"It came at a strange moment in Disney's history": When Tim Burton opened up about his first film and early days

Tim Burton is considered one of the most prominent directors of the current time, because of his incredible style and substance. From Beetlejuice to Batman, Tim Burton has almost spread his style across various genres in Hollywood, both in animated and live-action. There is a sequel to Beetlejuice coming soon with the SAG-AFTRA strike the only thing in the way now.

Such remarkable achievements actually started from quite a humble background and a humble need to tell stories. Tim Burton started working as an animator at the Disney studios soon after he left college in California. He was in his early 20s then. There, he first visualized Frankenweenie, a film about a young boy trying to revive his dead dog. Of course, this did not immediately fit into Disney's vision back then.

Speaking to the Guardian in a throwback interview, Burton recalled:

"Frankenweenie means a lot to me....The thing about it was, first time around in the early 1980s, it came at a strange moment in Disney's history. They didn't know what they were doing really at the time. There was a whole group of really talented people not being allowed to do very much," Burton added.

He went on to say:

"It was a bit Shakespearean as these older guys from Snow White days were clinging on to power. I wasn't a very good animator, at least not in their tradition, so I had the opportunity to be left on my own for a year or two in a room and just draw," the director noted

He then elaborated on how he ended up getting his first big gig and how he never had to look back.

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"It was amazing to be 21 and paid to be drawing all day"- Tim Burton on his early days at Disney

Tim Burton's rise to eventual stardom is a well-known fact among Hollywood enthusiasts. However, it all started when the director was living in the Los Angeles suburb of Burbank, pretty close to Disney's LA studio, watching films and envisioning things he could do with the medium.

Burton recalled the road to success being quite long as it was and added:

"It was amazing to be 21 and paid to be drawing all day, but then after a couple of years I got the feeling I wouldn't go anywhere. Eventually they gave me a little bit of money to do that stop-motion film Vincent [based on his own infatution with the films of Vincent Price] and after that I did something with Frankenweenie…"

However, it did not lead to anything productive immediately, with Disney's higher-ups convinced that it would not cater to children. At this point, Burton thought he had hit a wall. He added:

"After a couple of years I felt like Rapunzel trapped in the tower and nothing I did ever saw the light of day"

However, this would also have a positive outcome, as Burton recalled:

"But some people at Warner Bros saw the short Vincent and that was how I got to do Pee-wee's Big Adventure."

This would be the point that would turn his career around, with only good things to follow from there on.

Burton went on to become one of the most revered names in the business over the next decades.

Tim Burton will return soon with Beetlejuice 2.