Tim Burton’s 10 Best Movie Adaptations

Tim Burton, cinema’s so-called Master of the Macabre, is most known for his unique cinematic style and quirky, gothic creations – think Beetlejuice or Edward Scissorhands. Most of his oeuvre, however, is made up of adaptations of pre-existing works, ranging from books to comics to old soap operas. His latest movie only continues this trend. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is an adaptation of Ransom Riggs’ photo-novel for YA audiences. With its strange kids with odd powers, it seems tailor-made for the director and has so far been received with middling to positive reviews. It’s not exactly a shining return to form for Burton, then, but it is certainly a step up from many of his recent movies. With Miss Peregrine now in cinemas though, we thought it'd be a good time to take a look at all 10 of Tim Burton’s adaptations, and rank them from the worst of the lot to the best of the bunch. 10) Planet Of The Apes After a decade of great to at least interesting films, Burton had the first big stumble of his career in 2001 with this “re-imagining” of the classic 1968 Planet of the Apes movie. Lacking the iconic imagery or the intelligence the franchise deserves, Burton’s version has a certain B-movie charm – and the ape prosthetics from Rick Baker are fantastic - but the director clearly did not really know what to do with the material. This is no more clear than with the infamously nonsensical ending that attempts to replicate the shock of the original but just leaves you scratching your head instead. 10 years later Rise of the Planet of the Apes swept this one under the rug and proved that there was a lot of life in the old franchise yet. 9) Dark Shadows By 2012, the heyday of the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp partnership was long gone and so the world gave a colossal shrug when the pair made Dark Shadows, a movie version of a cult supernatural soap opera from the 1970s. Apart from only really appealing to a niche audience, it didn’t help that Dark Shadows had a wayward, uneasy tone. While it could have been a creepy horror throwback if handled correctly, the movie is a goofy ‘fish-out-of-water’ tale about an ancient vampire waking up in the 20th century. In an attempt to be faithful to a show that ran for over 1000 episodes, various subplots are squeezed into the two hour runtime, leaving it feeling bloated and unfocused. On the plus side, Eva Green gives a great, OTT performance as an evil witch. 8) Alice In Wonderland Alice in Wonderland might just be the most notorious entry in Burton’s filmography. Despite earning mostly negative reviews, the movie found itself with buckets and buckets at the box office and ensured Disney’s current practice of remaking all their classic movies. In truth, the hate that was flung at the film is probably slightly unfair. True, the computer-generated Wonderland doesn't really come to life as one might have expected, but at least there's a great cast - headed by Mia Wasikowska, who gives a spirited performance in a feminist teenage take on the Victorian literary character. But, once again, Burton’s storytelling abilities let him down and the film swaps the whimsy of Lewis Carroll’s writing for a boring ‘chosen one’ plot. And, yes, Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter, with his crazy eyes and break-dancing, is both an off-putting and cringe-worthy creation. 7) Charlie And The Chocolate Factory As was demonstrated when the incomparable actor recently passed away, the only Willy Wonka in the public imagination is Gene Wilder. That rather shows how Charlie and the Chocolate Factory failed to make much of an impression on audiences when it arrived in 2005. The movie is certainly not a failure, as it mostly succeeds in doing what Burton set out to do and adapting the Roald Dahl novel more faithfully than the 1971 film. There is a superfluous new backstory, but at least it features Christopher Lee as Wonka’s father. The real problem is that Burton and Depp turn Wonka from the charismatic, enigmatic hero of the first film into a Michael Jackson-esque man-child who it’s hard to love in the same way as Wilder’s take. 6) Mars Attacks! 