Editing Tim Burton (section)

===1981–1987: Early work and breakthrough ===
''Stalk of the Celery Monster'' attracted the attention of [[The Walt Disney Company|Walt Disney Productions]], who offered Burton an animator's apprenticeship at its [[Walt Disney Animation Studios|animation division]].<ref name=VFCal/> He worked as an animator, storyboard artist, graphic designer, art director, and [[concept art]]ist on films such as ''[[The Fox and the Hound]]'' (1981), ''[[Tron]]'' (1982), and ''[[The Black Cauldron (film)|The Black Cauldron]]'' (1985). His concept art never made it into the finished films.

While at Disney in 1982, Burton made his first short, ''[[Vincent (1982 film)|Vincent]]'', a six-minute black-and-white [[stop motion]] film based on a poem written by Burton, which depicts 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 (film)|Tex]]'', for two weeks in one Los Angeles cinema. This was followed by Burton's first live-action production, ''[[Hansel and Gretel (1983 TV special)|Hansel and Gretel]]'', a Japanese-themed adaptation of the [[Brothers Grimm]] [[Hansel and Gretel|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 P.M. 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]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Is the Tim Burton Exhibition at LACMA for Kids?|url=http://museumstories.com/2011/09/26/is-lacmas-tim-burton-exhibition-for-kids/|website=museumstories.com|date=September 26, 2011|access-date=March 6, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Chang|first=Richard|date=June 3, 2011|title=Exhibit covers Tim Burton's career as filmmaker and artist|url=http://www.ocregister.com/articles/burton-303022-tim-art.html|access-date=March 6, 2017|website=Orange County Register}}</ref> It was again shown at the [[Seoul Museum of Art]] in 2012.<ref>{{cite web|last=Cha|first=Frances|date=December 11, 2012|title=Tim Burton's 'nightmares' become hit museum exhibit|url=http://travel.cnn.com/tim-burtons-nightmares-arrive-seoul-015476/|access-date=March 6, 2017|website=CNN}}</ref>

Burton's next live-action short film, ''[[Frankenweenie (1984 film)|Frankenweenie]]'', was released in 1984. It tells the story of a young boy who tries to revive his dog after it is run over by a car. Filmed in black-and-white, it stars [[Barret Oliver]], [[Shelley Duvall]] (with whom he would work again in 1986, directing an episode of her television series ''[[Faerie Tale Theatre]]''), and [[Daniel Stern (actor)|Daniel Stern]]. After ''Frankenweenie'' was completed, Disney fired Burton, under the pretext of him spending the company's resources on a film that would be too dark and scary for children to see.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://uk.movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-editors/tim-burton-disney-fired-181740632.html|title=Tim Burton: How Disney fired me|first=Edward|last=Bovingdon |publisher=[[Yahoo!]] |date = October 18, 2012}}</ref>

Actor [[Paul Reubens]] saw ''Frankenweenie'' and chose Burton to direct the cinematic spin-off of his popular character [[Pee-wee Herman]], stating on the audio commentary of 2000 DVD release of ''Pee-wee's Big Adventure'' that as soon as the short began, he was sold on Burton's style. Pee-wee Herman gained mainstream popularity with a successful stage show at [[The Groundlings]] and [[The Roxy (London)|the Roxy]] which was later turned into an [[The Pee-wee Herman Show|HBO special]]. The film, ''[[Pee-wee's Big Adventure]]'', was made on a budget of $8&nbsp;million and grossed more than $40&nbsp;million at the North American box office. Burton, a fan of the eccentric musical group [[Oingo Boingo]], asked songwriter [[Danny Elfman]] to provide the music for the film. Since then, Elfman has scored every film that Tim Burton has directed, except for ''[[Ed Wood (film)|Ed Wood]]'',<ref>{{cite web|last=Calamar|first=Gary|date=August 28, 2005|title=Danny Elfman|url=http://www.kcrw.com/music/programs/or/or050828danny_elfman|work=The Open Road|publisher=KCRW|access-date=September 6, 2012|archive-date=October 21, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131021202728/http://www.kcrw.com/music/programs/or/or050828danny_elfman/|url-status=dead}}</ref> ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007 film)|Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street]]'', and ''[[Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (film)|Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children]]''.

Additionally, Burton directed episodes of the [[Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1985 TV series)|1985 revival]] of the '50s/'60s anthology horror series ''[[Alfred Hitchcock Presents]]'' and [[Shelley Duvall]]'s ''[[Faerie Tale Theatre]]''.