HOME | DD

Description
The Burtonverse is what I call the universe in which all of Tim Burton's movie characters come from and also to coincide with the release of the new Dumbo I am doing this version of the list I did a long while back which was the top 15 Tim Burtonverse characters but with a few new additions to it, I may be cheating with a couple of these since two of them of the ones mentioned here aren't from movies he directed but rather produced but I like them anyway.

- Beetlejuice (Beetlejuice). How can I not love him? He's hilarious, yeah he's crass and crude and he's more than a little bit slimy but he's supposed to be like that. After all this is the same trickster ghost who can possess people, throw his voice and also has studied at Julliard and Harvard Business school, has travelled quite extensively, lived through the black plague (and had a pretty good time during that) and has seen the Exorcist 167 times (and it keeps getting funnier every single time he sees it) and not to mention the fact i'm talking about a dead guy. The ghost with the most is iconic for numerous reasons. Too many to even count. There's been talks of a Beetlejuice 2 for ages now and while there are some movies that I feel don't need to have another movie (like for example the Toy Story series. I feel the third movie concluded things rather well), I think it would be at least interesting to see a second instalment. Okay, so we likely wouldn't be seeing Charles Deitz, Juno or Otho (Otho and Juno for obvious reasons because the actors who played them passed away) and well...you'll have to look up what happened to Charles's actor Jeffrey Jones for yourself. But I guarantee that Beej, Lydia and Adam and Barbara would be definitely coming back.
- Edward (Edward Scissorhands). He's a humanoid android with a heart and I love the ice sculptures and how good he is at cutting hair, plus he's a real gentle and lovable guy despite having blades for hands.
- Mayor Of Halloweentown (Nightmare Before Christmas). I might be cheating here considering Burton's name is only in the title of the movie but he did come up with the poem the movie is based on and I definitely think that the town of Halloweentown has some really unique monster designs in it including the designs for Jack and Sally and also Oogie Boogie (Oogie Boogie himself is really impressive and has a terrific personality) but the Mayor has the most interesting and amusing design considering he is a literally two-faced politician with two different faces, one face is perky and pink with rosey cheeks and a wide grin and the other is pale, miserable looking and with a mouth that has rather pointed teeth. I love how he can go from being calm to being absolutely panicky as well. Also the fact that he's voiced by Glenn Shadix (who coincidentally was also Otho in Beetlejuice) makes him even more enjoyable. I also like to think that the character of King Malbert in Igor was inspired by this character as well.
- Willy Wonka (Charlie And The Chocolate Factory). I'm probably one of the few people that genuinely does prefer Depp over the late Gene Wilder in terms of Wonka portrayals, mainly because Depp's Wonka has a tragic side to him and even though some people have compared him to Michael Jackson, I don't see any similarities to him and Jackson to be honest. MJ loved children and not in the pedophilic way, while Wonka outright doesn't like them. Plus I really love the design of his costume as well.
- Pee Wee Herman (Pee Wee's Big Adventure). Pee Wee is adorkable no matter what. Also...the fact that he went through all that to get back his favourite bike including going into a pet shop on fire and rescuing the pets (even the snakes, even though he's afraid of them) and not to mention the truck ride with Marge (no one can forget Large Marge). Plus that breakfast machine, it's a pretty amazing invention.
- The insects (James And The Giant Peach). Again I might be cheating with this because Burton only did the animated segment of this movie but I was raised with a love of these characters and Roald Dahl in general so I couldn't leave them off the list.
- Barnabas Collins (Dark Shadows 2012).
- Angelique (Dark Shadows 2012). Can I just say that Eva Green is perfect in this role?
- Bruce Wayne/Batman (Batman/Batman Returns). Michael Keaton's take on Batman is my absolute favourite.
- Oswald Cobblepot/Penguin (Batman Returns). Danny DeVito's version of the character is different than most depictions of the character because while he is a grotesque human/bird hybrid he is tragic and misunderstood due to being rejected by his parents for being 'hideous' and thrown out into the sewers as a baby, plus I really do like his design. The penguins with jet packs...everything. Batman Returns is my favourite Christmas movie next to the live-action Grinch movie and also Krampus. Hey, Die Hard qualifies as a Christmas movie and so does Batman Returns and Gremlins.
