
Agreed. Should be right in the middle, at the very least.
I’m not sure how dark shadows places at all! I remember watching this, and not even critically, and being bewildered by it. It seems poorly written, poorly paced, poorly acted, and was incredibly uninteresting, especially for something that was based on a ridiculously and wonderfully camp-esque vampire soap opera! A vampire soap opera should sell itself! This should have been a campy romp that was both tragic and hilarious. Instead we just got some wooden acting and a storyline no one cared about. At $150m budget and $240m box office, it didn’t even break even and I believe was the film that finally ended producers throwing money at the unquestionable Burton/Depp combo that just a few years ago in Alice was printing money. Whatever magic that combo once had was long gone by then. I also think this shows us that outside of the drunken eccentric stock character he does, Depp’s comedic acting is very stilted. Barnabas should have been played by someone who can do subtle camp and comedic acting on a far more sophisticated level.
Yeah, Big Fish only being #17 is criminal. I’m not a huge fan of Tim Burton, but that movie is freaking great. It not being in the top 10 is just dumb.
Big Fish is my favorite Tim Burton film, in part because it came out of left field, following a string of very Burton-esque like Mars Attacks! Yes, it still had elements of fantasy and silliness, but all of it was grounded in this poignant, beautiful story about family.
Putting Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure 5th, especially right now, feels very wrong.
Love Mars Attacks, would have that much higher. Can’t say I’m a huge Burton fan though.
PSA from a Vermont resident… nothing remains of the set for Beetlejuice II. The production has finished, and the crew dismantled everything, so come to Vermont if there’s other stuff you want to see, but don’t waste your time if you only want to steal a peak at the movie production.
What are some other things to see in Vermont?
But can I come see The Stratford Inn and/or The Minuteman Cafe?
Or steal a prop 😉
I remember being excited to see Sleepy Hollow in the theatre. I really liked it quite a bit. Just watched it again last night on cable and it still drew me in and I watched the whole thing. Great atmosphere, setting and story.But then I liked the TV show, too. So what do I know?The 17 year age difference between Depp and Ricci is very noticeable upon rewatch.
1. Big Fish and Mars Attacks! are both a bit lower than I would have imagined.2. Never heard of Big Eyes, but it sounds interesting.3. Beetlejuice at the top makes sense.4. That Planet of the Apes ending… years ago I heard a justification that *almost* made sense, though I do not recall it, nor did I actually agree with it despite the valiant attempt to explain it. Other than that ending, it’s actually a decent if bland movie from what I recall.
The DVD actually came with an insert that attempted to explain the ending (sort of). Too bad nobody else ever paid money to own that movie than the uncle who bought it for me for Christmas.
The ending was pretty much the twist from Pierre Boulle’s original novel, but what worked in print didn’t when translated to a film and it’s easy to see why the creators of the original POTA ditched it for the classic twist at the end of that film.
In the original book (spoilers for an old book that actually isn’t that good) Planet of the Apes actually was a different planet but by the time the human got back to earth, Earth had also been taken over by the other primates. So the end of Burton’s movie would be that the primates took over and put an ape head on top of Lincoln statue.
I was ten years old when I saw the original Planet of the Apes. I really liked it, but I wondered why all the apes were speaking English. It wasn’t a hard leap to make.And yeah, in the book it’s a different planet – but when the human manages to get back to Earth, it’s gone all ape. AND the astronauts reading the manuscript of this turn out to be chimpanzees. French science fiction….
It’s even crazier in the original book, which is in French. I mean, sure the apes speak English. Who doesn’t? But French?
Another fun fact, Rod Serling was one of the writers on the original Planet of the Apes, which makes sense given that he used the same twist in at least three episodes of The Twilight Zone.
I watched Big Eyes and enjoyed it, but I’m not sure if I knew that Tim Burton directed it.
Cannot argue with Beetlejuice being #1…I would personally put Mars Attacks! as #2. Love love love that movie…Pee Wee #3 for nostalgia.
