The World of Tim Burton: a 'creepy, witty and visually ravishing' exhibition | The Week

Nov 01, 2024

Sprawling show at London's Design Museum features over 600 exhibits

"As this delicious, suitably erratic exhibition shows, the mind of Tim Burton is a strange and wonderful place", said Nick Curtis in London's Evening Standard.

The sprawling new show at the Design Museum in London explores the life and work of the iconic filmmaker. More than 600 exhibits are on display, spanning everything from photographs and drawings to film clips, costumes and puppets. These artefacts contain "delights, not just for the fan but for anyone interested in both the elegance and the endless labour of craft".

"Creepy, witty and visually ravishing", the exhibition focuses on Burton's biggest hits, as well as providing "tantalising glimpses" of his unrealised projects like the "Superman Lives" film that was cancelled due to high production costs.

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The show, which has been touring the world for a decade, has the "air of a franchise" but the Design Museum is "keen to stress" it's been "fully reimagined", said Rowan Moore in The Guardian.

Visitors are "definitely immersed" in several of Burton's weird and wonderful worlds. The first room explores his childhood growing up in the oppressive suburbs of Burbank, where the "solitary misfit found refuge in his drawing". "Teenage creations" on display include "The Giant Zlig" – an unpublished illustrated children's book that Burton submitted to Walt Disney Publications.

From here, the show "follows his progress" from a "moody and taciturn 20-something" animator at Disney to his 1985 feature film debut "Pee-wee's Big Adventure" to the "cavalcade of fantastical black horror-comedies that followed".

Each room is peppered with Burton's striking drawings: "a never-ending doodle spun into a stellar career". But while his sketches are certainly "impressive for their intensity and energy", they show little development; his relatively new Netflix series "Wednesday", for example, looks remarkably similar to his earliest works.

The show "fails" to show an unexpected side to Burton's style, said Leaf Arbuthnot in The Telegraph. "Visitors who aren't on board with the dark palettes and staring eyes, the over-friendly monsters and ever-living dead won't find much escape." However, for newcomers and fans of the filmmaker there is "much to feast on".

All in all, said Moore, "The World of Tim Burton" shines a light on the "phenomenal output of a singular creative mind" – "one that has given considerable pleasure to what are now generations of audiences".

The World of Tim Burton is at the Design Museum, London, until April 2025

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Irenie Forshaw is a features writer at The Week, covering arts, culture and travel. She began her career in journalism at Leeds University, where she wrote for the student newspaper, The Gryphon, before working at The Guardian and The New Statesman Group. Irenie then became a senior writer at Elite Traveler, where she oversaw The Experts column.

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