With his gothic visual style influenced by German expressionist cinema, Tim Burton’s movies have one of the most unique looks of any director working today. This signature aesthetic has struck a chord with moviegoers, making Burton one of the most popular filmmakers of the past couple of decades. Whenever he’s working on a new movie, fans get excited.
Part of what makes Burton’s movies so interesting is their lovable characters, usually played by either Johnny Depp or Helena Bonham Carter, but sometimes played by other actors. Here are the best characters from each of IMDb’s 10 top-rated Tim Burton movies.
Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (7.0) – Pee-wee Herman
Given that Tim Burton went on to become renowned for directing dark fantasy movies with supernatural elements and gothic visuals, it’s hard to believe that his feature film debut was a Pee-wee Herman movie.
But it’s true, the man who went on to helm Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands began his career with a family comedy about a zany man trying to find his missing bicycle. He just let Paul Reubens do his thing, and it paid off brilliantly.
Batman Returns (7.0) – Catwoman
After almost 30 years, there still hasn’t been a better on-screen Catwoman than Michelle Pfeiffer. Halle Berry’s solo movie fundamentally misunderstood the character, while Anne Hathaway’s portrayal of Selina Kyle from The Dark Knight Rises was just a sanitized, scaled-down version of Pfeiffer’s.
In Batman Returns, Pfeiffer nailed her performance as a seriously unhinged Catwoman by playing her as the ultimate femme fatale, switching allegiances between the Bat and the Penguin.
Sleepy Hollow (7.3) – The Headless Horseman
The protagonist of Sleepy Hollow, Ichabod Crane, a cop who wants to bring science into policing at the turn of the 19th century but gets squeamish at the sight of blood, is an undoubtedly fascinating character.
But Sleepy Hollow’s true standout is its terrifying villain, the Headless Horseman, the undead spirit of a Hessian mercenary who was decapitated during the American Revolutionary War and now rides a black horse throughout the titular town in search of his lopped-off head.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street (7.3) – Sweeney Todd
There’s no grislier premise than an old-timey barber using a straight razor to murder his customers, then sending them down a chute to the bakery below to be baked into pies.
That barber, Sweeney Todd, was turned from a theatrical icon into a cinematic icon by Tim Burton and Johnny Depp. It's no surprise Sweeney Todd is a decidedly dark musical, and Johnny Depp pulls off the singing surprisingly well.
Corpse Bride (7.3) – Emily
Tim Burton’s stop-motion children’s horror movies are always a lot of fun, from The Nightmare Before Christmas (which he didn’t direct, but did produce) to Frankenweenie. Corpse Bride offers a unique take on a love story, as a mild-mannered man unwittingly promises to marry a dead woman.
The male lead, Victor Van Dort, is a likable enough everyman, but the female lead, zombified Emily, is the movie’s best character by far.
Beetlejuice (7.5) – Betelgeuse
Michael Keaton has said that he’s never had more fun playing a character than when he played Betelgeuse, the sort-of title character in Beetlejuice. He’s a freelance poltergeist that a dead couple hires to spook the new owners out of their house. With his wacky comic performance style, Keaton was the perfect actor to bring this character to life.
Horror comedy is a tricky genre to pull off, because the genres are at odds, but with Tim Burton nailing the horror side with visual panache and Keaton nailing the comedy side with a hilarious lead performance, Beetlejuice manages it.
Batman (7.5) – The Joker
Although the definitive portrayal of the Joker will always be Heath Ledger’s chillingly unpredictable agent of chaos from Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, Jack Nicholson gave an unforgettable turn as the Clown Prince of Crime in Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman movie.
Nicholson’s take-no-prisoners approach to the role defined the Joker for movie audiences for years, setting the high benchmark that Ledger would go on to top.
Ed Wood (7.8) – Bela Lugosi
Tim Burton made an interesting creative choice to take Ed Wood’s work seriously in his biopic of the schlocky B-movie director who notoriously believed he was creating great art. And Johnny Depp brings real passion to his portrayal of Wood.
But the movie’s focus is on Wood’s working relationship with horror legend Bela Lugosi, and Martin Landau’s Oscar-winning performance as Lugosi provides Depp with a brilliant foil.
Edward Scissorhands (7.9) – Edward Scissorhands
The title character in Edward Scissorhands is the movie’s most fascinating character. Everyone in the quirky suburban world around him is only there to complement his journey. By reacting with disgust to the "freak" with the pointy metal fingers, the characters around Edward hammer home the thematic point that he is an outsider desperate to fit in.
Johnny Depp’s portrayal of Edward is deeply sympathetic, hooking in audiences with an emotionally riveting performance and inciting tears from even the sternest of viewers.
Big Fish (8.0) – Edward Bloom
Tim Burton brought a fascinating Southern Gothic aesthetic to the father-son drama of Big Fish, which has been compared to Forrest Gump, with the treacly sentimentality, but without the bubblegum political overtones.
The story’s lead character, Edward Bloom, is played by two different actors — Ewan McGregor as a young man and Albert Finney as an old man — and both are spectacularly talented performers who bring their own unique flourishes to the role.