Tim Burton

This Thursday (August 25) on SoundScape we will celebrate Tim Burton's birthday with some great soundtracks from variety of his films.

Tune in to Yarra Valley FM 99.1 from 9 pm or get it streamed live from the website.

Music (and songs) from 'The Nightmare Before Christmas', 'Corpse Bride', 'Alice in Wonderland', 'Edward Scissorhand', 'Batman' and 'Sweeny Todd'. 

Tim Burton was raised in Burbank, California. He spent most of his childhood as a recluse, drawing cartoons and watching old movies (he was especially fond of films with Vincent Price). Tim Burton's early film career was fuelled by almost unbelievable good luck, but it's his talent and originality that have kept him at the top of the Hollywood tree. 

Tim Burton began drawing at an early age, going on to attend the California Institute of the Arts, studying animation after being awarded a fellowship from Disney, for whom he went on to work. Although he found that the mainstream Disney films he worked on (The Fox and the Hound (1981)) were far removed from his own sensibility, Disney let him have the freedom to work on his own personal projects, the six-minute animated black-and-white Gothic Vincent Price tribute Vincent (1982), and the 27-minute live-action Frankenweenie (1984), which was judged unsuitable for children and never released. However, Paul Reubens (aka Pee-Wee Herman) saw it and decided that Burton, still only in his mid-twenties, would be the ideal person to direct his feature debut, Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985). 

An enormous (and surprise) box-office hit, it led to the supernatural comedy Beetlejuice (1988), which in turn led to Burton being entrusted with the reins on the hugely expensive Batman (1989). Although his least personal film, it was one of the most successful films of all time, and gave him unprecedented power in Hollywood considering the originality and adventurousness of his work thus far. 

Edward Scissorhands (1990), another hit, saw him at the peak of his creative powers and established a fruitful working relationship with actor Johnny Depp. Batman Returns (1992) was a far darker and quirkier film than the original, a reflection of how much creative freedom Burton had won (though Warner Bros were reputedly unhappy with the final result).

This week's Goon Show will be "Wings Over Dagenham" at 10 pm.