<P> Burton has worked repeatedly with actor Johnny Depp and with musician Danny Elfman, who has composed scores for all but three of the films Burton has directed . Actress Helena Bonham Carter, Burton's former domestic partner, has appeared in many of his films . He wrote and illustrated the poetry book The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories, published in 1997 by Faber and Faber, and a compilation of his drawings, sketches and other artwork, entitled The Art of Tim Burton, was released in 2009 . A follow - up to The Art of Tim Burton, entitled The Napkin Art of Tim Burton: Things You Think About in a Bar, containing sketches made by Burton in napkins at bars and restaurants he occasionally visits, was released in 2015 . Both compilations were published by Steeles Publishing . </P> <P> Burton was born in 1958, in Burbank, California, the son of Jean Burton (née Erickson), later the owner of a cat - themed gift shop, and William "Bill" Burton, a former minor league baseball player who was working for the Burbank Parks and Recreation Department . As a preteen, Burton would make short films in his backyard on Evergreen Street using crude stop motion animation techniques or shoot them on 8 mm film without sound (one of his oldest known juvenile films is The Island of Doctor Agor, which he made when he was 13 years old). Burton attended Providencia Elementary School in Burbank . Burton went to Burbank High School, but he was not a particularly good student . He played on the water polo team at Burbank High . Burton was an introspective person and found pleasure in painting, drawing and watching movies . His future work would be heavily influenced by the works of such childhood heroes as Dr. Seuss and Roald Dahl . After graduating from Burbank High School, Burton attended the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California, to study character animation . As a student at CalArts, Burton made the shorts Stalk of the Celery Monster and King and Octopus . </P> <P> Stalk of the Celery Monster attracted the attention of Walt Disney Productions' animation division, which offered Burton an animator's apprenticeship at the studio . He worked as an animator, storyboard artist and concept artist on films such as The Fox and the Hound (1981), The Black Cauldron (1985) and Tron (1982). His concept art never made it into the finished films . </P> <P> While at Disney in 1982, Burton made his first short, Vincent, a six - minute black - and - white stop motion film based on a poem written by the filmmaker, and depicting a young boy who fantasizes that he is his hero Vincent Price, with Price himself providing narration . The film was produced by Rick Heinrichs, whom Burton had befriended while working in the concept art department at Disney . The film was shown at the Chicago Film Festival and released, alongside the teen drama Tex, for two weeks in one Los Angeles cinema . This was followed by Burton's first live - action production Hansel and Gretel, a Japanese - themed adaptation of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale for the Disney Channel, which climaxes in a kung fu fight between Hansel and Gretel and the witch . Having aired once in 1983 at 10: 30 pm on Halloween and promptly shelved, prints of the film are extremely difficult to locate, fueling rumors that the project did not exist . The short would finally go on public display in 2009 at the Museum of Modern Art, and again in 2011 as part of the Tim Burton art exhibit at LACMA . It was again shown at the Seoul Museum of Art in 2012 . </P>

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