1993 · Henry Selick · 76 min · Animation
The Nightmare Before Christmas is a visual and musical triumph that turned a quirky stop-motion experiment into one of the most beloved animated films ever made. Jack Skellington's identity crisis resonates across generations, and Danny Elfman's songs are permanently lodged in popular culture.
1990 · Tim Burton · 105 min · Fantasy
Edward Scissorhands is Tim Burton's most personal and emotionally resonant film, a modern fairy tale about an outsider that uses its fantastical premise to say something deeply true about acceptance, conformity, and the cruelty of communities that only welcome you as long as you're useful.
2007 · Tim Burton · 116 min · Musical
Sweeney Todd is Tim Burton at his most blood-soaked and musically ambitious, a gothic horror musical where revenge is served with razor-sharp precision. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter aren't traditional musical performers, and that's exactly what makes the film feel dangerous and alive.
1994 · Tim Burton · 127 min · Comedy
Ed Wood is Tim Burton's most personal film disguised as his most accessible, a joyful celebration of artistic passion over artistic talent. Johnny Depp's infectious optimism and Martin Landau's devastating Bela Lugosi give the film two of the best performances of the 1990s.
1989 · Tim Burton · 126 min · Action
Batman is the film that proved superhero movies could be dark, adult, and wildly successful. Tim Burton's gothic vision, Michael Keaton's surprising intensity, and Jack Nicholson's showstopping Joker created a cultural phenomenon that changed blockbuster filmmaking forever.
1992 · Tim Burton · 126 min · Action
Batman Returns is Tim Burton fully unleashed on a superhero property, a dark, bizarre, and deeply personal film that cares more about its villains' pain than its hero's mission. Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman is one of the greatest performances in superhero cinema, and the film's willingness to be strange has made it more admired now than when it divided audiences in 1992.
1988 · Tim Burton · 92 min · Comedy
Beetlejuice is the film where Tim Burton's sensibility crystallized into something audiences could rally around. Michael Keaton's manic, improvisation-fueled performance as the Ghost with the Most is the centerpiece, but the film's real achievement is building an entire aesthetic vocabulary that Burton would spend the rest of his career refining.
1999 · Tim Burton · 102 min · Horror
Sleepy Hollow is Tim Burton's most visually sumptuous horror film, a blood-soaked gothic fairy tale that prioritizes atmosphere and spectacle over narrative depth. The production design won an Academy Award, and the Headless Horseman sequences deliver some of the most striking horror imagery of the 1990s.
1985 · Tim Burton · 91 min · Comedy
Pee-wee's Big Adventure is Tim Burton's first feature and a defiantly odd comedy that works because Paul Reubens commits completely to a character who shouldn't sustain a full movie but absolutely does. It's a pop-culture touchstone that helped make Pee-wee Herman an icon for outsiders of all ages.
2005 · Tim Burton · 77 min · Animation
Corpse Bride is a visually gorgeous stop-motion fairy tale with a bittersweet heart. It lives in the shadow of The Nightmare Before Christmas, but its shorter runtime and emotional directness give it a charm that's entirely its own.
2003 · Tim Burton · 125 min · Fantasy
Big Fish is Tim Burton at his most sentimental and restrained, a father-son story told through tall tales that's more likely to make you cry than it is to dazzle you with visual spectacle. Ewan McGregor's sunshine charm and Albert Finney's stubborn warmth carry a film that prioritizes heart over Burton's usual gothic flair.
1996 · Tim Burton · 103 min · Comedy
Mars Attacks! is Tim Burton's gleefully mean-spirited tribute to 1950s alien invasion B-movies, loaded with an absurd ensemble cast and a cynicism that audiences in 1996 weren't ready for. It's messy, chaotic, and deliberately obnoxious, which is precisely why its cult following has grown steadily ever since.
2005 · Tim Burton · 115 min · Fantasy
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a visually striking but emotionally polarizing adaptation that brings Roald Dahl's darker sensibilities to the screen while dividing audiences over Johnny Depp's deliberately unsettling take on Willy Wonka. It's Burton doing Dahl, for better and worse.