Tim Burton and Danny Elfman

Tim Burton is a director who is more identifiable for his visual effects than aural ones in his movies. However, it is the music and sounds in his films have become more and more well known as they shape and reflect the general creepiness and darkness of what we see. Danny Elfman, a talented composer, has worked in close relation with Tim Burton on the vast majority of his films. He has scored all of his films except for 'Cabin Boy', 'James and the Giant Peach' and 'Ed Wood' (scored by Howard Shore). Danny Elfman also starred in Tim Burton's 'A Nightmare Before Christmas', which he also wrote the music for, as Jack Skellington, the singing Skeletons in 'Corpse Bride' and was also the voice of the Ompa Loopas in 'Charlie in the Chocolate Factory'. It's needless to say that Tim Burton and Danny Elfman go hand in hand.

The begining of there relationship started with Burton's first feature length film, 'Pee-Wee's Big Adventure'. This project marked the start of a long partnership when Elfman's music successfully and cleverly captured the spirit of Paul Reubens' Pee-Wee Herman character. The music he wrote for the film alos added certain dementions to the film that Burton couldn't hope to achieve with other composers. We note Burton's appreciation of the music in his comentary on the DVD set, “We didn’t have money for a big credits sequence, so we had to try to set the tone as best we could right from the beginning so music certainly helps with that.”

Burton therefore decided to continue to use Elfman's music and the haunting melodies and orchestrations became a trademark for his films. For example in 'Edward Sisssorhands' in the opening sequence, the eeire voices and music are something I closely relate with the dark, gothic visuals. Their partnership is what has made many Tim Burton films so successful!