We have all admired the intricacies of the twisted worlds of Alice Kingsleigh (Alice in Wonderland) and the gothic charm of Wednesday Addams from afar. But what if we could step inside Tim Burton’s mind and explore the strange, surreal universe that brings them to life?

After a wave of recent acclaim— including a lifetime achievement award at the 2024 Lumière Festival and his very own star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame—Tim Burton’s strange and sprawling creative universe is enjoying renewed attention.

While much of the spotlight tends to fall on his blockbuster films and instantly recognisable aesthetic, The World of Tim Burton, now on at London’s Design Museum, offers something quieter and more introspective: an exhibition that invites visitors inside the tangled undergrowth of his imagination.

Inside The World of Tim Burton

​”The World of Tim Burton” exhibition began its journey in 2014 in Prague, Czech Republic. Over the past decade, it has toured 14 cities across 11 countries, finally arriving at the Design Museum in London, UK, where it opened on October 25, 2024.

Originally slated to close in early 2025, the exhibition has been extended until May 26 after recording-breaking demand (it had the highest attendance of any show since the Design Museum was established over 35-years ago).

And it’s easy to see why: this is a rare opportunity to step inside the visual world of an artist who has managed, over four decades, to craft a cinematic language entirely his own – the Burtonesque.

We visited in early April, and were struck less by the scale of the show than by its intimacy. Room by room, as we moved through a carefully curated maze of sketchbooks, sculptures, notes, character studies, storyboards and short films, we were drawn into Tim’s magical, maniac world.

The space echoes his sensibility: dimly lit corridors, curved display cases, corners that reveal unexpected oddities. It certainly feels like the interior of his mind, as if you’ve wandered into his private studio.

The drawings—hundreds of them—are often scrappy, rough, and unfinished. But this exhibition seemed to be far beyond a greatest hits collection – it focuses equally on process: on how ideas are born, evolve, and sometimes never leave the sketchbook.

An ode to the Burtonesque

Burton began his career as a Disney animator, and early in the exhibition, there are glimpses of this influence—precise character sheets and design work from the late 1970s. Even here, his style is unmistakable. The figures are always slightly off-centre: haunted-eyed misfits, long-limbed monsters, lopsided dreamers.

What becomes apparent as you move through the rooms is just how prolific he is as a visual artist. Drawing, it seems, has always been central to how he thinks. Many of the characters and creatures on display never made it into a film, yet they’re rendered with the same care and idiosyncrasy as those that did.

The drawings range from personal explorations to detailed production designs, with numerous figures walking the line between endearing and unsettling. These are fragments of stories, hints at entire worlds, not all fully developed. Seeing them all in one place offers a sense of just how expansive his internal universe really is.

His work beyond film

Of course, there are crucial touchpoints for long-time fans. Key characters from Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride, Beetlejuice, and Frankenweenie all make appearances—sometimes through maquettes and props, sometimes through concept art or behind-the-scenes materials.

But these moments are woven into a broader narrative about artistic obsession. What you begin to see is how often Burton returns to the same emotional terrain: characters who are isolated, misjudged, or misunderstood. The world may be exaggerated, but the emotional core is constant.

What’s especially interesting is the exhibition’s attention to his lesser-known or non-film work. There are storyboards for music videos (notably The Killers’ Bones), photographs from fashion shoots with Monica Bellucci, and sketches for unrealised projects.

These inclusions reveal the breadth of his practice beyond Hollywood, and how consistently his style translates across different mediums. Whether he’s working in animation, photography, or live action, the visual language remains intact.

An insatiable love for poetry and storytelling

There are also moments of humour—odd little cartoons and wordplay, deliberately absurd character names, tongue-in-cheek poetry. Burton’s darkness has always been tempered by wit, and the exhibition does a good job of reminding viewers that the macabre and the playful often sit side by side in his work.

Despite the sheer variety of material, it all feels like it belongs to the same world—a world governed by its own logic, colour palette, and emotional rules. Page after page, room after room, the obsessive nature of Burton’s vision becomes clearer.

For those who only know Burton through his most famous films, The World of Tim Burton offers a more complete and revealing portrait. It suggests an artist who is driven less by commercial outcomes than by a need to externalise what’s inside his head.

And while that head may be filled with monsters, ghosts and shadows, the underlying impulse feels deeply human: an urge to make sense of the world through drawing, storytelling, and invention.

The World of Tim Burton runs at the Design Museum, London, until 26 May 2025. Get your tickets here. See other art exhibitions or things to do in April in London.