Tim Burton’s 10 Best Movie Sets

If there’s one thing Tim Burton is known for, it’s the incredible set design of his creative movies. The visionary director Time Burton has a trademark visual style, one that’s managed to shine through in the settings of his varied and often fantastical stories. Though there are many sets worthy of admiration in Tim Burton’s filmography, a select few stand out as particularly eye-popping.

First and foremost, Burton’s ability to filter any location through his unique art style is quite impressive, whether its on the set of a live-action movie or the intricate stage of a stop-motion picture. It’s also remarkable how well Burton is able to delicately craft his dizzying worlds with strikingly little CGI, relying on mostly practical effects to sell the fantasy of his various worlds. While he might populate them with the same dozen recurring actors that collaborate with Burton, his sets are always wonderfully unique.

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10 The Neitherworld

Beetlejuice

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Tim Burton is best known for combining the macabre with the whimsical, and few films represent this unique combination through their set design better than Beetlejuice. While the human domicile the majority of the drama takes place in is a decent-enough looking set, it’s surely the harrowing Neitherworld that takes the cake for the most bombastic scenery in the film.

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A sort of paralyzing limbo in which the souls of the dead await their fate as horrific corpses, the Neitherworld is a twisted, exagerrated version of a typical office. While ghoulish sights like flattened car crash victims being hauled along rails in the ceiling are commonplace, what makes the Neitherworld so terrifying is its choking bureaucracy.

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PG

Director Tim Burton Release Date March 30, 1988 Cast Catherine O’Hara , Michael Keaton , Geena Davis , Alec Baldwin , Winona Ryder , Jeffrey Jones Runtime 92 minutes

Gray rows of desks, jagged waiting rooms, and ghastly stacks of paper fill every crevice of this undead sorting station, intersecting with the cave-like pillars of stone and stalactites dripping from the ceiling. Combining a classic underworld with a disturbing office setting, the Neitherworld is easily one of Burton’s most creative sets, returning to theaters with the release of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

9 The Land Of The Dead

Corpse Bride

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Always fascinated with the visual cues of death and decay, it’s no wonder Burton returned to the concept of Neitherworld in the stop-motion animation masterpiece Corpse Bride. An overlooked entry in Burton’s impressive career, the film revolves around a young groom who accidentally marries a corpse rather than his arranged intended.

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PG

Director Mike Johnson , Tim Burton Release Date September 23, 2005 Writers John August , Caroline Thompson , Pamela Pettler Cast Johnny Depp , Helena Bonham Carter , Emily Watson , Tracey Ullman , Paul Whitehouse , Joanna Lumley , Albert Finney , Richard E. Grant , Christopher Lee Runtime 77 Minutes

The majority of the film takes place in a similar dimension inhabited by walking corpses, known here as the Land of the Dead. Compared to the dour, monochromatic visuals of the living world, the Land of the Dead is, ironically, quite a lively place.

It’s hard not to mourn the loss of the Land of the Dead’s sheer eye candy.

Though statues of skeletal horses and walking severed heads fill the land’s streets, it’s full of vibrant, sickly colors that give the macabre location a fun, party-like energy. Even if the heroic Victor ends up returning to his rightful place in the Land of the Living, it’s hard not to mourn the loss of the Land of the Dead’s sheer eye candy.

8 Gotham City

Batman

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Still considered to be one of the best live-action Batman movies, Tim Burton’s 1989 classic still holds up today. This is thanks in large part to the director’s visionary take on Gotham City, the archetypal hometown of the Caped Crusader. While the entirety of the film admittedly takes place in Gotham, it’s the dark alleyways, seedy streets, and misty-covered back roads of Gotham that make up Batman‘s most striking shots.

