Ouch, Scott Tobias speaks the painful truth:

Somewhere in the sloping arc of Tim Burton’s career, what was once a sensibility slowly morphed into a brand. That distinctive gothic flair, freed from horror and animated by comedy in great films like Pee-wee’s Big Adventure and Beetlejuice, has not gone away, nor has his attraction to stories about imaginative outcasts misunderstood by the squares around them. But what’s gone missing in recent years—Sweeney Todd excepted, though Stephen Sondheim had a hand in that—is the spiky wit and purposefulness that used to accompany that unmistakable visual style. There’s no doubt that viewers still know that they’re watching a Tim Burton movie. The question now is why.

Well, the animated Frankenweenie should be arriving soon.

True story: we had a trailer for Frankenweenie before The Avengers. Unfortunately, the friends who went to the movie with us had had to put their dog to sleep that morning. I am not even kidding. Worst. Timing. EVER.

There’s no doubt that viewers still know that they’re watching a Tim Burton movie. The question now is why.

Because we're desperate fans who are hoping that the spark and wit will come back. It's a dysfunctional relationship.

But saying that Tim Burton has become a brand is spot-on. And I feel like I, personally, shouldn't bitch about it too much, because a lot of MY "personal brand" owes a debt to the Tim Burton brand. But it still hurts to think that the man who made Beetlejuice or Big Fish isn't really around anymore.

From Slate, a good review of Dark Shadows:

[link]

Dark Shadows (Warner Bros.) was probably a beneficiary of the low expectations I brought into it. Tim Burton adapts a late-'60s/early '70s TV soap about a melancholy vampire, with Johnny Depp in the lead: All the elements of that sound so drearily familiar, from vampires to TV-shows-turned-movies to Burton/Depp collaborations in camp-Gothic mode. And stretches of this movie do feel dreary: like Burton’s recent Alice in Wonderland, Dark Shadows puts too much faith in the power of lavish costumes and eye-popping set décor and Danny Elfman’s music, and too little in constructing a well-paced story. But there’s something there that elevates Burton’s Dark Shadows above the strained, plodding whimsy of his Alice: At least he and Depp, both avowed childhood fans of the original series, seem to be in their element and having a grand old time.

Yeah, I think the reviewer's low expectations helped....

ION of mixed emotions for me: MGM Plans to Adapt Ray Bradbury's From the Dust Returned. I am ... wary. Yes, that's the best way to put it. [link]

Burton would treat it like the fucked-up black comedy it is.

Twenty years ago, yes. Now?

Because we're desperate fans who are hoping that the spark and wit will come back. It's a dysfunctional relationship.

Yeah.

True story: we had a trailer for Frankenweenie before The Avengers. Unfortunately, the friends who went to the movie with us had had to put their dog to sleep that morning. I am not even kidding. Worst. Timing. EVER.

I was having such a good time before the Avengers. Then, the Frankenweenie preview came up and I spent the next 10 minutes quietly crying.

Thank goodness the movie was enough to pull me out of it.

Love Tim Burton...won't be seeing that.

I was having such a good time before the Avengers. Then, the Frankenweenie preview came up and I spent the next 10 minutes quietly crying.

Oh, honey. Yeah, our friends got suckerpunched by it. But then they also had to laugh bitterly. Because -- worst. timing. EVER.

I felt really bad for my companion. She was mortified over something she had no control over. It was so, incredibly awkward.

Still, as I say, I pulled out of it.

I feel even worse for your friends. Bless them.

I feel even worse for your friends. Bless them.

The extra shitty part is that that day was the husband's birthday. So, first thing in the morning of his birthday, he had to take his beloved dog to the vet to be put to sleep. Poor noodle.