I love Sleepy Hollow and would put it higher but yeah #1 is correct. I saw Batman 89 in a theater in Queens NYC at the Thursday Midnight opening showing. Talk about a movie experience you will never forget.
One holiday evening (Thanksgiving or Christmas), my older brothers and I decided to go see Edward Scissorhands. We lived near a multiplex (Sunrise Cinemas) in Nassau County (right outside of Queens), but knew to avoid it. We went to a theater a few towns over and enjoyed the film. Upon our return, we found out that a shoot-out occurred at the sketchy theater (I think in a Godfather III showing). After that incident (I think one person died), they set up metal detectors and whatnot. I would go there when I was older, until it was demolished a decade or so ago. The moral of the story: avoid the Queens area in the late 1980s / early 1990s?My favorite Burton flick is probably the original, Pee-Wee. Such a magical film, with an amazing Elfman score.
Pleasantly surprised to see Beetlejuice above Ed Wood. I know I loved it as a kid, but I’ve never been sure if Beetlejuice is just a memorable bad movie or if it’s actually a work of genius. Maybe that’s exactly what makes it great?
The only reason to put Big Fish this low, is if you haven’t seen Big Fish.
Surprised to see Alice in Wonderland so high. I figured Ed Wood would be tops, but no complaints about Beetlejuice. Correct that Sleepy Hollow remains underappreciated. I love that flick.
::sees Big Fish abysmally low, eclipsed by late-career trash::Nah. Fuck this list.
I’d also defend Sweeney Todd as being better than more than half the films that are above it in the list.
I HATED Sweeny Todd. Hated it. But it deserves to be higher. I loved Big Fish when it came out, but maybe it hasn’t aged well. Ed Wood is still the best.
At this point I feel like they do shit like that deliberately, to boost engagement. If so, joke’s on us, I guess.
You’re not wrong; I used to do freelance writing for Cracked back in its heyday around 2008-09, and we were told to always have one of your heavy hitters at or right near the start of the list to grab people and suck them in, even if it should be higher on the list. I’m sure at least a little of that is going on here.
Yeah that is a top 10 if not top 5 for me. Fucking… 17? Once I hit that I said fuck this shit and quit.
I’d put Ed Wood well above everything else I’ve seen. I like Beetlejuice, and I think my favorite scene in any movie is the one where Pee Wee wipes out on the motorcycle, but Ed Wood just presses all my buttons. I’m a sucker for movies about friendship, especially groups of friends working towards a common goal, and I love movies about movies, and I love Plan 9. It’s also really the only thing I’ve ever liked Depp in, and he’s terrific. The fact that it’s one of the most accurate biopics ever created is just icing on tbe cake.
It’s particularly amusing if you’ve seen old biopics about “great men” like Paul Muni’s Life of Pasteur. Ed Wood is done in a very similar style only about a mediocrity rather than a genius.
As a former film student, I remember being blown away by the actor playing Orson Welles in that one brief scene in the restaurant… only years later did I realize it was none other than Vincent D’Onofrio! (I think someone else dubbed the voice, however.)
Yes Maurice Lamarche did the voice. He’s best known for doing the voice of The Brain from Pinky and The Brain, which was also a Welles imitation.
I could be wrong, but I think it’s one of the few times (if not the only time) LaMarche played Welles straight instead of using him for parody.
Maurice loved to pull out his Welles impression as an inside joke. He’d just recite the infamous commercial as sort of a party trick. When it came time to record his lines as The Brain, someone was like… why not just make him Orson Welles?
Full of country goodness and green pea-ness!
Ed Wood seemed unusually mature for Burton, who usually traffics in schlock comedy and a, often irreverent, twee affectation aesthetic, which is then paired up with some token heartwarming scenes, but focuses primarily on the former.I think Columbia was pushing some buttons here and allowed this film and B&W but only if Burton made this heartwarming and serious because they were presumably making this a money-loser prestige film to court Oscar nominations. I think Landau only came on board because of the promise of prestige and awards. Ed Wood is a darling figure in cinema, but not well known or well liked at the time, and I think the business case here was less Burton’s typical M.O. of “lets exploit this eccentric weirdo (be them fictional or not) for ticket sales“ and more “lets craft a love letter to this person and aim for awards.”In the end this all paid off. It won 2 Academy awards and has 90+% on RT and is considered Burton’s best work.Landau’s gamble also paid off and he received his only Oscar win from this film.
