Tim Burton has declared he’s done with making movies with Disney after the “horrible big circus” that was Dumbo.
Speaking at the Lumière Festival in Lyon after receiving the Prix Lumière, Burton revealed that the 2019 Disney film was the final straw in his relationship with the film bigwigs.
“My history is that I started out there,” Burton said. “I was hired and fired like several times throughout my career there. The thing about Dumbo, is that’s why I think my days with Disney are done, I realized that I was Dumbo, that I was working in this horrible big circus and I needed to escape. That movie is quite autobiographical at a certain level.”
Burton had previously worked with Disney on films like Ed Wood, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Alice in Wonderland, and Frankenweenie.
Elsewhere at the festival, Burton also gave his thought on the current crop of superhero movies – as his 1989 film Batman laid the groundwork for many of the genre’s tropes.
“It did feel very exciting to be at the beginning of all of it. It’s amazing how much it hasn’t really changed in a sense – the tortured superhero, weird costumes – but for me, at the time it was very exciting. It felt new,” he said.
“The thing that is funny about it now is, people go ‘What do you think of the new ‘Batman?’’ and I start laughing and crying because I go back to a time capsule, where pretty much every day the studios were saying, ‘It’s too dark, it’s too dark’. Now it looks like a lighthearted romp.”
Love Film & TV?
Get the latest Film & TV news, features, updates and giveaways straight to your inbox Learn more
Meanwhile, Burton has moved on to working with fellow entertainment giants Netflix for a reboot of The Addams Family, called Wednesday, with the titular character to be played by Jenna Ortega.
Christina Ricci, who played Wednesday in the 90s The Addams Family movie, is also set to make an appearance in the show, which will please fans who were captured by her portrayal of Wednesday from 30 years ago.
For more on this topic, follow the Film & TV Observer.