1995’s Mars Attacks! is not an adaptation of a movie or TV show but rather a narrative based on a cult card game from the 1950s. Naturally, from this odd source sprung a bizarre tongue-in-cheek B-movie parody masquerading as a modern-day blockbuster. With an all-star and eclectic cast including Jack Nicholson (in two roles), Pierce Brosnan, Glenn Close, Tom Jones and a teenage Natalie Portman, it’s a bit choppy and hit-and-miss but much of the surreal and black humour works – for instance, the weird sight of Sarah Jessica Parker’s head on a Chihuahua. Regardless of its faults, it is a must-watch for anyone who finds the likes of Independence Day (which coincidentally came out the same year) and War of the Worlds too self-serious. 5) Frankenweenie Many have accused Tim Burton of plagiarizing himself in his recent movies, but that is legitimately what he did with 2012’s Frankenweenie, a feature-length stop-motion adaptation of his own live-action short film from the 1980s. While it doesn’t quite have the spark of 2005’s Corpse Bride, the movie is a welcome slice of classic Burton that comfortably sits in the upper-middle section of his filmography. Retelling the Frankenstein legend as a story about the lengths a boy would go to save his beloved dog, Frankenweenie is a fairly slight, touching tale that acts – as many of his films do – as an homage to the monster movies Burton loved as a boy. Uniting old-school Burton collaborators like Martin Short, Winona Ryder and Martin Landau, it was also the first film since 2003 that the director had made without Johnny Depp. 4) Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street Speaking of which, not all of Burton and Depp’s collaborations this century have turned sour. Burton’s 2007 movie version of Stephen Sondheim’s Broadway musical is one of the most successful of the director’s output in the last few years. Neither Depp nor Helena Bonham Carter are great singers, but they give their all in this gloriously gory musical that straddles the line between being a knowing black comedy and full-on melodrama. A blood-drenched barber out for vengeance, Sweeney is Depp’s best performance under Burton since Sleepy Hollow. Plus, Alan Rickman is naturally great value as a villainous judge. There are some odd omissions from the stage show (most notably ‘The Ballad of Sweeney Todd’) but, on the whole, Sweeney Todd is one of Burton’s most faithful adaptations. 3) Sleepy Hollow Despite his gothic sensibilities, Tim Burton doesn’t really do proper full-on horror films. Except, that is, 1998’s Sleepy Hollow, an adaptation of Washington Irving’s classic ghost story. When we say horror, this isn’t a modern slasher, but rather a pitch-perfect throwback to the bygone age of Hammer horror, complete with a small country village stalked by a creature of the night and buckets of technicolour red blood. Burton’s cinematography is at its most gorgeous here (you’ll never see such beautiful beheadings again) and the, well, sleepy autumnal town of Sleepy Hollow makes for a terrific setting. Depp is great value here, too, as a forward-thinking, if cowardly, detective while Christopher Walken as the Headless Horseman makes for a chilling monster. Overall, this is an often underrated effort from the director. 2) Big Fish Big Fish is such a different film from Burton that, if it wasn’t for the presence of Helena Bonham Carter and certain visual motifs, you might not even realize he directed it at all. An adaptation of Daniel Wallace’s novel of the same name, Big Fish is the most heartwarming work he has ever made. On the surface, it could be summed up as a fantasy Forrest Gump, as Ewan McGregor plays a man who tells tall tales about meeting giants, witches and werewolves. Really, though, it's a touching tale of a man trying to unite with his dying father and the legacy we leave behind once we die. Burton made the movie shortly after his own father died, which probably contributed to the unusual tone that mostly swaps the familiar surrealism for sentiment. 1) Batman/Batman Returns Tim Burton’s most famous take on a pre-existing property has to be his (dynamic) duo of Batman movies from 1989 and 1992, respectively. What’s more, they're probably the best, too. They might not quite capture the nuts and bolts of the Dark Knight as well as other versions, but the movies have aged very well thanks to the director’s unique vision of Batman and his world. Drawn more from German Expressionism and noir movies than the comic books, Batman and Batman Returns have to be viewed as gothic fairy tales rather than action movies to be fully appreciated. Both the heroes and the villains are misunderstood souls, trapped in the unforgiving dark metropolis that is Gotham (the city being a major character itself in the movies). Plus, Michael Keaton’s brooding billionaire is still many fans’ favourite incarnation of the character.