Trademark Trial and Appeal Board Electronic Filing System. http://estta.uspto.gov
`ESTTA561066
`ESTTA Tracking number:
`09/24/2013
`
`Filing date:
`IN THE UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
`BEFORE THE TRADEMARK TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD
`91194716
`Plaintiff
`DC Comics
`JAMES D WEINBERGER
`FROSS ZELNICK LEHRMAN ZISSU PC
`866 UNITED NATIONS PLAZA, 6TH FLOOR
`NEW YORK, NY 10017
`UNITED STATES
`jweinberger@frosszelnick.com, lkittay@frosszelnick.com
`Plaintiff's Notice of Reliance
`Leo Kittay
`jweinberger@frosszelnick.com, lkittay@frosszelnick.com,mortiz@fzlz.com
`/Leo Kittay/
`09/24/2013
`Opposer's Notice of Reliance on Internet Documents with Exhibits 1 -40
`(F1310426-2)Part 1 of 2.pdf(5803595 bytes )
`Opposer's Notice of Reliance on Internet Documents with Exhibits 1 -40
`(F1310426-2)Part 2 of 2.pdf(3040012 bytes )
`
`Proceeding
`Party
`
`Correspondence
`Address
`
`Submission
`Filer's Name
`Filer's e-mail
`Signature
`Date
`Attachments
`
`

`
`IN THE UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
`
`BEFORE THE TRADEMARK TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD
`
`Opposer’s Ref: DCC USA TC-12/04160
`
`DC COMICS,
`
`Opposer,
`
`-against-
`
`GOTHAM CITY NETWORKING, INC.,
`
`Applicant.
`
`
`
`Opposition No. 91 194716
`
`OPPOSER’S NOTICE OF RELIANCE ON INTERNET DOCUMENTS
`
`DC Comics (“Opposer”) hereby makes of record and notifies Applicant of its reliance on
`
`the following printed Internet documents submitted pursuant to Rule 2.l22(e) of the Trademark
`
`Rules of Practice, 37 C.F.R. § 2.l22(e), TBlV1P § 704.08, the TTAB precedent of Safer Inc. v. OMS
`
`Investments, Inc., 94 U.S.P.Q.2d 1031, 1038-39 (T.T.A.B. 2010), and Fed. R. Evid. 401. Each
`
`printout identifies the date each website was accessed and printed, as well as the source (i.e., URL).
`
`These printed Internet documents are relevant to show the history, development, notoriety
`
`and fame of Opposer’s Batman character and of Opposer’s BATMAN and GOTHAM marks.
`
`1.
`
`2.
`
`“Tim Burton, Batman And The Joker.” The New York Times. Published April 09,
`1989. htt nifwww.Iwlimcsconii I 989f04/09/ma razineitim-htlrlon-balman-and-
`
`the-joker.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm (accessed and printed September 18,
`2013). Attached hereto as Opposer’s Exhibit 1.
`
`“‘Batman’ Sets Sales Record: $100 Million In 10 Days.” The New York Times.
`Published July 04, 1989. h1lp:ifw\~'w.nylimcscomi l 989i07;’04i'1n()vies/batmauv
`sets-sales-record-100-million-in—10-days.html?pagewanted=print (accessed and
`printed September 19, 2013). Attached hereto as Opposer’s Exhibit 2.
`
`3.
`
`“New York Was Gotham Before ‘Batman.’” The New York Times. Published
`
`:/iwww.n *limcs.com/198'?Jz'09I05fusIl-new-vo1'k-was-
`September 05, 1989. htt
`
`=o1ham-belb1'c-batman-829?89.ht1nl‘? arewr-1nted= rint&s1'c= am (accessed and
`
`
`printed September 18, 2013). Attached hereto as Opposer’s Exhibit 3.
`
`(1=131o4se1)
`
`

