Tim Burton has had a long and successful career with Disney, from being an animator on Fox and the Hound to directing the live-action Alice in Wonderland. Well, it appears after working on 2019’s live-action Dumbo he’s had enough.
Speaking at the Lumière Festival in Lyon after receiving the Prix Lumière, Burton revealed that he will not work with Disney again. “My history is that I started out there, 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, that I was working in this horrible big circus and I needed to escape. That movie is quite autobiographical at a certain level.”
Tim Burton has also worked with Disney as an uncredited animator on Tron, as well as a producer on The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach, and Alice Through The Looking Glass.
Dumbo starred Colin Farrell, Eva Green, Michael Keaton, and Danny DeVito. The film grossed $114.8 million in the United States and Canada, and $238.5 million in other territories, for a worldwide $353.3 million. It was estimated the film would have had to gross more than $500 million worldwide in order to break-even, and with a combined production and advertisement budget of $300 million, Deadline reported it ultimately lost money.
