What Makes the Dark, Whimsical World of Tim Burton So Compelling?

An immersive ode to Hollywood’s goth king has arrived in London. In a new exhibition at the Design Museum, visitors can view Tim Burton’s early artworks, as well as sketches and costumes from Corpse Bride (2005), Beetlejuice (1988), Edward Scissorhands (1990) and more.

“It’s a strange thing, to put 50 years of art and your life on view for everyone to see, especially when that was never the original purpose,” says Burton in a statement.

Titled “The World of Tim Burton,” the show toured for years before making its final stop in London. This version of the exhibition, which features more than 600 items, has been expanded and restructured, spotlighting Burton’s collaborations with costume, set and production designers who proved integral to his films.

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Many iconic garments by costume designer Colleen Atwood are on display, including the famous Edward Scissorhands outfit, the hand-painted striped dress Christina Ricci wore in Sleepy Hollow (1999) and the dress Jenna Ortega wore during the dance scene from Netflix’s Wednesday (2022)—all evocative of Burton’s famously whimsical, dark aesthetic.

“I read somewhere that if you were going to describe his style through references that are in the cultural vernacular, it would be van Gogh’s Starry Night and Frankenstein,” Maria McLintock, curator of the London exhibition, tells CNN’s Tacita Quinn. “Tim, more than anything, is an artist. He is not drawn to expressing reality. In fact, he probably would say, ‘What even is reality?’”

The exhibition winds through Burton’s career, starting with a section called “Suburban Beginnings,” which covers the director’s early artistic work in his home state of California. The young Burton was inspired by stop-motion animation, science fiction movies, gothic novels and Dr. Seuss—all apparent in his imaginative drawings.

“Some of the most thrilling items are the most personal—teen fan art, scribbles on table napkins, university lecture notes,” writes Catherine Spooner, a literary scholar at England’s Lancaster University, for the Conversation. “These offer an impression of intimacy, of unadulterated creativity bubbling up from some hidden wellspring of the subconscious.”

After studying character animation at the California Institute of Arts in the 1970s, Burton apprenticed at Disney in the early 1980s. He made a few short films, including Frankenweenie (1984), before directing his first feature film, Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (1985). A few years later, he made it big with Beetlejuice.

“The World of Tim Burton” highlights 18 films, with information about their inspirations, props and influence on pop culture. As McLintock says in the statement, Burton begins each film by drawing his ideas. One sketch on view shows the beginnings of the Edward Scissorhands character, with a darkly shadowed face and incomplete knife-like digits.

“Crazily imaginative etchings each offer vivid new ways into Tim Burton’s labyrinthine mind, showing how much of it we don’t know,” writes City A.M.’s Adam Bloodworth in a review. Visitors can also see artworks from projects that were never made, he adds: “It’s engrossing to pick up privately in your mind where Burton’s ideas were publicly halted by movie execs.”

Many of the props and drawings feature familiar Burton imagery, like skeletons, staples, stripes and stitches. As Jenny He, who co-curated the first Burton exhibition in 2009 at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, tells CNN, “Stitches [seem] very macabre, but for Tim, actually, it’s a very positive, optimistic motif, because stitching means that you can put yourself back together—no matter how many times you fall apart.”

The show’s final section demonstrates Burton’s creations beyond the silver screen, including books and music videos, and other artists who have been influenced by his style, such as photographer Tim Walker. Burton’s enduring widespread popularity is also evident: The exhibition sold 32,000 tickets before opening earlier this month.

“To me, the Burtonesque is a process, a deep commitment to handmade, slower processes, not feeling that obligation to go for the quickest, slickest route,” McLintock tells CNN. “That’s what lingers beyond the credits rolling—everything feels like this entire world has been so considered.”

“The World of Tim Burton” is on view at the Design Museum in London through April 21, 2025.

Sonja Anderson | READ MORE

Sonja Anderson is a writer and reporter based in New York City.