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PG-13

Director Tim Burton Release Date June 23, 1989 Cast Michael Keaton , Jack Nicholson , Kim Basinger , Billy Dee Williams , Robert Wuhl , Pat Hingle , Michael Gough Runtime 126 Minutes

With dark, towering buildings that look more like the cathedrals of antiquity than modern skyscrapers, grotesque gargoyles leering off of every rooftop, and shrouds of fog blanketing the most crime-ridden streets, Burton’s vision of Gotham instantly shaped the visual language for decades of Batman stories to come. The film took close care to craft a unique skyline for the fictional city, which helped distinguish Gotham from being a thin analog of any real-world megalopolis. Thanks to Burton, one of the most iconic places in DC Comics is also the best visually-defined.

7 The Spiral Hill

The Nightmare Before Christmas

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In truth, every square inch of The Nightmare Before Christmas‘s miniaturized stop-motion set reflects on the strength of Tim Burton’s artistic vision. But it’s rare for a single location in a film to almost be more instantly recognizable than its characters. Somehow, the Spiral Hill in The Nightmare Before Christmas manages this feat, being plastered front-and-center on the film’s poster upon release alongside an avalanche of merchandise in the modern day.

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PG

Director Henry Selick Release Date October 29, 1993 Cast Catherine O’Hara , Glenn Shadix , Ken Page , William Hickey , Chris Sarandon , Paul Reubens , Danny Elfman Runtime 76 minutes

The scene in which Jack strides down the unfurling curl of the hill while singing against the backdrop of the full moon is perhaps the film’s single most striking shot. The landmark is returned to yet again with Sally in tow, now frozen over with icicles hanging off of its iconic spiral. Perhaps the single most important setpiece of Burton’s career, it’s hard to understate the arresting beauty with which Burton was able to execute such as seemingly simple concept.

6 Gotham City In Winter

Batman Returns

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It says something that Tim Burton’s most iconic movie location is used in not just one, but two of his most famous films. Going into Batman Returns, Burton was allowed to inject much more of his personal flair and trademark gloomy sensibilities into the sequel compared to 1989’s Batman. This is reflected in the new depiction of Gotham City, which manages to feel quite visually distinct from the previous film.

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For one, Batman Returns takes place during the winter holiday season, burying every surface of the gothic mega-city beneath a muffling layer of snow. The added darkness and isolation of this film’s version of Gotham reflects on Batman’s own character arc in the film, as he struggles to fight off the inherent darkness inside. On the flip side, the merry pixie lights and Christmas trees that line the bustling city centers help break up the monotony, keeping this movie incarnation of Gotham City rich and textured.

5 Tinsmith Circle

Edward Scissorhands

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Another one of Burton’s most thoughtfully-assembled series of sets, Edward Scissorhands is an impressive art department achievement. From the lonely castle on the hill which Edward hails from to the gauche pastels of the city center, the film is full of memorable stages upon which the awkward homunculus can continue his journey into humanity. That being said, the most impressive of all of them is the simple Tinsmith Circle, a cul-de-sac of cookie-cutter houses Edward spends the majority of his time in.

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PG-13

Director Tim Burton Release Date December 14, 1990 Cast Vincent Price , Dianne Wiest , Anthony Michael Hall , Johnny Depp , Winona Ryder , Kathy Baker Runtime 105 minutes

Constructed upon the grounds of the real street in Florida, the stifling suburb is a shocking outlier in Burton’s filmography. That doesn’t make it any less impressive, as the glaring tacky colors of each house and the perfectly-manicured lawns come together to form a liminal representation of American suburbia, baking under the Florida sun. It says something that Burton is able to make such a comfortable environment feel more hostile than an abandoned castle.

4 The Chocolate Room

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

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Like most Tim Burton films, the remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is full of wonderful sets, and it can be hard to pick a single standout location from such a fantastical journey of the sense. That being said, the film has a clear winner in Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Room, a wing of the factory dedicated to the flow and transport of his river of liquid chocolate. The title of “Chocolate Room” may be a bit of a misnomer, as most of what makes the room so interesting is its other candy offerings.

