Tim Burton Books

Just such a great style of art that you don't see often in comics these days...or ever? And the writing was so tongue in cheek it was great! gotta love the detective inspector, he was my fave!!

Bret Herholz does something really great with his book, Diary. with astounding success, he has taken inspiration from greats like gorey and burton and used them to catalyze his own artistic innovations. His quirky, tongue in cheek and solid writing is beautifully supported by even more quirky, exaggerated figures and sketchy, victorian settings. His characters have a shallow outer shell that pushes his satire but ooze personality from the inside that allows for an interesting and exploritory read. I love it and you will too!

Hello! All i have to say is that if you are a fan of Edward Gorey's art style and quirky storyline, then you will love this graphic novel!

While the interviews are really interesting and personal, I was surpriced that this director's most personal work, Edward Scissorhands, got a single, (admittedly great) space on this book.

The Tim Burton Interviews is a must have for anyone who loves Tim Burton or filmmaking in general. Kristian Fraga's introduction sets the tone for this fun and informative book on Tim Burtons life, love for movies, and insight into the unique mind of Tim Burton.

Richard D. Altick wrote, in The Scholar Adventurers: ''If it is permissable sometimes to reconstruct biography on the basis of the known proclivities of one's hero...'' This comment was used as a forward to Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street,a book in which William S. Baring-Gould writes a biography of Sherlock Holmes based on all the facts revealed about him in the Canon, and because Baring-Gould is an excellent writer, the book is a fun and amusing read.

The same holds true for this biography of the almost-as enigmatic director, Tim Burton. He rarely gives interviews (in which he says anything of substance, anyway) and guards his private life. To write a biography of such a subject requires a love of that subject (a love of that subject's works, at least), ingenuity, and dedication, and such has been provided here by Ken Hanke. His writing flows smoothly, and more importantly than anything else, his book causes one to think - to compare their reactions to a particular film to Hanke's own.

If you are a fan of Burton, this book is highly recommened.

Ken Hanke's autobiography provides much insight into Burton's childhood, adolescence, early career, etc. However, Hanke spends too much time in summarizing the plots of Burton's films and not enough time in relating those plots to their production or to his life in general. Hanke's writing is also loose and cumbersome at times, making for an unneccessarily awkward read. Why must he constantly use exclamation points where none are needed? Such punctuation is distracting and useless--if a sentence is going to surprise or shock us, it won't be because of the punctuation. I'd recommend keeping an eye out for future, more scholarly biographies of a director who deserves the Spoto treatment.

While Tim Burton is a fascinating subject, Ken Hanke has produced a truly stupid book about him. Most of his information is gathered from previously published interviews (few of which were conducted by the author) and when he has nothing of substance to say (which is most of the time) Hanke simply provides a synopsis of the particular film in question. Also, his attempt to analyze Burton's films in light of what sketchy biographical information Hanke has constructed is at best simplistic and at worst, inept. It is pop-psychoanalysis at its worst, on the level of a freshman class paper, instead of what one would expect from a professional journalist. This book should be considered to be on par with the other hastily-compiled unauthorized biographies of celebrities, fun for gossip, but not much else. Read "Burton on Burton" if you want to learn anything of substance .

This biography does contains some cool information, but not enough to carry this 245 page book. Any Burton fan should know this much about him. Hanke gives too many decriptions of the films, and goes one step at a time rounding the movies together. The true book to own is Burton on Burton.

It's very boring and all. I've read and re-read my copy of Burton on Burton, and this book provides me with no new information. Hanke even goes so far as to quote from the interviews Salisbury assembled into Burton on Burton. It's annoying, reading through this book, since Hanke seems to insist that he knows exactly what's going on in Burton's mind. He over-analyses absolutely everything, bringing Burton's films down to a level where nothing is truly worth anything. According to Hanke, Pee Wee's Big Adventure is all about sexual stuff. Honestly, for three pages, every other word is sex. Methinks perhaps Hanke is not so much telling us what Burton thinks, but what he would think if he was Burton.

Also, the writing feels to me like something I might write on a late night to turn in the next morning to my 10th grade english teacher. The style seems to be that of an essay, not a book.

My final complaint is the huge editing mistake I found. At the beginning of the chapters, Hanke gives a quote. At the beginning of one, I was shocked to see the words "I know I am but what are you?" Anyone who's seen the movie can tell you the quote it "I know you are but what am I?", and it amazes me that such a large error slipped through and made it into print.

Not one of Tim Burton's best.But if you have collected his other books on the art of his movies, you will still want to buy this too.You'll still get a good if not great book.

The first thing I noticed about this book is that how unappropriately mistitled it is by calling itself "The Art" of Sleepy Hollow. What I saw instead is the unentertaining shooting script printed superimposedly on the so-called 'conceptual arts' and stills from the movie.
I was expecting a book with a feature of something like The Art of The Matrix. Being a fan of moviemaking conceptual artistic designs, I found the pictures and still photos to be blurry and in some cases 'artless'. What a disappointment for a book based on a really atmospheric and visually stunning approach.

