The Tim Burton Collection Review: Mostly Nice Picks, But Why No Blu-Ray?

In anticipation of Tim Burton's Dark Shadows coming to cinemas tomorrow, Warner Bros have released this eight film collection celebrating some of the director's finest moments on screen (as well as a couple of slightly less marvellous ingredients). The set includes Batman, Batman Returns, Beetlejuice, Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride, Mars Attacks! Pee Wee's Big Adventure and Sweeney Todd - as I say, it's the good and the not so good of Burton. Recent years have seen a supposed decline in the quality of Burton's work, with Alice In Wonderland attracting almost as much critical panning as it did box office dollars, but I will forever be a Burton apologist. He is a hugely imaginative artist - possessing some fine gothically-influenced ideas, which are occasionally let down by film-making restrictions and the inherent difficulty in translating outlandish ideas into something an audience will understand and respond to. His artwork book proves the pedigree of his ideas, and while he could be accused of lacking imagination in perpetually casting his wife Helena Bonham Carter and acting muse Johnny Depp in pretty much everything, the director cannot be accused of not sticking to his overall vision. Unfortunately with any idea, no matter how impressive it appears, it will be normalised through frequency and proximity, and deviation tends to be the only way to keep anything fresh for the most cynical of audiences - cinema goers. In this collection, and particularly in the Batman films, Corpse Bride and Beetlejuice we see the fruits of a positive relationship between Burton's idiosyncratic artistic manifesto and the film idea itself. But then in Charlie & The Chocolate Factory we see the problem of Burton's dedication to his own strong aesthetic and odd-ball tendencies: there are great moments, and the artistic design is wonderful, and typically Burton-esque, but by then the shtick was wearing slightly thin, and the lack of deviation opened that film up to a lot more criticism than many of his other previous films had received. The collection at least allows Burton fans to see how his distinct visual and artistic style translated across diverse projects and different formats, and for that reason it is definitely worth it for those fans. The fact that the usually forgotten Burton project Pee Wee's Big Adventure is in alongside Batman and Beetlejuice also makes it a draw. The other pressing thing to note about the collection, which will no doubt rank as a high concern for Burton fans, is the lack of certain of the director's key films, and while the decisions to leave out Henry Selick's The Nightmare Before Christmas and the less commercial Ed Wood are easily explainable, the one which saw Burton classic Edward Scissorhands - one of his finest moments - left out verges on the criminal. But then not all of Burton's 28 projects could make it and other fans might be just as miffed that none of Big Fish, Alice In Wonderland, Planet of the Apes or Sleepy Hollow were included. And of course, this is a Warner Bros release, and Edward Scissorhands was a Fox project, so it wasn't ever likely to be part of this boxset, no matter what it means to the fans. So, it's not exactly definitive, given the lack of Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood and Sleepy Hollow - but it is a good way to celebrate Burton's Warners films, and the inclusion of Pee Wee's Big Adventure helps to make up for the lack of those other classics. It's just a shame that the European market isn't set for a blu-ray version of this collection, which would have been far more appealing, especially to those like myself who only now buy DVDs when the blu-ray isn't available, or in the case of massively prestigious special edition boxsets. And while the boxset cover art is pretty enough, the severe lack of bonus material makes for a hard sell for anyone who already owns all of the titles included separately. The Tim Burton Collection is available to buy now. But who wants to pay when we have three copies to give away for free.