- Max Shreck (Batman Returns). For a character that was made exclusively for the movie he truly is quite a good character, and of course that is because he is played by Christopher Walken. I can't believe I used to hate Walken, I feel truly embarrassed for the way I used to think of him. I realize now that Walken is a wonderful and talented actor and that the creepiness of his characters is part of his charm and I definitely see the light and realize that he is a gift to everyone. A lot of people have noticed Max is kind of a Donald Trump parody in some way and I can see that too to be honest although his use of 'You're fired' predates The Apprentice. There's something iconic about Walken playing a character whose name is one letter away from the actor who played Orlock in Nosferatu and it's symbolic too considering that he's draining the power from the city in the same way that a vampire drains blood from a victim and of course the bat is an animal associated with vampires due to how in most vampire movies you see a vampire becoming a bat or bat-like creature. So it's all rather fitting really.
- The Martians (Mars Attacks). The second and perhaps only other live-action adaptation of trading cards next to the infamous Garbage Pail Kids movie, Mars Attacks is underrated to me and it's extremely warped and funny with a sick sense of humour. I mean you have Jack Nicholson playing two roles (which was his idea) and you have lots of over the top kills and the martians themselves crack me up, their signature sound/speech "Ack ack ack ack" is rather interesting since it's the sound of a duck's quack played backwards. I'm a big horror comedy guy and so this movie definitely wins me over.
- Tarrant Hightopp/Mad Hatter (Alice In Wonderland/Alice Through The Looking Glass)
- Cheshire Cat (Alice In Wonderland/Alice Through The Looking Glass)
- Iracebeth/Red Queen (Alice In Wonderland/Alice Through The Looking Glass).
- Time (Alice Through The Looking Glass). I love this character and his time alteration powers and also the fact he looks like he's half-machine or in this case half-clock gives him a steampunk look that I find really intriguing.
- All of the monster pets (Frankenweenie, animated version).
- Benjamin Barker/Sweeney Todd (Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street).
- Selina Kyle/Catwoman (Batman Returns).
- Miss Peregrine (Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children). Eva Green is fabulous in this role. She's basically like a mix of Mary Poppins and Jareth from Labyrinth, mainly the latter because like Jareth she can turn into a bird form. Jareth can turn into an owl and she can become a hawk/falcon.
- Stain Boy (The Melancholy Adventures Of Stainboy and Other Stories). You will definitely not see this guy in the MCU or the DCEU, because this guy practically has a superpower that makes him useless in crimefighting scenarios and that power is making nasty stains. There are an assortment of other kids who have bizarre traits and powers too like for example the girl who turned into a bed, Oyster Boy (who gets eaten, unfortunately) and Hideous Penguin Boy.
- Jack Napier/Joker (Batman). Willem Dafoe, Tim Curry, Robin Williams, Brad Douriff, John Lithgow, James Woods and the late David Bowie were all considered for this role but the role went to Jack Nicholson. And to be honest Jack Nicholson's Joker is amazing, even to this day. And I feel this incarnation of the character is underappreciated due to most of the praise going to Heath Ledger and sometimes Mark Hamill.
- Ari (Planet Of The Apes 2001). I recently saw Smeghead's review of Bolero and he talked about how John Derek casted his gorgeous wife Bo in pretty much most if not all of his movies and I also thought about how some die-hard Burton haters seem to only think that Burton's cast consists of either Johnny Depp or Helena Bonham Carter (his then wife/partner). The thing is, not all of Burton's post 90's era movies have Carter in them only Planet Of The Apes, Big Fish, Alice in Wonderland/Alice Through The Looking Glass, Sweeney Todd, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and Corpse Bride and Dark Shadows. She however was NOT in the animated version of Frankenweenie or in Big Eyes. I like the makeup designs of the apes, they look anthropomorphic and Rick Baker is a master at makeup, and I think Ari is quite sympathetic and even quite cuddly and adorable even for an ape-woman.
- Hessian Horseman (Sleepy Hollow). Only Walken can steal the show even without saying a word. And those eyes, those eyes are so hypnotic and I love the Hessian's overall vampiric look with his pale skin and sharpened teeth.
- Emily (Corpse Bride). I feel awful for her.
- Vincent Malloy (Vincent). Vincent is very much what Burton was like as a child, he loves monsters and horror movies and idolizes Vincent Price. Burton idolized Christopher Lee AND Vincent Price when he was growing up.

