The imagination of has produced ghosts and ghouls, Martians, monsters and misfits 鈥� all on display at an exhibition that is opening in London just in time for Halloween.
But you know what really scares him? Artificial intelligence.
Burton said Wednesday that seeing a website that had used AI to blend his drawings with Disney characters 鈥渞eally disturbed me.鈥�
鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 an intellectual thought 鈥� it was just an internal, visceral feeling,鈥� Burton told reporters during a preview of 鈥淭he World of Tim Burton鈥� exhibition at London鈥檚 Design Museum. 鈥淚 looked at those things and I thought, 鈥楽ome of these are pretty good.鈥� 鈥� (But) it gave me a weird sort of scary feeling inside.鈥�
Burton said he thinks AI is unstoppable, because 鈥渙nce you can do it, people will do it.鈥� But he scoffed when asked if he鈥檇 use the technology in this work.
鈥淭o take over the world?鈥� he laughed.
The exhibition reveals Burton to be an analogue artist, who started off as a child in the 1960s experimenting with paints and colored pencils in his suburban Californian home.
鈥淚 wasn鈥檛, early on, a very verbal person,鈥� Burton said. 鈥淒rawing was a way of expressing myself.鈥�
Decades later, after films including 鈥淓dward Scissorhands,鈥� 鈥淏atman,鈥� 鈥淭he Nightmare Before Christmas鈥� and 鈥淏eetlejuice,鈥� his ideas still begin with drawing. The exhibition includes 600 items from movie studio collections and Burton鈥檚 personal archive, and traces those ideas as they advance from sketches through collaboration with set, production and costume designers on the way to the big screen.
London is the exhibition鈥檚 final stop on a decade-long tour of 14 cities in 11 countries. It has been reconfigured and expanded with 90 new objects for its run in the British capital, where Burton has lived for a quarter century.
The show includes early drawings and oddities, including a competition-winning 鈥渃rush litter鈥� sign a teenage Burton designed for Burbank garbage trucks. There鈥檚 also a recreation of Burton鈥檚 studio, down to the trays of paints and 鈥淐urse of Frankenstein鈥� mug full of pencils.
Alongside hundreds of drawings, there are props, puppets, set designs and iconic costumes, including Johnny Depp鈥檚 鈥淓dward Scissorhands鈥� talons and the black latex Catwoman costume worn by Michelle Pfeiffer in 鈥淏atman Returns.鈥�
鈥淲e had very generous access to Tim鈥檚 archive in London, stuffed full of thousands of drawings, storyboards from stop-motion films, sketches, character notes, poems,鈥� said exhibition curator Maria McLintock. 鈥淎nd how to synthesize such a wide ranging and meandering career within one exhibition was a fun challenge 鈥� but definitely a challenge.鈥�
Seeing it has not been a wholly fun experience for Burton, who said he鈥檚 unable to look too closely at the items on display.
鈥淚t鈥檚 like seeing your dirty laundry put on the walls,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 quite amazing. It鈥檚 a bit overwhelming.鈥�
Burton, whose long-awaited horror-comedy sequel opened at the Venice Film Festival in August, is currently filming the second series of Netflix鈥� Addams Family-themed series 鈥淲ednesday.鈥�
These days he is a major Hollywood director whose American gothic style has spawned an adjective 鈥� 鈥淏urtoneqsue.鈥� But he still feels like an outsider.
鈥淥nce you feel that way, it never leaves you,鈥� he said.
鈥淓ach film I did was a struggle,鈥� he added, noting that early films like 鈥淧ee-wee鈥檚 Big Adventure鈥� from 1985 and 鈥淏eetlejuice鈥� in 1988 received some negative reviews. 鈥淚t seems like it was a pleasant, fine, easy journey, but each one leaves its emotional scars.鈥�
McLintock said Burton 鈥渋s a deeply emotional filmmaker.鈥�
鈥淚 think that鈥檚 what drew me to his films as a child,鈥� she said. 鈥淗e really celebrates the misunderstood outcast, the benevolent monster. So it鈥檚 been quite a weird but fun experience spending so much time in his brain and his creative process.
鈥淗is films are often called dark,鈥� she added. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 agree with that. And if they are dark, there鈥檚 a very much a kind of hope in the darkness. You always want to hang out in the darkness in his films.鈥�
