Join the Animated Conversation

We’re not just about kittens and rainbows here at 4mations. Sometimes we like to explore our dark side and voice a pet peeve or two.

In this first guest blog, Serge the Seal of Death tackles the rampant Burtonomania sweeping the nation…

“It’s dark. It’s edgy. It’s gothic. You know Tim Burton? It’s Burtoneseque. I love him. He’s so dark and edgy and gothic. And Burtonesque. You know?”

We know. Sitting in my gold plated tower in Dubai where I sometimes help decide the fate of projects submitted by starving animators I have quickly come to realize just how popular Mr Burton is and how many people want to be just like him, or even more so.

Tim is a massive influence and that means many of the film proposals we see now see feature white faced stop motion puppets with sad eyes and hair like floor mops dipped in ink. They do dark things in subverted fairy tales or act out bits of old monster movies, often innovatively shot in black and white.

There’s been so many now they’re practically their own genre and we’re thinking of holding a festival in a derelict fun fair in Burton-On-Trent. It would run for weeks, until the audience ran screaming into the streets, desperate for some old Care Bear episodes or a glimpse of Dangermouse.

Please stop it! I know it’s attractive. I like Tim Burton too. But Henry Selick already does him really well and the very last thing you can now call his style is edgy or dark. Too many people have seen it, done it and bought the stripy black and white T-shirt.

Don’t get me wrong. I love horror - and fear - and ‘The Cat With Hands’ - and ‘The Sandman’ - and the subversion of reality into disquietening new shapes which is a perfect subject for animation. But the very last place a truly dark and edgy film should lead an audience is along a well trodden path - and Tim’s path is now so well trodden it’s almost worn a crack in the Earth. Today being Burtonesque is about as scary and subversive as a small town Goth and your films will struggle to elicit a true emotional response from an audience because everything is so darn familiar.

So, once again, please stop it! If you want your film to be considered or commissioned or, best of all, have a genuine impact on a viewer then strive to shake off his influence and find a style of your own.

•    No more painfully thin puppets.
•    No more ghost trains and spirals and bogie men and skeletons.
•    And no more bloody black and white stripes!

All the truly dark and edgy and subversive films are still out there; lurking in the stories that only you can tell and pictures only you can see.

Just open your eyes, not Tim’s.

Next time; broken china dolls, rusty scissors and mournful cello music.

Serge the seal of death is a screenwriter with a great love of animation and a hatred of the fashion industry.

Sick of stripes? Love artfully dishevelled hairstyles? Chip in in the comments below.