The work of birthday boy Tim Burton

It's Tim Burton's 51st birthday today, and our blog Hero Complex looks back at his movies through video clips. In addition to cranking out some serious blockbusters ("Batman," "Planet of the Apes") Burton has crafted a unique vision that can swing from goofy ("Pee Wee's Playhouse," "Ed Wood") to spooky ("Sleepy Hollow"). He's uniquely combined goofy and spooky ("Edward Scissorhands," "Beetlejuice"). And there's likely to be more of that giddy-yet-unsettling combination in 2010's "Alice in Wonderland"; last fall, Burton talked to Hero Complex about his take on "Alice":

It's a funny project. The story is obviously a classic with iconic images and ideas and thoughts. But with all the movie versions, well, I've just never seen one that really had any impact to me. It's always just a series of weird events. Every character is strange and she's just kind of wandering through all of the encounters as just a sort of observer. The goal is to try to make it an engaging movie where you get some of the psychology and kind of bring a freshness but also keep the classic nature of "Alice." And, you know, getting to do it in 3-D fits the material quite well. So I'm excited about making it a new version  but also have the elements that people expect when they think of the material.

"Alice in Wonderland" will star Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter. So far, Depp and Burton have made seven films together -- even more than Burton has made with wife Helena Bonham-Carter -- and they're about to start on an eighth. That'll be a film version of the cult 1960s show "Dark Shadows," a gothic soap opera that aired on daytime TV and featured vampires, ghosts and a werewolf or two.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Johnny Depp and Tim Burton. Credit: Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times