"The Addams Family" by Tim Burton.

[Christopher]

I'm dubious as to what exactly Burton is bringing to the table here.

Well, stop motion, for one thing. Burton started out as an animator, and The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride are certainly two of his most successful films (with the caveat the TNBC was produced and co-written by Burton but directed by Henry Selick).

And maybe that's the most important thing. The Addams characters started out in cartoon form, but they've only ever been animated in some toned-down Saturday morning cartoons from Hanna Barbera. As successful as the Sonnenfeld films were, they were still live action. An animated Addams Family feature could be truer to Addams's aesthetic -- and could perhaps go more authentically dark than the live-action movies could, since things that would be too creepy from a live actor might be acceptable as dark humor from a stop-motion puppet. (For instance, nobody wants to see Christopher Lloyd acting like the sexual predator the cartoons' Fester was implied to be, so he was given a more amiable characterization.)

I don't follow why he's doing all this adapted work anyway. He's a tremendously original creator whose strongest work has always been of his own invention.

That's where the money is. The studios want to make movies based on well-known properties because there's a built-in audience and a good chance of profit, and they want to maximize their chances by putting those projects in the hands of proven filmmakers who come with their own built-in audiences. So if a studio buys the rights to a property that's macabre, offbeat, and cartoony, the first thing they're going to do is call up Tim Burton's agent and offer to send him a few more truckloads of money if he'll do the film for them. He does have his own projects in development, but he's in demand for other, higher-profile things, because that's what happens to successful directors.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

I heard on the radio that he's also doing a stop-motion movie based on his Frankenweenie short.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I'm sure you have your own list of artists whose style you'd like to see brought to 3D animation life.

Not really. If an artist's style is 2D line art, then that's the way to render it. 3D is a very different artistic style, and what works in 2D doesn't necessarily translate well.

Not necessarily, but it certainly could. The alternatives when it comes to CGI are photorealism-- which is fine-- and that generic CGI look. One of the great things about Monster House was that it had the feel of Norman Rockwell art come to life, and I think it would be interesting to see the same approach with other artists used as inspiration.

 

[Professor Zoom]

"Big Fish" was the last movie of his that I liked.

Agreed. I was pretty excited by Big Fish actually, Burton putting his tricks (or most of them) aside to tell a story that was mature.

But, then, probably due to it's lack of success, he goes right back into his box of tricks.

I saw Alice in Wonderland the other night and I LOATHED it.

I really should just stop watching his movies...