On Movies: Into the surreal world of filmmaker Tim Burton
"If his work seems to inhabit an identifiable Burtonesque world, it's probably because Tim is compelled by his imagination to dwell in a place for which only he has a map."
"If his work seems to inhabit an identifiable Burtonesque world, it's probably because Tim is compelled by his imagination to dwell in a place for which only he has a map."
That's Rick Heinrichs, the production designer, talking about Tim Burton, on one of the 434 pages of The Art of Tim Burton (Steeles Publishing, $69.99), a lavish coffee table tome jam-packed with doodles, scrawls, sketches, puppet designs, storyboard panels, portraiture and gatefold fantasmagoria culled from decades' worth of the artist/animator/filmmaker's work.
Think of it as a map - an unwieldy, clothbound, hard-cover, 11" x 12" map - that lets readers into Burton's uniquely surreal, whimsical, macabre world.
From Burton's '80s shorts "Vincent" and "Frankenweenie," through the features Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, Planet of the Apes, Sleepy Hollow, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Burton costume designs
The five lousiest, what-were-they-thinking?, cinematic abominations of 2009.
All About Steve
Angels and Demons
the
Contact movie critic Steven Rea at 215-854-5629 or srea@phillynews.com. Read his blog, "On Movies Online," at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/onmovies/