The Nightmare before Christmas, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach— a few of his childhood classics; deathless.

Throughout our lives director Tim Burton has stunned us with his bizarre and unusual movies and spins on other works, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

In elementary school we all read and watched this classic literary work. But in 2005 Burton took his own spin on it.

Like everything Burton seems to do, it had a rather dark and morbid theme to the movie.

While watching Burton’s version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I almost had an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. It seemed as if everything in the move had some hidden connotations associated with darkness that I just could not see.

But on top of the bizarre and morbid flare, I feel that Burton must also be very funny.

Take Sweeny Todd for example, a story about a ‘demon’ barber who is tormented throughout life, and when escapes prison, becomes a mass murder.

Todd’s lover was taken away from him, and when Todd returns from London after his bondage, she is thought to be dead.

With the news of his loss Todd moves to the street where he used to live happily, where he meets a kind meat-pie maker.

Both the chef and the barber are rather deranged and start murdering people under a shaving razor, and then turning them into a vastly popular “meat pie.”

Throughout all of this there is a humorously dark theme. Even though people are getting murdered and then fed to other people, Burton manages to make you laugh. The fact that the movie is a musical makes it that much more hilarious. Happy and cheery songs about death really speak to Burton’s dark humor.

And the music, oh the music.

This is what makes a lot of his movies so timeless to me. Whether is it is the soundtrack from one of Burton’s musicals, or simply the film score of wordless songs from one of his traditional films, it is sure to be both beautiful and strange.

I think that the fact that Burton creates both musical and non-musical movies really nods to his abilities as a director.

Burton also uses a lot of claymation which like all of his movies is seemingly flawless. Even though they are made of clay or cartoons, the characters and environments interact with each other as if they are real.

The sets Burton uses are also quite fantastic. You can tell that a lot of time and care was taken to either set up or draw the environment that the story takes place. Like the scene from the Nightmare before Christmas, where the pumpkin king Jack is pondering what is missing from his life (which ends up being love.) In the grave yard there is this strange… I guess you could call it a hill, which Jack walks across. This one scene from this one work of Burton’s is quite famous and memorable.

Even in scenes where Burton is remembering a brighter or happier time, there is still a clear allusion to death. The sun is never bright, everything always seems to have a shroud of darkness upon it.

Which is something else I have noticed. In a number of Burton’s films, if there is ever a happy time, it is usually in the past, while the present is depicted with his usual darkness. I cannot help but feel that he is putting his own personal opinion into his films, like he is showing us that the past was a brighter time and the present or future is dark unhappiness.

Some people might find this unattractive, but seeing as how all of Burton’s films are quite dark, I think this style fits him perfectly.

On top of Burton’s works from our childhood, he has also made a film that has “grown up with us,” meaning that while some of the older movies are a little more child-oriented, in 2012 Burton came out with a new aged comedy movie called Dark Shadows. This movie is utterly hilarious. Everything about it is filled his morbidly dark hilarity.

I think the fact that Burton is able to make comedies, cartoons, musicals; spins on the works of others or create a world of his own shows that he has a wide variety of talents, of which he is at the pinnacle of skill.

But over all of his skill as a director, beautiful orchestrated soundtracks and hilariously dark mood; I appreciate that Tim Burton is no one except Tim Burton. With his extravagant and unique spin on all of his works, he has engraved himself in cinematic history.

When you watch one of his many films, you can almost feel in your bones that you are watching a Burton movie. And I think that is something many movies and other forms of art or missing. It’s as if Burton himself is an allusion to everyday life. An allusion that if we choose to be individual and stay away from the usual, that we too can be as interesting and timeless as Burton is.

We too can be bizarre but deathless.