The association between the director Tim Burton and Disney goes a long way. However, there were many bumps along the way! Burton started as an animator at Disney when they were impressed with his graduation film ‘Stalk of the Celery Monster’. Since then, the director became one of the most creative directors in the industry directing the DC Comic and Warner Bros. ‘Batman’ and ‘Batman Returns’.
There was more than a little tension between the animation giant and the director. It was not once, twice, or thrice, but the director was fired from the job five times due to creative differences. Recently, Burton has shared his stance on working with Disney. And the decision might disappoint the eager ‘Dumbo 2’ fans.
“I Needed To Escape”: Tim Burton On Why He Will Never Work With Disney Again
The director was recently spotted on the red carpet of the Lumière Festival in Lyon, France. For the 14th edition of the festival, the Grand Prix Lumière was awarded to Tim Burton. In the past, directors like Quentin Tarantino, Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorcese, and other notable people received the prize. The director has dabbled into the gothic spaces for his storytelling. He has given us films like ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’, ‘Frankenweenie’, ‘The Black Cauldron’, ‘Alice In Wonderland’, and others.
At the event, the director revealed that working on Dumbo was his wake-up call to bid adieu to his first employers. He explained the reasons why he would not collaborate with Disney anymore. He said, “My history is that I started out there. I was hired and fired like several times throughout my career there.”
He reasoned why his last film with Disney will be his final one with the animation giant. “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.”
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Why Was The Director Fired From Disney?
Burton was a freshly minted graduate of The California Institute of Arts. With a young, curious mind, his ethos was not in tandem with that of the Studios. At that time, it will still conservative and not experimental. However, the executives at the giant allowed Tim to experiment which led to films like the short ‘Vincent’, he also worked as a conceptualizer and animator on the dark children’s film ‘The Black Cauldron’.
However, the most controversial project of the director at Disney was ‘Frankenweenie’. It was a story of a boy named Victor Frankstein who loses his pet dog in a car accident. One fine night, leaving his picket-fence neighborhood, he leaves his house to go to the graveyard where his dog is buried. He tries to bring his beloved pet alive and as dramatic as it sounds, he becomes alive with a bolt of lightning.
The film was shelved as the executives deemed it to be too scary for children. It was released after two decades in 2012. In an interview, the director recalled how the firing was not something that he imagined to be. He said, “It wasn’t like Alan Sugar saying ‘You’re fired’. I didn’t quite get it that strong. But yes, we parted ways at that point. We have a nice revolving door policy! It’s all based on projects and how companies change. It was a ‘thank you very much, but you go your way and we’ll go our way’ kind of thing.”
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