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PG

Director Tim Burton Release Date July 15, 2005 Cast Johnny Depp , Freddie Highmore , David Kelly , Helena Bonham Carter , Noah Taylor , Missi Pyle , James Fox , Deep Roy , Christopher Lee Runtime 115 minutes

From edible grass to chocolate dirt and seemingly organic growths of candied plants and trees, Wonka declares everything in the room to be edible (even himself). With how believably each surface is coated in a thin sheen of sugary textures, it’s hard not to believe him, as the features of the Chocolate Room look just as delicious as the rampaging children declare them to be. Like the rest of the film, though, the place does have a sinister air just outside the boundaries of the sweet candy friendliness, with drab factor walls, dingy overhead lighting, and dangerous torrents of flowing chocolate.

3 Fleet Street

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street

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Choosing the best location of Burton’s take on a classic stage play is simple enough, considering the winner is right there in the title. The movie describes the heinous crimes of the so-called demon barber, Sweeney Todd, and his accomplice, Mrs. Lovett, in musical form. Matching the dour tone is the leering set design of Fleet Street itself, a dark reflection of the crimes that are comitted there.

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R

Director Tim Burton Release Date December 20, 2007 Cast Johnny Depp , Helena Bonham Carter , Sacha Baron Cohen , Alan Rickman , Timothy Spall , Jamie Campbell Bower , Ed Sanders , Jayne Wisener Runtime 116 Minutes

Both inside and out of Todd’s infamous barber shop, the eponymous street is at once lively and drained of color. The starkly empty and uneven rooms of the barbershop homage the film’s origin on the stage, looking like the set of a play hastily wheeled out in between scenes. Yet this sense of fakeness doesn’t take away from the story, but rather, enhances it as a sort of grim folk tale, mythologizing Todd and Lovett into devious urban legends with a hazy environment to match.

2 The Tree Of The Dead

Sleepy Hollow

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A clear homage to the great Hammer horror films of old, Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow is one of his goriest and most macabre films to-date. Fittingly enough, it benefits from a carefully-crafted sense of set design that enhances the chilling tale with its haunted house aesthetic, not exactly realistic but none the more comforting for it. By far the best realized location in the film is the sinister Tree of the Dead, the supposed final resting spot of the film’s villain, the Headless Horseman.

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TV-14

Director Tim Burton Release Date November 19, 1999 Cast Johnny Depp , Christina Ricci , Miranda Richardson , Michael Gambon , Casper Van Dien , Jeffrey Jones Runtime 106 Minutes

The entirety of the Western Woods outside of upstate New York’s Sleepy Hollow are quite sinister, with each spindly, leafless branch spiderwebbing into the gray sky like evil veins. But the Tree of the Dead is the true show-stopper, unnaturally twisting in on itself to let Ichabod and company know that whatever they are seeking is an unnatural blight on the land. The fact that the tree’s top is missing reflects the Headless Horseman’s own condition is a nice touch, as well.

1 The Alien Landing Site

Mars Attacks!

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Mars Attacks! isn’t exactly the highest-regarded of Tim Burton’s myriad works, but deserves more credit for crafting an endearing pastiche of 50s science fiction. Though the film does have a few spots of uneven early CGI, for the most part, the practical sets look just as good as the rest of Burton’s work, only with the added benefit of eye-popping colors compared to his usual desaturated tastes. The best scene to feast the eyes on is easily the martians’ initial landing, taking place in the desert just outside Pahrump, Nevada.

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PG-13

Director Tim Burton Cast Jack Nicholson , Pierce Brosnan , Sarah Jessica Parker , Annette Bening , Glenn Close , Danny DeVito , Martin Short , Michael J. Fox , Natalie Portman Runtime 106 Minutes

Every solitary hue of the Earth’s botched welcoming committee is tailored to perfection, from the olive drab green of the army equipment to the brilliant orange hues of the arid Nevada landscape. The gunmetal gray of the aliens’ daunting craft sits in cold defiance against the colorful bleachers and rows of hippies waiting to welcome the extraterrestrial invaders, as well. Though it isn’t one of Tim Burton’s most appreciated scene, the detail of the set is proven by the impressive tracking shot of Jack Black’s soldier character flailing through the chaos.

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