"The Art Of Sleepy Hollow" does a great job a carturing the sweeping,eerie mood of Tim Burton's films,with great stills and re-creations of the beautiful art design.There are also an abundance of original scatches,illustration the development of many of the characters and scenarios in the completed film.My favorite photo personally is the one at the back showing a menacing Tim Burton holding the mock-ups of two severed heads,perfectly capturing the fun-house chills of the film.As an added bonus you get the original screenplay,with many scenes that were not in the film,that help elucidate and clarify alot of the scenes that didn't make a lot of sense in the film.If you loved the movie,this book is a must-have.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVED this movie! And I'm a big fan of Tim Burton and his visuals. But this book doesn't accentuate either of the above. The illustrations are not very exciting and the book lacks tons of actual still photos and behind the scenes shots. At least I got it for free. I was hoping for something similar to the Bram Stoker's Dracula book that came out shortly after that film. That book and script was exceptional and captured the full beauty of the movie. This one (though the script is included) does not do the same. A shame because I love this film.

this book is a total failure!

I came by this book by accident, and enjoyed it immensely. I have not even known before that my favorite movies had Burton in common.

It covers everything you could possibly wish to know about the films, and even provides a summary of one I'd never even heard of - Luau. This isn't even listed on the IMDB, and no other books on Burton mention it, but they've got an interview with Rick Heinrichs (the guy who designed Sleepy Hollow and worked on Luau) about it, so it must be for real!

It's really well written too, and pretty amusing in places - the level of research is amazing - they even give notes showing where they got all their info from, so you can check it out for yourself. The stuff they got from Martin Landau and the two guys who wrote Ed Wood is incredibly interesting - a load of stuff I'd never heard about that film - some that isn't even included on the DVD's commentary.

Basically, this book's great. I'd read Burton on Burton (which is very good), that Pocket Essentials one (which is pretty good), that biography (which is really poor), and the "CHild's Garden of Nightmares" one (which is interesting, but doesn't cover nearly as much detail as this). NOne of these other books on Burton come close to this one.

I'd recommend this book to anyone.
It is a great analysis of each of Tim Burton's movies. It is written clearly and has information which I haven't read in any other Burton book.
I'm not just becoming a Burton fan, I have every other book on Tim Burton and I believe this one to be the best and most informative.

The book may not have the authors comments, but it is written in so much detail about each Burton movie that it doesn't matter.
If you want to find out more about Burton then this is the book you should get.
The book also includes quotes from people who have worked with Burton and from the man himself.
The length of this book proves that much time and effort went in to write this, and I think it was worth it.
I have found out some new things about some of his movies from reading this book.

So in my opinion I think this book is really worth buying!

As a hardcore, die-hard Tim Burton fan I was very excited to get my hands on this book and start reading. The more I can learn about my favorite film maker -as an artist and person, the better. After reading Ken Hanke's unauthorized biography on Mr. Burton, I had learned so much about the man and his films. Hanke did an amazing job with the book.

When I picked up this book today, and saw that it also contained a foreword by Martin Landau, and an afterword by Rick Heinrichs, I really was excited. Also, after reading on a Tim Burton fan site that this book was the best auto-biography to have been published so far, I was expecting A LOT. Unfortunately, it did not live up to the hype.

Not that Smith and Matthews did not put any effort into the book -I believe they put a lazy effort in cause it just does not deliver. The book is divided into chapters on each Burton film, yet it does not go the traditional route. Each chapter is broken up into categories that the authors feel each Burton film contains: Tagline/Trailer, Title Sequence, Story, Source Material, References, Production, Casting, Burton Regulars, Critics, Music, Cinematography, Plot Problems, Death, Children and Families, Clowns and The Circus, Dogs, Love Triangles, Checks, Stripes, Dots, Autobiography, Just Plain Weird, Dialogue To Skip For/Skip Past, Afterlife, Awards, Expert Witness, Trivia, Analysis, Availability, The Bottom Line.

Are you bored yet? I certaintly was after the first few chapters. Not only did it feel like I was reading a 3rd grade book report -only on films, but every other sentence was a recycled Burton quote from past articles, or quotes from actors involved in the project. This would have been fine if mixed in with a great in-depth analysis of Burton and his films written in an intelligent and thought provoking manner with the authors' individual opinions and analysis (like Ken Hanke did). Not to say that Smith and Matthews are not intelligent writers, they just never display it in this book. They basically let the recycled quotes write the book for them -only occasionally throwing in some in depth analysis.
Yes, Hanke's book was full of Burton quotes from interviews as well, but it was mixed in with great information and analysis of the man and the films, and really got deep into what may or may not have been going on in the artist's life, etc. It had personality behind it -this book does not.

What also bothered me about this book is that there are a few typos -one that especially bothered me is the spelling of the late and great production designer Anton Furst's name. When first discussed, the authors introduce the designer as Anton FIRST, then in the next sentence call him by the correct spelling of FURST.

