Although Tim Burton has made plenty of successful movies and shows, one of his most underrated outings was a critical and commercial success that has seemingly been forgotten since its 2007 release. From Tim Burton’s Batman movies to his blockbuster live-action re-imagining of Alice in Wonderland for Disney, the director has an undeniable flair for quirky, gloomy, and macabre stories. However, not all of Burton’s efforts have won him mainstream acclaim.
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1996’s Mars Attacks was a financial flop that left many critics bemused, while 2019’s live-action Dumbo remake was considered uninspired as it lacked the director’s unique touch. In contrast, 2007’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street was both a critical and commercial success, but the Stephen Sondheim adaptation still doesn’t get brought up nearly enough in discussions of Burton’s oeuvre. A slasher movie that doubles as a musical, Sweeney Todd is a dark, ambitious, and often striking adaptation that overcomes some major struggles to become a memorable outing for Burton.
Sweeney Todd Is One Of Tim Burton’s Most Underrated Movies
Set in 1846 London, Sweeney Todd is based on Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s stage musical of the same name. A grim, morbid tale of revenge, Sweeney Todd centers on Johnny Depp’s Benjamin Barker. An innocent man, Barker is falsely convicted and sentenced to a decade and a half of penal servitude in Australia by Alan Rickman’s nefarious Judge Turpin. Turpin hopes to get Barker out of the picture so he can pursue Barker’s wife.
Sixteen years later, the story begins as Barker returns, now styling himself as the titular barber “Sweeney Todd.” In a dark, gripping tale of revenge, Todd uses his razor to cut a bloody swathe through Turpin and the rest of the corrupt public officials who wronged him while his love interest, Mrs. Lovett, disposes of his victims by cooking them into meat pies. Easily one of Burton’s darkest movies, Sweeney Todd manages the considerable feat of working as both a full-throated gory horror movie and a nearly entirely sung-through musical.
Sweeney Todd Isn’t A Perfect Broadway Adaptation
Where the movie does falter, as outlined by YouTube creator Lola Sebastian, is in its casting and the framing of Todd as a tragic antihero. However, for all its imperfections, Sweeney Todd still has a lot to recommend for Burton fans, from the committed performances of Rickman and Helena Bonham Carter to Jamie Campbell Bower’s scene-stealing version of “Johanna.” It’s hard to believe that the star who went on to play Stranger Things villain Vecna offers what might be the moving’s most moving rendition of a Sondheim classic.
With a grisly, thoroughly hopeless twist ending and a large body count, the tale of Sweeney Todd won’t be for everyone. Fans of gory slasher horror might be put off by the lengthy musical numbers, while fans of musical theatre may, conversely, struggle with the relentlessly downbeat tone and wince-including gore. However, for Tim Burton fans, Sweeney Todd represents an impressive achievement from the director. It remains one of the darkest Tim Burton movies ever, and Sweeney Todd is also one of his most immersive, visually impressive efforts to date.
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