Dark Shadows, Alice and Charlie all sucked. They all felt like Burton parodies. Big Fish is a great film and should be pushing top 10.
Ed WoodEdward ScissorhandsBeetlejuicePee-Wee’s Big AdventureBatmanCorpse BrideBig FishBatman ReturnsSleepy HollowSweeney ToddMars AttacksCharlie and the Chocolate FactoryAlice In WonderlandPlanet of the ApesHaven’t seen the other five and don’t particularly have any desire to (maybe Frankenweenie), despite how certifiably great those top five are.
I think Big Fish is awful, im just surprised to see even some faint praise for it in the writeup, let alone all the people defending it. This is some grade-A trash, people
Big Fish behind autopilot Burton films like Charlie, Alice and Dark Shadows is strange but based on these vanilla write ups on each slide this feels like an AI article.
Hard to argue with Beetlejuice at the top. What’s funny though is that I don’t remember it so much for Tim Burton’s zany elements (which there are aplenty), as I do Michael Keaton’s performance. Like, I think you could swap out a lot of the parts of that movie for different actors, set pieces, etc. and still have it hang together, but Keaton’s tour-de-force is the one absolutely indispensable thing that keeps it memorable more than 30 years later.
Hot take: I didn’t hate Tim Burton’s Dumbo movie. Never going to be one of my favorite Burton films but compared to the other Disney live action remakes and even Burton’s own Alice in Wonderland it’s surprisingly okay.
There is zero reason to hate Dumbo.There is …almost the same amount of reasons to love Dumbo. Liking it can almost feel like a stretch.I think its very underrated in the problematic category of Live Action Disney. It could be quite possibly the best of them. Talk about damning with faint praise.But Dumbo mostly reminds me of the epic Michael Caine quote – “I have never seen it (Jaws 4) but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built and it is terrific.” Dumbo was a paycheque for Burton more than a film created by Burton.
“…he’s got hair down to his goddam shoulders and he says to
me, ‘just trim it a little,’ why I took scissors to him so damn fast!”
Seeing Big Fish below Peregrin and Wonka hurts. Its hurts in my bones.Also uncertain about Beetlejuice as #1. Watched it recently, it is very good, but not…that good?
Beetlejuice is a fantastic background movie to put on around Halloween, but I agree it’s not really the end-all-be-all that some make it out to be. Visually, it’s incredible, but the story isn’t fleshed out as well as it could be, and Wynona Rider’s character is the only one that feels complete.
Danny ELFMAN not Elman. Sheesh do you even know who you’re talking about?
I’d watch the Top 9 almost any time.I haven’t seen all of the bottom 10, but what I have you couldn’t pay me to watch again. It was awful
this is trolling
Burton’s Planet of the Apes is not just his worst movie, it is one of the most disappointing movies I have ever seen. Marky Mark at his most wooden. Charlie is also awful and the only thing worth watching in it are the Christopher Lee scenes, because Christopher Lee. If you are going to redo an absolute classic film, a silly endeavor to begin with, it should at least be entertaining. I’m a huge comics and Batman fan. Batman is not that good. Sam Raimi showed us how super hero movies are done with Spider-man.
Pee Wee, Edward Scissorhands and Beetlejuice are all amazing films. Ed Wood is an all time great. Definitely his best.
Mark Wahlberg’s range as an actor is Marky Mark and Mark Wahlberg. If you call that range. I can’t think of a movie where it looks like he’s acting.
If they reboot The Man With The Golden Gun, he’s my first choice to play Scaramanga. He’s got the nipples for it.
