Viewers call out Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas for being ‘racist.’
Burton is a filmmaker renowned for introducing the gothic aesthetics into mainstream cinema.
His work is instantly recognizable, captivating fans with its imaginative and distinctive visual style.
The director’s dark fantasy works, including Beetlejuice, Corpse Bride, and his acclaimed Netflix series Wednesday, have earned him a devoted cult following.
The 67-year-old filmmaker consistently explores themes of outsiders and the beauty found in the bizarre, though his work has not been without its critics.
Burton has faced several controversies throughout his career, linked to issues of representation, casting, and creative choices.
Across both his live-action and animated films, the director maintains a distinctive aesthetic described as ‘Burtonesque.‘
His characters are often depicted with ghostly pale skin and sunken features, leaving many viewers unrepresented in Burton’s work.
Despite the success of the director’s live-action Netflix series Wednesday, many critics were quick to call out Burton.
In the first season, only two Black actors appear: Joy Sunday as Bianca Barclay and Iman Marson as Lucas Walker.
Many viewers criticized the series for casting its two Black characters as bullies, reinforcing negative stereotypes.
According to Bustle, the first time a Black actor was cast in a lead role in a Burton film was in 2016’s Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, where Hollywood star Samuel L. Jackson portrayed the villain Barron.
When questioned about the lack of diversity in this particular movie, Jackson told Bustle: “I had to go back in my head and go, how many Black characters have been in Tim Burton movies?
“And I may have been the first, I don’t know, or the most prominent in that particular way, but it happens the way it happens.
“I don’t think it’s any fault of his or his method of storytelling, it’s just how it’s played out. Tim’s a really great guy.”
Burton’s highly anticipated Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, hit the big screen last year.
The sequel had a highly successful opening, grossing $111 million in its first weekend in the United States and Canada, as per Box Office Mojo.
Despite this, the director of Edward Scissorhands found himself under renewed scrutiny for accusations of racism.
One sequence of the film sparked an array of backlash, with one person writing on social media: “While I was watching the movie, my thoughts were ‘He finally hired a lot of Black actors, but why only for this segment of the movie?’”
The Beetlejuice Beetlejuice scene in question shows Astrid Deetz (Jenna Ortega) riding the ‘Soul Train’ on her way to the Great Beyond.
While it seems playful, it references the TV show Soul Train, which debuted in 1970 and celebrated Black culture through music, dance, and style.
The show provided a platform for Black Americans to see themselves represented during the Civil Rights and Black Power eras.
However, given Burton’s history of limited representation in his work, some viewers see this sequence as disingenuous.
As audiences revisit the director’s older work, some of the allegations of racism have resurfaced.
One of the earliest critiques of Burton’s use of racial tropes comes from his 1993 movie The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Although directed by Henry Selick, the film was conceived and produced by Tim Burton.
Caroline Thompson, the screenwriter of The Nightmare Before Christmas and several other Burton films, has since addressed the ongoing debate surrounding the cult classic.
Appearing on the film podcast Script Apart, she claims disagreements unfolded regarding the movie’s villain, Oogie Boogie, being voiced by Black actor and singer Ken Page.
In the stop-motion movie, Oogie Boogie is depicted as a villainous, bug-filled burlap sack with a gambling addiction. He represents fear, chaos, and the darker side of Halloween.
On the podcast, Thompson said: “Oogie Boogie is a derogatory term for African Americans in the American South. I begged the powers that be to change something about that character because of that.
“I said: this is so ugly and dangerous and antithetical to everything inside me. I did not win that fight… It was a troubling part of the film for me, to be frank.”
Thompson says she urged Burton to ‘reconsider’ the character’s name, noting, “It’s a fun part of the story as executed, but also a troubling one.”
The Nightmare Before Christmas director Selick explained to The Daily Beast that the character was inspired by the Betty Boop cartoon The Old Man of the Mountain and that he never considered it could be seen as racist.
In an interview with Bustle, Burton faced criticism for his tone-deaf response to the lack of representation and the perpetuation of harmful stereotypes in his work.
When asked about the lack of diversity in his films, the director said: “Nowadays, people are talking about it more,” adding, “Things either call for things, or they don’t.”
He continued: “I remember back when I was a child watching The Brady Bunch, and they started to get all politically correct. Like, okay, let’s have an Asian child and a Black.
“I used to get more offended by that than just… I grew up watching blaxploitation movies, right? And I said, ‘That’s great.’ I didn’t go like, ‘Okay, there should be more white people in these movies.’”
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