Tim Burton’s 5 Best Movies, Ranked

Tim Burton gave us some of the most visually striking movies in Hollywood history — and coaxed some brilliant performances out of Johnny Depp . Some of his films are rightly regarded as classics, while others are horribly overrated. Here’s a look at his five best.

5. ‘Alice in Wonderland’

Many Burton fans regard Alice in Wonderland as the beginning of his slide into mediocrity. They are dead wrong. Burton’s Alice in Wonderland is an emotionally affecting coming-of-age story about a young woman finding herself in a surreal world halfway between the artistic sensibilities of Walt Disney and H. R. Giger. As the Mad Hatter, Depp gives one of his most underrated performances, crafting a character who is both campy and tragic.

Some fans of Lewis Caroll’s Alice books have complained that Burton took too many liberties with the source material. That’s fine. There are so many Alice in Wonderland films that we don’t need another faithful one.

4. ‘Batman Returns’

The 1989 film Batman returned the Caped Crusader to his dark roots, proved Burton could make a blockbuster, and revolutionized superhero movies forever. Its sequel isn’t as beloved. After all, it was darker than a lot of younger children could handle.

While the storytelling in Batman Returns is off-kilter , the performances are pitch-perfect. Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman is one of the most gloriously strange characters ever to grace a Hollywood film. She’s so compelling that it becomes clear that Burton was more interested in her than Batman — and who could blame him?

3. ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’

The Nightmare Before Christmas was directed by Henry Selick, and based on a story by Burton, who also produced the film. While Burton didn’t direct The Nightmare Before Christmas , it has his fingerprints all over it and it’s usually seen as a cornerstone of his filmography. In its small way, The Nightmare Before Christmas was a brave film, as it recast the lexicon of Christmas films into something Gothic and gleefully twisted.

The Nightmare Before Christmas works perfectly. It’s sweet enough and edgy enough to become a Christmas classic while pleasing the Goth subculture. Whether you love or hate Christmas, The Nightmare Before Christmas i s the movie for you.

2. ‘Edward Scissorhands’

Burton’s best films always draw from fairytale optimism just as much as Universal Classic Monsters. Here, Burton made something that matched his influences, a beautiful retelling of the Frankenstein myth that speaks to the adolescent in all of us. Depp’s gentle character performance changed his career trajectory forever.

Burton isn’t known for tearjerkers, but it’s hard not to be moved by the film’s final sequence. The best love stories are bittersweet. With Edward Scissorhands , Burton created his Romeo and Juliet or Casablanca .

1. ‘Ed Wood’

Hollywood often likes to portray itself as glamorous. With his biopic of notorious B-movie director Edward D. Wood, Jr., Burton found the poetry in the seedy underbelly of old-school exploitation cinema. Anyone who’s ever found joy in a cheesy monster movie will be tickled pink by the sweetness of Ed Wood .

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Depp plays Wood almost as wonderfully as Martin Landau brought Bela Lugosi back from the grave. Together, they make one of cinema’s best buddy teams. Ed Wood isn’t exactly a work of history, but it lets Wood have the last laugh after a lifetime of hardship and derision. In a 2007 Total Film interview, Burton named The Nightmare Before Christmas , Edward Scissorhands , and Ed Wood as his best films — and he’s right.