..the fuck with Big Fish being near the bottom?? It’s probably his most emotionally complete film, maybe after Scissorhands. The reveal to Crudup at Finney’s funeral that many of those stories had at least some basis in reality was masterful. Top 10, maybe top 5.
I was drying out 🙁
My wife will fight you over Big Fish.
Does DeSalvo think he’s writing in Variety? Tell us more about Burton’s boffo b.o.
The top 5 is fine, but as other commenters said this list placates to his sell-out era. Here’s my rankings.1. Edward Scissorhands2. Beetlejuice3. Ed Wood4. Batman Returns5. Mars Attacks!6. Pee Wee’s Big Adventure7. Batman8. Big Fish (Best film in 20 years right?)9. Sleepy Hollow(Now you could insert like a ton of early animation shorts and Hansen & Gretel)10. Corpse Bride11. Franken Weenie 12. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street 13. Big EyesNow things get real bad…14. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 15. Alice in Wonderland (When we officially lost him) 16. Dumbo17. Planet of the Apes 18. Dark Shadows19. Miss Peregine’s Home for Peculiar Children
I think your top 8 is spot-on, with some reordering. I’ll agree with the article’s ranking Beetlejuice first, but otherwise am nitpicking. Mine:2. Beetlejuice
1. Edward Scissorhands3. Ed Wood7. Batman8. Big Fish (Best film in 20 years right?)6. Pee Wee’s Big Adventure
4. Batman Returns5. Mars Attacks!
YEah the bottom of his barrel is bottom
Scissor’s third act blows. All this wonder, and it climaxes with violence and death? Boooo.
What’s the point of this list? Just movies arbitrarily ordered with a synopsis under them of what they’re about and how they did at the box office? No criticism or anything to actually say?Smart, insightful people used to work at this website. I know it’s been a long time since that was true, but damn
Ed Wood is my fav Burton film by a wide margin.
The real Ed Wood was a sad figure. He never was able to make it in the entertainment industry and basically drank himself to death. I feel like any other biopic would have made him a source of tragedy or mockery.
But that’s where Burton and his team came in. The best decision they made was making the film a celebration of Ed Wood, to give him the accolades he never got in life. I usually decry biopics for being inaccurate, but this is one time where I don’t mind making an exception.
Now, you could make the argument that there’s some dark irony in telling a heartwarming underdog story about making fucking Plan 9 From Outer Space. But another smart idea Burton and the crew had was theming the story around “Filmmaking is hard, regardless of the final product.”
My favorite part about Wood meeting Orson Welles (which, of course, never happened) is both acknowledging they have the same problems, even though they have very different places on the totem pole.
Ed Wood is easily is his best film – a masterpiece and one of the all-time great films about filmmaking. Also, Alice In Wonderland and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory over Big Fish and Sweeney Todd? Highly questionable. Nice to see Frankenweenie high on the list, though.
Never seen Big Eyes or Peregrine or Frankenweenie, and am not clamoring to do so. But I can say in all candor:1. (tie) Pee Wee, Ed Wood2. (tie) Mars Attacks, Batman 1 & 2, Beetlejuice(slipping down)3. (tie) Sweeney Todd, Sleepy Hollow, Scissorhands4. Corpse Bride(drop down a sizable chasm)5. Dumbo6. Dark Shadows7. Planet of the Apes8. Charlie and the Shit Factory
Hmm, for no reason here’s my version -1) Sleepy Hollow – i just love the vibes of this whole thing. from ricci to walken to every goddamn moment.2) Scissorhands – just simply his best and most original work.3) Batman Returns – what a twisted vision, fantastic work45) Mars Attacks&Beetlejuice – Legendary campI have never seen Ed Wood (but really want to) but I just generally either disliked or was distinctly unmoved by most of the others on the last I’ve seen.
Big Fish CANNOT be that low!
You put Big Fish below Dark Shadows? Below Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Get the fuck outta here.
something, something, depp, depp, something, keaton, depp, depp, keaton
Fact:
There’s not a single good & enjoyable movie on the list.
Mars Attacks is one of my favorite movies to watch when stoned. Its campy & funny in all the right ways.