Also, most of the trivia -like all the information given in the book, is nothing new to the die-hard Burton fans. For example -if they really wanted to impress me they would have talked about the scene in "Batman" where Bruce Wayne is watching The Joker and his henchmen cause chaos in front of City Hall. After The Joker does his "The Pen is truly mightier than the sword" speech and stabs an official with his pen, gun fire takes place. There is a shot of Bruce Wayne walking closer and closer to The Joker and Wayne is hit with a bullet. You see in the frame the bullet-hole appear on Wayne's coat, yet he is not affected and continues walking. This has always bothered/confused me in the film but Smith and Matthews don't even address it even though they have a category for Triva and Plot Problems. This would have been a perfect place to talk about it.

One thing I like about this book is the availability category - that basically vents out at the studios for not putting out special edition DVDs for certain Burton films. Maybe it will wake some of these studios up and make them realize there is a hunger out there for extra features and commentary on many of these Burton classics. Touchstone finally realized it and will finally release the brilliant "Ed Wood" on DVD (with features) in August. Hopefully something good will come out of this book and getting Special Edition DVDs released of Burton films will be it.

Though I believe this book is a total waste of time for a die-hard Burton fan, it is not a total waste if is picked up by someone who is just starting to get into Burton and his films. To me this is like the cliff notes to Ken Hanke's book. This is for someone who has seen every Burton film yet does not know much about the man behind the camera and is slowly becoming a fan or simply wants to know a little bit more about the filmmaker. It will give you a BRIEF glimpse of the man and his art, but will not go into DEEP detail.

So in conclusion, as a die-hard Burton fan I was very disappointed with this read. To me Hanke's book, besides "Burton on Burton" of course, is the best book to read if you really want to dig deep into the mind of Burton and analyze the deeper meanings in his films. So if you're a die-hard like me, don't bother -you won't learn anything new about the man. Just read Hanke's book again, and listen to all of Burton's commentaries on the DVDs -they'll give you more insight into Burton's work and life than this book will.

after reading this, after the anticipation of burton's feelings towards the mudane working world, you will realize that what burton has done on film only shows you half of the complexity of his genius.

I liked this book overall, and it was interesting to see the changes and deletions between te script and the finished film. The big problem I had was the omission of the ending scene in the screenplay, it just seems like a cop out to protect a secret that was already out at the time of the book's release A WEEK AFTER THE MOVIE CAME OUT. I wanted this book in hardback but for somereason it never came available, and I ended up settling for the paperback version. I have a feeling the Cinefex magazine covering Planet of the Apes will be much more informative for a lot less money.

The copy of this book I have does NOT have the surprise ending that is in the film. I won't spoil the ending, but neither will this screenplay....

This has everything to do with the recent movie and nothing to do with the real book. The real book had messages that were really lost in the recent film, it was close to a modern day Gulliver's Travels, raising questions about how we treat animals, our science and our society.

This will no doubt be fairly close to the recent film, which is okay hokum. Excepting the massive holes in the plot of the recent movie... How did horses arrive on the planet? Where were the non-chimps on the station etc?

This book was written for kids who enjoyed the remake of Planet of the Apes. Grown-ups will probably not enjoy it but it was not intended for grown-ups. The book is a nice effort for the kids. The mediocre script for the movie did not leave the author of the book with much to work with. It is nice to see that a new generation of Apes has begun and I welcome the effort of the author.

This is a beautifull book about the 2001 version of Planet of the Apes directed by Tim Burton.

It is varied, with lots articles on many aspects of the film and richly illustrated througout with incredible film and "behind the camera" images. Additionally you will find the complete screenplay with related photos. All those elements combined make it an excpetional piece of film memorabilia.

Overall, this book does a great service to a movie that continues the great myth of "Planet of the Apes".

I really wish this book had ummm....color. Not that the black and white doesn't truly reflect the mood or atmosphere Burton tries to evoke. It is quite apprpriate, but I wanted to see...I don't know...more.

The book did arrive in a timely manner and I leave kudos to the seller...but still.

Although this book has excellent pictures in black and white and gives some good information, many of the storylines in the descriptions of the movie ARE NOT TRUE. For example, I quote, "In response to the hypothetical question of what one should do upon finding someone's wallet, Edward suggests giving money to friends. LATER ON, Edward is caught by the police taking part in a break-in..." Anyone who has seen this movie knows that Edward breaks into Jim's house BEFORE Mr. Boggs gives him the pep talk on right and wrong. Even the movies are presented in the wrong order. They present Batman Returns before Batman. Many other mistakes are made. If you are a huge fan of Tim Burton like I am, I suggest reading Tim Burton(Virgin Film) by Jim Smith and J Clive Matthews. That one gives much more and quite better im formation on the best director (in my opinion) EVER!!!

The figure is aesthetically pleasing and looks great but is extremely fragile. His legs are way too skinny and he has a harder time standing up than Paris Hilton after getting drunk and gangbanged by everyone at the party.
It was SOO FRUSTRATING i moved his leg just a little to try n get him to stay still but he's worse than a kid with ADHD whos all hopped up on coke. AND FRAGILE TOO! i just gently moved his leg and it broke tha ball joint and everything it just broke off. It's so cheap
just know that u have to be extremely cautious with this figure