Description
The Burtonverse is what I call the universe in which all of Tim Burton's movie characters come from and also to coincide with the release of the new Dumbo I am doing this version of the list I did a long while back which was the top 15 Tim Burtonverse characters but with a few new additions to it, I may be cheating with a couple of these since two of them of the ones mentioned here aren't from movies he directed but rather produced but I like them anyway.

- Beetlejuice (Beetlejuice). How can I not love him? He's hilarious, yeah he's crass and crude and he's more than a little bit slimy but he's supposed to be like that. After all this is the same trickster ghost who can possess people, throw his voice and also has studied at Julliard and Harvard Business school, has travelled quite extensively, lived through the black plague (and had a pretty good time during that) and has seen the Exorcist 167 times (and it keeps getting funnier every single time he sees it) and not to mention the fact i'm talking about a dead guy. The ghost with the most is iconic for numerous reasons. Too many to even count. There's been talks of a Beetlejuice 2 for ages now and while there are some movies that I feel don't need to have another movie (like for example the Toy Story series. I feel the third movie concluded things rather well), I think it would be at least interesting to see a second instalment. Okay, so we likely wouldn't be seeing Charles Deitz, Juno or Otho (Otho and Juno for obvious reasons because the actors who played them passed away) and well...you'll have to look up what happened to Charles's actor Jeffrey Jones for yourself. But I guarantee that Beej, Lydia and Adam and Barbara would be definitely coming back.
- Edward (Edward Scissorhands). He's a humanoid android with a heart and I love the ice sculptures and how good he is at cutting hair, plus he's a real gentle and lovable guy despite having blades for hands.
- Mayor Of Halloweentown (Nightmare Before Christmas). I might be cheating here considering Burton's name is only in the title of the movie but he did come up with the poem the movie is based on and I definitely think that the town of Halloweentown has some really unique monster designs in it including the designs for Jack and Sally and also Oogie Boogie (Oogie Boogie himself is really impressive and has a terrific personality) but the Mayor has the most interesting and amusing design considering he is a literally two-faced politician with two different faces, one face is perky and pink with rosey cheeks and a wide grin and the other is pale, miserable looking and with a mouth that has rather pointed teeth. I love how he can go from being calm to being absolutely panicky as well. Also the fact that he's voiced by Glenn Shadix (who coincidentally was also Otho in Beetlejuice) makes him even more enjoyable. I also like to think that the character of King Malbert in Igor was inspired by this character as well.
- Willy Wonka (Charlie And The Chocolate Factory). I'm probably one of the few people that genuinely does prefer Depp over the late Gene Wilder in terms of Wonka portrayals, mainly because Depp's Wonka has a tragic side to him and even though some people have compared him to Michael Jackson, I don't see any similarities to him and Jackson to be honest. MJ loved children and not in the pedophilic way, while Wonka outright doesn't like them. Plus I really love the design of his costume as well.
- Pee Wee Herman (Pee Wee's Big Adventure). Pee Wee is adorkable no matter what. Also...the fact that he went through all that to get back his favourite bike including going into a pet shop on fire and rescuing the pets (even the snakes, even though he's afraid of them) and not to mention the truck ride with Marge (no one can forget Large Marge). Plus that breakfast machine, it's a pretty amazing invention.
- The insects (James And The Giant Peach). Again I might be cheating with this because Burton only did the animated segment of this movie but I was raised with a love of these characters and Roald Dahl in general so I couldn't leave them off the list.
- Barnabas Collins (Dark Shadows 2012).
- Angelique (Dark Shadows 2012). Can I just say that Eva Green is perfect in this role?
- Bruce Wayne/Batman (Batman/Batman Returns). Michael Keaton's take on Batman is my absolute favourite.
- Oswald Cobblepot/Penguin (Batman Returns). Danny DeVito's version of the character is different than most depictions of the character because while he is a grotesque human/bird hybrid he is tragic and misunderstood due to being rejected by his parents for being 'hideous' and thrown out into the sewers as a baby, plus I really do like his design. The penguins with jet packs...everything. Batman Returns is my favourite Christmas movie next to the live-action Grinch movie and also Krampus. Hey, Die Hard qualifies as a Christmas movie and so does Batman Returns and Gremlins.
