Tim Burton Reveals Why Dumbo Will Be His Last Disney Movie

While filmmaker Tim Burton has a long history working with Disney, he says that 2019’s live-action Dumbo is likely to be his last film with the studio. During a press conference at the Lumiere Festival in Lyon on Saturday (via Deadline), Burton spoke about his relationship with Disney and revealed that after his experiences making Dumbo, he needed to “escape” and that, for him, the film is somewhat autobiographical in a sense.

“My history is that I started out there,” Burton said. “I was hired and fired like several times throughout my career there. The thing about Dumbo is that’s why I think my days with Disney are done, I realized that I was Dumbo and that I was working in this horrible big circus, and I needed to escape. That movie is quite autobiographical at a certain level.”

Burton started his career at Disney as an animation artist in the 1980s and worked on films such as The Fox and the Hound, Tron, and The Black Cauldron. He later went on to direct several films for Disney as well, including 2010’s Alice in Wonderland, 2012’s Frankenweenie, and Dumbo.

What is Dumbo about?

Here is the official synopsis for the 2019 live-action Dumbo: “Circus owner Max Medici (Danny DeVito) enlists former star Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell) and his children Milly (Nico Parker) and Joe (Finley Hobbins) to care for a newborn elephant whose oversized ears make him a laughingstock in an already struggling circus. But when they discover that Dumbo can fly, the circus makes an incredible comeback, attracting persuasive entrepreneur V.A. Vandevere (Michael Keaton), who recruits the peculiar pachyderm for his newest, larger-than-life entertainment venture, Dreamland. Dumbo soars to new heights alongside a charming and spectacular aerial artist, Colette Marchant (Eva Green), until Holt learns that beneath its shiny veneer, Dreamland is full of dark secrets.” The film is currently available to stream on Disney+.

Didn’t Burton direct Beetlejuice? Will be he be involved with Beetlejuice 2?

It was confirmed earlier this year that Brad Pitt’s Plan B was developing a sequel to Burton’s iconic film, Beetlejuice, but said on Saturday that his involvement is something that may or may not be happening.

“I only know if I’m making a film when I’m actually on the set shooting,” he said. “I try to go back to the root of everything. It springs from a seed and then it grows, rather than out of these statements. I am working on ideas and things but it’s all very early days. We’ll see how it goes. How’s’ that for a non-answer?”