Tim Burton Defamation
The worlds Tim Burton builds are void of color, and his casting is no exception.
By Natalie Williams
Tim Burton, the father of Gothic avant-garde film, is regarded as the blueprint for outcasts everywhere. With original storylines and adaptations of classics, the filmmaker is one of the most renowned of his generation. Growing up, I was obsessed with his classics, “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “Corpse Bride,” “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” and the like.
Upon the announcement of Netflix’s “Wednesday,” Burton fans anxiously awaited his first diverse piece of work. The casting of Jenna Ortega, a young Latina woman, seemed like a promise to fans that the director had grown beyond past controversies. Referencing the lack of diversity within his films, Burton was quoted saying, “Things either call for things, or they don’t.” Throughout the forty years Burton has been creating, Wednesday is the first of his works to feature a POC at the forefront. In “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” Ken Page, a talented Broadway actor, voiced Oogie Boogie. His 2016 adaptation of “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” featured Samuel L. Jackson as Barron. The problem? The only Black actors in both films were the primary antagonists.
If you thought Burton had learned from the backlash he’s received about his racial insensitivity, you’d be mistaken. “Wednesday” is no exception. Bianca, Nevermore Academy's resident mean girl, is also Black. With so few POC represented in Burton's work, audiences watch to see what stereotypes these characters fall prey to. Will Tim Burton ever stop demonizing people of color in an effort to uphold his incredibly white aesthetic?