If you’re like me, you were less than thrilled with Tim Burton’s recent adaptation of Alice In Wonderland. I’m not trying to say that I hated the film, but it ultimately just didn’t do it for me. The problem I had while watching it was that it was exactly what I expected. I don’t mean it met my expectations, but rather that everything was the way I imagined it would be before I saw the film. Frankly, I was pretty bored. Sure, the visuals were great, but they were exactly what I expected to see from Tim Burton. The story was awful, and the acting was sub-par, and as a result Tim Burton’s “unique” style wasn’t enough to save it from becoming something completely unmemorable.
So here’s where the issue lies.
Everytime a movie has Tim Burton’s name attached to it, we all automatically assume the movie will be gothic, dark, and surreal. Burton’s career is laced with films fitting this description, and frankly, it’s his style. It was great for movies like Edward Scissorhands and Beetlejuice. Even the recent Sweeney Todd stands out in Burton’s career. The problem I’ve been having lately with Burton’s style is that he simply seems to be carbon-copying what makes each film “Burton”. Take Alice In Wonderland. The film was an adaptation of a subtly dark children’s story. Same goes for another Burton adaptation, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. Charlie was another film I less than cared for, and looking back, I can understand why I felt a sense of deja-vu with Alice. In my opinion, its almost as if Burton has a filter to make the film “gothic” in his style. It’s as if he took the basics of both Alice and Charlie and put them both through the same process to get the end product. What supposedly made each film unique and “dark” was merely a parlor trick that I’ve already seen before.
Now lets look at arguably Tim Burton’s most famous film, The Nightmare Before Christmas. More than ten years later, Burton released Nightmare’s spiritual follow-up, Corpse Bride. While Corpse Bride was continually compared to Nightmare before its release, the only real similarity I found upon viewing it was in the animation and tone. Corpse Bride lacked everything that made Nightmare a classic, and once again relied on merely the style and tone to carry the film. I can’t remember a single thing about it other than that it looked like The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Don’t get me wrong. I love Tim Burton, and I’m sure you’re having a hard time believing that based on what I’ve said. All I’m saying is that recently, Burton has fallen into a habit of relying more on the style than the film itself, and I don’t want to see him continually make the same film over and over again with different properties. One of Burton’s next projects is a stop motion adaptation of The Addam’s Family, and I’m just praying the film doesn’t end up as another copy of The Nightmare Before Christmas with The Addams Family thrown in. Tim Burton, keep your style, but don’t let it become imitation. Let’s see more films like Big Fish and Sweeney Todd in the future.
All Things Aside 