- Max Shreck (Batman Returns). For a character that was made exclusively for the movie he truly is quite a good character, and of course that is because he is played by Christopher Walken. I can't believe I used to hate Walken, I feel truly embarrassed for the way I used to think of him. I realize now that Walken is a wonderful and talented actor and that the creepiness of his characters is part of his charm and I definitely see the light and realize that he is a gift to everyone. A lot of people have noticed Max is kind of a Donald Trump parody in some way and I can see that too to be honest although his use of 'You're fired' predates The Apprentice. There's something iconic about Walken playing a character whose name is one letter away from the actor who played Orlock in Nosferatu and it's symbolic too considering that he's draining the power from the city in the same way that a vampire drains blood from a victim and of course the bat is an animal associated with vampires due to how in most vampire movies you see a vampire becoming a bat or bat-like creature. So it's all rather fitting really.
- The Martians (Mars Attacks). The second and perhaps only other live-action adaptation of trading cards next to the infamous Garbage Pail Kids movie, Mars Attacks is underrated to me and it's extremely warped and funny with a sick sense of humour. I mean you have Jack Nicholson playing two roles (which was his idea) and you have lots of over the top kills and the martians themselves crack me up, their signature sound/speech "Ack ack ack ack" is rather interesting since it's the sound of a duck's quack played backwards. I'm a big horror comedy guy and so this movie definitely wins me over.
- Tarrant Hightopp/Mad Hatter (Alice In Wonderland/Alice Through The Looking Glass)
- Cheshire Cat (Alice In Wonderland/Alice Through The Looking Glass)
- Iracebeth/Red Queen (Alice In Wonderland/Alice Through The Looking Glass).
- Time (Alice Through The Looking Glass). I love this character and his time alteration powers and also the fact he looks like he's half-machine or in this case half-clock gives him a steampunk look that I find really intriguing.
- All of the monster pets (Frankenweenie, animated version).
- Benjamin Barker/Sweeney Todd (Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street).
- Selina Kyle/Catwoman (Batman Returns).
- Miss Peregrine (Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children). Eva Green is fabulous in this role. She's basically like a mix of Mary Poppins and Jareth from Labyrinth, mainly the latter because like Jareth she can turn into a bird form. Jareth can turn into an owl and she can become a hawk/falcon.
- Stain Boy (The Melancholy Adventures Of Stainboy and Other Stories). You will definitely not see this guy in the MCU or the DCEU, because this guy practically has a superpower that makes him useless in crimefighting scenarios and that power is making nasty stains. There are an assortment of other kids who have bizarre traits and powers too like for example the girl who turned into a bed, Oyster Boy (who gets eaten, unfortunately) and Hideous Penguin Boy.
- Jack Napier/Joker (Batman). Willem Dafoe, Tim Curry, Robin Williams, Brad Douriff, John Lithgow, James Woods and the late David Bowie were all considered for this role but the role went to Jack Nicholson. And to be honest Jack Nicholson's Joker is amazing, even to this day. And I feel this incarnation of the character is underappreciated due to most of the praise going to Heath Ledger and sometimes Mark Hamill.
- Ari (Planet Of The Apes 2001). I recently saw Smeghead's review of Bolero and he talked about how John Derek casted his gorgeous wife Bo in pretty much most if not all of his movies and I also thought about how some die-hard Burton haters seem to only think that Burton's cast consists of either Johnny Depp or Helena Bonham Carter (his then wife/partner). The thing is, not all of Burton's post 90's era movies have Carter in them only Planet Of The Apes, Big Fish, Alice in Wonderland/Alice Through The Looking Glass, Sweeney Todd, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and Corpse Bride and Dark Shadows. She however was NOT in the animated version of Frankenweenie or in Big Eyes. I like the makeup designs of the apes, they look anthropomorphic and Rick Baker is a master at makeup, and I think Ari is quite sympathetic and even quite cuddly and adorable even for an ape-woman.
- Hessian Horseman (Sleepy Hollow). Only Walken can steal the show even without saying a word. And those eyes, those eyes are so hypnotic and I love the Hessian's overall vampiric look with his pale skin and sharpened teeth.
- Emily (Corpse Bride). I feel awful for her.
- Vincent Malloy (Vincent). Vincent is very much what Burton was like as a child, he loves monsters and horror movies and idolizes Vincent Price. Burton idolized Christopher Lee AND Vincent Price when he was growing up.