Tim Burton

Although the typical layman would immediately label him an oddball, those who are a little bit more familiar with Tim Burton would say that he's a beautiful mess. Burton was born August 25, 1958 in Burbank, California. He lived in typical suburbia, along with his brother and parents, although he never felt very attached to them. He felt much closer to the films of Vincent Price and the writings of Edgar Allan Poe. While his parents wanted him to go play outside and be "normal," he would rather soak into a 1950's horror movie, or just withdraw into his own mind, into his own world. When asked about his childhood, he responded, "I guess if there was a flavor [of childhood], I guess childhood was a kind of surreal, bright, depression," (Breskin 38). Aside from watching horror movies, Burton spent most of his adolescence drawing. He went on to win a scholarship to the California Institute of the Arts, awarded to him by Disney. After being unsuccessful working in the Disney atmosphere, where the animation was too cheery and uniformed for him, he went on to make distinctive box office hits.
Those who have interviewed Burton can easily see what a mess he is. The language of English seems second to the visual process with which he thinks. He must translate this process into words, which may take a little time and energy. He's disconnected from the world. He is both funny and morbid. He labels himself a "happy-go-lucky manic depressive," (Breskin 39). Burton is very serious about his creations, yet appears to be a flake. He has always felt that he was an outsider, in his society, and in his family. Burton has carried this feeling of being a lone soul inside of the entangled web of the world into every single one of his films.

As an artist at Disney, his first film he worked on was the animated feature The Fox and the Hound. After reviewing his work, Disney decided to give him freedom to be a conceptual artist. "I was just not Disney material. I could just not draw