Timothy Walter “Tim” Burton was born in Burbank, California on August 25, 1958.¹⁾

He is the son of Jean Burton, a cat-themed gift store owner, and Bill Burton, a former minor league baseball player who eventually worked for the Burbank Park and Recreation Department.²⁾

Burton used to produce short films in his backyard on Evergreen Street as a teen, utilizing basic stop motion animation techniques or shooting them on 8 mm film without sound. One of his oldest known juvenile films is The Island of Doctor Agor.³⁾

Burton attended Burbank High School, although he was not a particularly bright student.⁴⁾

He was a highly contemplative guy who enjoyed painting, sketching, and watching movies.⁵⁾

His subsequent work would be significantly influenced by Dr. Seuss and Roald Dahl, two of his boyhood heroes.⁶⁾

Burton attended the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California, after graduating from Burbank High School alongside Jeff Riekenberg.⁷⁾

Burton created the short films Stalk of the Celery Monster and King and Octopus while studying at CalArts. The animation section of Walt Disney Productions took notice of Stalk of the Celery Monster and offered Burton an animator's apprenticeship at the company.⁸⁾

He worked on films such as The Fox and the Hound (1981), The Black Cauldron, and Tron as an animator, storyboard artist, and concept artist. His concept work was never used in the completed films.⁹⁾

In 1982, while working at Disney, Burton created his debut short film, Vincent, a six-minute black-and-white stop motion picture based on a poem written by the filmmaker and featuring a young kid who fantasizes about being his hero Vincent Price, with Price himself narrating.¹⁰⁾

This was followed by Burton's first live-action film, Hansel and Gretel, a Japanese-themed rendition of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale that culminates in a kung fu battle between Hansel and Gretel and the witch.¹¹⁾

Frankenweenie, Burton's next live-action short, was released in 1984. It relates the story of a little kid who attempts to resuscitate his dog after it is hit by a vehicle.¹²⁾

Following the completion of Frankenweenie, Disney dismissed Burton on the grounds that he was wasting the company's money creating a picture that would be too dark and terrifying for children to watch.¹³⁾

Griffin Dunne invited him to direct the black comedy film After Hours in pursuit of an opportunity to make a full-length picture. Following the cancellation of Martin Scorsese's film The Last Temptation of Christ, Scorsese expressed interest in directing After Hours. Burton exited with dignity.¹⁴⁾

Soon after, actor Paul Reubens saw Vincent and Frankenweenie and picked Burton to make a film based on his popular character Pee-wee Herman.¹⁵⁾