A Burtonesque Band...

A few weeks ago, I attended the Tim Burton exhibition at the Design Museum.

I have been a fan of Burton's work for some time, with 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' being one of my favourite films. I love his slightly twisted humour, complex characters and of course, the Burtonesque style.

One thing that stood out for me, was the development from circus and clown drawings, to the classic Burtonesque style we know and love today - and more so how this has been ingrained in modern culture, along with the likes of Disney.

Burton is known for his dark, stop motion animations, and although he did work for Disney, I feel runs in parallel. Both Disney and Burton were/are pioneers of their crafts and have integrated themselves into culture through their own unique styles and story-telling methods.

Considering Burton's usual film work, I found it interesting how one of his cultural integrations is through the world of music. The Killers and Burton both had a nostalgic, romanticised vision of Vegas, which is clear throughout the video Burton directed for 'Bones'. Laced in nostalgia, the video is perfectly imperfect, with The Killers even noting how certain elements had been left in that would have been removed by any other director (such as sunglasses falling down the face of the singer). A lot of the vision came from the Neon Boneyard: essentially a graveyard for neon signs and landmarks from Vegas that has become a museum. The video explores deceased elements that still have life, brought into vision through his iconic stop-motion animation, and metaphorically using skeletons to show that ultimately it is not what we have, but who we are, much like the signs in the Neon Boneyard.

The video is here if you fancy a watch: https://youtu.be/FufL80hJsP8?feature=shared

Despite his work with The Killers, I can still see Burton being part of My Chemical Romance. Personally, I'd love to see a Tim Burton directed feature film of 'The Black Parade'...