For centuries, mankind has been weirdly obsessed with the mysterious and the freaky. The ancient Romans recounted tales of the multi−headed hydra, the conquistadors searched for the pugnacious Amazon women and 19th century circuses often boasted bearded ladies. Even today, audiences exalt the macabre on the silver screen, and amid the ominous, one director remains king: Tim Burton.
Beginning his career with several critically acclaimed short films, Burton has made a name for himself as one of the most darkly creative and innovative directors in Hollywood. His many films have revolved around eccentric characters, ranging from Beetlejuice to Pee−wee Herman to a man with razor−sharp scissors for hands. What we love most about Burton, however, is his extensive knowledge of film and his unique ability to incorporate and personalize early cinematic techniques and genres.
Nonetheless, we are not writing this column to give more praise to Burton; we are writing to critique his work. Though we love his original ideas and his morbid sensibilities, we have one large issue with his films: He has a tendency to take iconic classics and try to make them his own. We don't like this tendency. After all, it's this tendency that's brought us Nikola Tesla's theory on alternating current, the Uh−Oh Oreo and Zac Efron.
Burton has made three remakes of classic films in the past 10 years: "Planet of the Apes" (2001), "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (2005) and "Alice in Wonderland" (2010). With "Apes," Burton tried to take the 1968 original and "re−imagine" it by taking Mark Wahlberg's abs and knack for talking to farm animals and throwing them onto a battlefield with some ruthless apes. In fact, Tim Roth passed up the role as Severus Snape in "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" (2001) in order to portray the sadistic chimp General Thade. That's what you get for monkeying around, Tim. You must really be bananas, Mr. Roth.
With "Chocolate Factory," Burton didn't fare much better. There are two cardinal rules of movie−making: Never remake a film that received a 90 percent or better on Rottentomatoes.com and never cast Nicolas Cage if you want your film to be taken seriously. Though Burton knows to stay far away from Nic Cage, he did opt to remake "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" (1971). Burton thought he would bring originality to the story by casting Johnny Depp, his talented and overused muse, as Willy Wonka. The film worked on some levels, but seemed entirely unnecessary, given Gene Wilder's deliciously quirky portrayal of Wonka in the original.
Finally, and most recently, Burton brought "Alice in Wonderland" (2010) into the world of 3−D and live action. Attempting to tell the story of Alice's return to Wonderland as a teenager, this film has a dazzling aesthetic, an enormous budget and a stellar cast, but a flimsy plotline. The 1951 animated Disney masterpiece remains without equal. Besides, Burton can never be quite as loco as Lewis Carroll, the man who bought a one−way ticket on the LSD Express and wrote the novel that started it all. Having said that, we think that Carroll would've enjoyed watching the caterpillar hit the hookah in 3−D.
All of Burton's aforementioned works were financial powerhouses, and at the end of the day, Hollywood cares most about the bottom line that is money. Still, we wish Burton stuck to following his more novel filmmaking impulses. That's why we cannot wait for his next movie, "Frankenweenie," due out in 2011. Based on his 1984 short film of the same name, this film will follow a young boy, Victor Frankenstein, as he brings his deceased bull terrier back to life.
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Zach Drucker is a sophomore majoring in International Relations, and Chris Poldoian is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. They can be reached at Zachary.Drucker@tufts. edu and Christopher.Poldoian@tufts.edu.
