The Films of Tim Burton: Animating Live Action in Contemporary Hollywood

Most Tim Burton films are huge box-office successes, and several are already classics. The director's mysterious and eccentric public persona attracts a lot of attention, while the films themselves have been somewhat overlooked. Here, Alison McMahan redresses this imbalance through a close analysis of Burton's key films (Beetiejuice, Ed Wood, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow) and their place within the filmmaking industry. She argues that Burton has been a crucial figure behind many of the transformations taking place in horror, fantasy, and science fiction films over the last two decades. McMahan also demonstrates how Burton's own work draws on a huge range of artistic influences: the films of Georges Melies, surrealism, installation art, computer games, and many more. The Films of Tim Burton is the most in-depth analysis so far of the work of this unusual filmmaker - a director who has shown repeatedly that it is possible to reject mainstream Hollywood contentions while maintaining critical popularity and commercial success.