Tim Burton almost stopped directing after this failed Disney film
While we sometimes feel like some of the biggest names in Hollywood can get whatever they want, the reality is not that simple. During an interview with Variety, world-renowned filmmaker Tim Burton revealed that he experienced one of his lowest moments after directing one of Disney’s most important titles.
Burton stated during the interview that the experience of adapting Dumbo into a live-action version was disappointing, and that he even considered ending his career as a director. Dumbo Therefore, it was not a huge success and received mixed reviews.
Adapting classics
It stars Colin Farrell, Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito, Eva Green and Alan Arkin. Dumbowhich tells the story of a family who works for a bankrupt traveling circus and encounters a baby elephant with extremely large ears that can fly.
The film came at a time when Disney was adapting several of its own animated classics, but unlike other titles like Beauty and the beast in The Lion Kingwas successful Dumbo failed to impress at the box office with a gross of just over $350 million.
thin paper
It was a decent grosser, but much lower than Burton’s previous Disney film, Alice in Wonderland, which topped the charts with over a billion dollars. Furthermore, I knew Dumbo It also failed to impress critics: the film earned a score of 46% on Rotten Tomatoes and his story became “thin paper” named.
It is no coincidence that Burton spent the next five years without directing anything – one of the longest periods in his cinematic history – and that the sequel to beetle juicealong with the hit series Wednesday on Netflix, were the projects that motivated him to get behind the camera again.Retired
Burton stated: “To be honest, after Dumbo I didn’t really know anymore. I thought this could have been it, really. I could have retired, or well, I never would have been an animator again, that’s over.”
“But Beetlejuice Beetlejuice has given me energy again”continuous. “A lot of times when you get into Hollywood, you try to be responsible for what you do with the budget and everything, but sometimes you get a little lost. This reinforced for me the feeling that it is important to do what I want. do it, because then everyone will benefit.”
Creative health camp
Burton also told Variety that working on Wednesday him again “covenant” with doing things, and that going to Romania to film the series felt like a “creative health camp”.
At that moment he realized that he wanted to return to the beetle juiceworld and wanted to know what happened to the Deetz family. In Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the director and writer was particularly excited to revisit Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) and explore what happens. “When you go from being a cool teenager to an adult.”
A terribly large circus
Burton had a bad experience making Dumbowhich he later confirmed would be his last film with Disney. He called Disney one “great terrible circus”. Want Dumbo Do you want to see it? You can see the movie at Disney+.