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Every director worth their salinity has their own distinctive stylus . Quentin Tarantino makes ultraviolent , negotiation - driven genre movies . Christopher Nolan makes mind - bending actioners with IMAX camera and meticulously crafted numerical story social system . And Tim Burton gain mediaeval , expressionist movies that deal with the supernatural and the macabre .
The characters in Burton ’s movies tend to be passing gonzo , typically played by Johnny Depp or Helena Bonham Carter , and there ’s a zany line between sound guys and bad guys . Burton has brought some severely lovable weirdos to the big screen over the years , so here are the 10 weirdest characters from Tim Burton ’s movies , ranked .
Ed Wood (Ed Wood)
The only character on this lean who ’s drawn from a substantial - life figure , Ed Wood was a filmmaker who directed bacillus - movies with tatty particular effects and on - the - nose performances , yet felt like he was an cunning auteur in the cast of Kubrick or Godard or Kurosawa , creating cinematic masterworks that demanded to be dissected by scholars .
Johnny Depp ’s portraiture of Wood inTim Burton ’s fatal - and - white biopicis as wondrously eccentric as one would anticipate from the writer , director , producer , and editor in chief ofPlan 9 from Outer Space .
The Mad Hatter (Alice In Wonderland)
Tim Burton kickstarted thetrend of hot - action remakes of Disney ’s animated classicswith his eerie , medieval , $ 1 billion - grossingAlice in Wonderlandre - do . As always , he cast Johnny Depp in the lead use , which was the Mad Hatter in this version of the story , because Depp could n’t play Alice .
Depp act as the fibre as both a camp loon and a grumpy cynic , walking a curiouser and curiouser behavioral tightrope line between the two side of the Hatter ’s personality . The 2010 remake fall in the fibre a suitably foreign real name , too : Tarrant Hightopp .
Barnabas Collins (Dark Shadows)
In Tim Burton ’s film adaptation of the gothic soap operaDark Shadows , Johnny Depp played the vampiric protagonist , Barnabas Collins . The movie itself was hardly a chef-d’oeuvre , but its portrayal of Barnabas was a sight of fun .
He is n’t the kind of vampire who swoop through the night in hunt of blood to suck ; he ’s the kind of lamia who check his soup-strainer float around in the mirror when he ’s brushing his teeth and his reflection is unseeable .
Jack Skellington (The Nightmare Before Christmas)
AlthoughThe Nightmare Before Christmaswas direct by Henry Selick , it was produced by Tim Burton , and Burton also wrote the tarradiddle that the film was base on , so Jack Skellington is finally a Burton creation . And it does n’t get much weirder than a hold back - movement skeleton who wear off a wooing and spontaneously bursts into Song dynasty and dance .
Jack is the “ Pumpkin King ” of Halloween Town before discover Christmas Town and , along with it , all the joy and festivity that ’s been missing from his biography in Halloween Town .
Sweeney Todd (Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street)
One might not at once put Tim Burton and the melodious genre together , butSweeney Todd : The Demon Barber of Fleet Street — a period slasher about a barber who slice his customer ’ throat with a straight razor and delivers them to the baker who bakes their corpses into pies — was right up his alley .
Stephen Sondheim write the level musical that the movie was based on , but the Sweeney Todd character has been around since the penny dreadfuls of the puritanical era .
Emily (Corpse Bride)
Tim Burton’sCorpse Brideis a tragic love story . voice by Helena Bonham Carter , the claim character is extremely likable because she was willing to give up her love in commutation for the happiness of others .
However , as a automaton who rises from her grave when she overhears a human race nervously rehearsing his wedding vow , and take over he ’s wed her , she ’s sure enough peculiar .
Willy Wonka (Charlie And The Chocolate Factory)
Gene Wilder played a warm and loveable reading of Willy Wonka in Mel Stuart ’s original film adaptation of Roald Dahl ’s novelCharlie and the Chocolate Factory , but Johnny Depp ’s take on the character was decidedly whacky and more alienating in Tim Burton ’s re - adaptation .
Wonka is a withdrawn businessman who invite children into his mill via a marketing gimmick , then lets them get picked off one by one as he turns out to be determining his successor . He ’s passing weird , and it was refreshing to see Burton ’s motion-picture show reflect that .
The Penguin (Batman Returns)
The Penguin was not created by Tim Burton . He’sa staple of the DC Comics rogues gallerywho , like Batman himself , was created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane . But Burton did bring the fibre to life in a very unique way inBatman Returns .
Although Dustin Hoffman was the first choice for the character anddozens of actors were declare oneself the part after Hoffman turned it down , Danny DeVito turned out to be the complete casting pick for this incarnation of the character . Oswald Cobblepot has legion of penguin minion , and identifies himself as a penguin . Burton encouraged DeVito to incline into the bizarreness , and DeVito gladly hold .
Edward Scissorhands (Edward Scissorhands)
Just because a character is eldritch does n’t intend they do n’t have a heart of gold . For all intents and purposes , Edward Scissorhands is a lovely and well - meaning bozo . But experience paw made of scissors has made him an castaway in the colorful suburban community he occupies .
The graphic symbol was inspired by a video that Tim Burton drew as a child . He saw the tragedy in a piece who just wants to have admirer and fit in , yet has blades sticking out of his hired hand .
Betelgeuse (Beetlejuice)
Michael Keaton has say that Betelgeuse ishis favorite of all the characters he ’s played , and that shows in his performance . He clearly had a boatload of sport every mean solar day of shootingBeetlejuice . The nominal theatrical role is a sort of poltergeist for hire who helps a recently deceased duad to haunt their old menage when a fresh kinsfolk moves in . However , he wrick out to have some disturbing subterraneous motif .
Betelgeuse was right smart more sinister in early draft of the script , but the more comedic variety he took when Keaton play him is still delightfully unusual .
NEXT : Quentin Tarantino ’s 10 Most Evil Characters , Ranked
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