`
`“Holy Record Breaker! $55,000 For First Batman Comic.” The New York Times.
`Published December 19, 1991. http://www.nfiimes.com/ 1991/ 12/ 19/arts/holy-
`recorcl—brcaker-5S(){}(l-for-Iirst-hatnian-cumit:.html‘?_pa1gewa:1[cd=print&src=pm
`(accessed and printed September 18, 2013). Attached hereto as Opposer’s
`Exhibit 4.
`
`“Batman Is Back, And The Money Is Pouring In.” The New York Times.
`Published June 22, 1992. http://www.n}fiimes.com/1992/06/22/moVies/batman-
`is-back-and-the-moneyis-pouring-in.html (accessed and printed September 17,
`2013). Attached hereto as Opposer’s Exhibit 5.
`
`“A Big Weekend For ‘Batman.”’ The New York Times. Published June 26, 1995.
`http://www.nytimes.com/ 1995/06/26/business/a-big-weekend-for-
`batman.html?pagewanted=print (accessed and printed September 19, 2013).
`Attached hereto as Opposer’s Exhibit 6.
`
`“Bob Kane, 83, The Cartoonist Who Created ‘Batman,’ Is Dead.” The New York
`
`Times. Published November 7, 1998.
`http2//wwwnflimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/1024.html (accessed
`and printed September 18, 2013). Attached hereto as Opposer’s Exhibit 7.
`
`“Nascar Knows Logos Make Wheels Go ‘Round.” The New York Times.
`Published June 19, 2005.
`http://www.n}gi1nes.corn/2005/06/ 1 _9§ports/oth_er§po1ts/ 1 911ascar.htn1l (accessed
`and printed September 19, 2013). Attached hereto as Opposer’s Exhibit 8.
`
`“Batman Rules The Night, And The Whole Weekend.” The New York Times.
`Published July 21, 2008.
`http://wwwnflimes.com/2008/07/21/movies/21batrn.html (accessed and printed
`September 18, 2013). Attached hereto as Opposer’s Exhibit 9.
`
`“The Dark Knight Sets Global Opening Box Office Record.” The Guardian.
`Published July 21, 2008.
`hllp:iiwww.LhL:gL1arclian.com/film/2008f'1uIi21i(la11'k.kt1igl11 (accessed and printed
`September 17, 2013). Attached hereto as Opposer’s Exhibit 10.
`
`“Batman And The War On Terror.” The New York Times. Published July 21,
`2008. http://theboard.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/21/batman-and-the-war-on-
`terror/?pagewanted=print (accessed and printed September 18, 2013). Attached
`hereto as Opposer’s Exhibit 11.
`
`“‘Dark Knight’ May Mean Record Hollywood Ticket Sales.” Bloomberg.
`Published August 04, 2008.
`htIi:iz’www.bloombc1'r.c0mi:13)si11cw's'?:~;itl=aLl'
`
`
`
`rnfitr; 1.-l&)icl=newsarchive
`
`10.
`
`11.
`
`12.
`
`(F13104861 )
`
`

`
`(accessed and printed September 17, 2013). Attached hereto as Opposer’s
`Exhibit 12.
`
`“Holy Cash Cow, Batman! Content Is Back.” The New York Times. Published
`August 09, 2008.
`hit 2.’/www.n '[imes.c01w‘2008fU8flUfbilsiriessftiietliafl 0wz1rner.htm!'? awewanted
`
`
`111 (accessed and printed September 18, 2013). Attached hereto as Opposer’s
`Exhibit 13.
`
`
`
`“Batman’s Box Office Rises With ‘Titanic,’ S&P 500: Chart Of Day.”
`Bloomberg. Published September 04, 2008.
`htl
`:x’/www.blnomber acom/a
`s:’ncws'? id=newsaI'chive&sid=acl XlKUnv IM&
`
`refer=home (accessed and printed September 17, 2013). Attached hereto as
`Opposer’s Exhibit 14.
`
`
`
`“Batman Makes Producers’ Shortlist.” BBC News. Published January 06, 2009.
`http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7813081.stm (accessed and printed
`September 17, 2013). Attached hereto as Opposer’s Exhibit 15.
`
`“‘The Dark Knight’ Wins Big At People’s Choice Awards.” CNN. Published
`January 08, 2009.
`111113:I’/www.cnn.comf2009fSHOWBlZ.IMovics/0 l;’{}7fpeoplcs.cl1oicef (accessed
`and printed September 17, 2013). Attached hereto as Opposer’s Exhibit 16.
`
`“Batman May Rescue Oscar Ratings From The Doldrums.” USA Today.
`Published January 21, 2009.
`hit . rfltasatoda 30.usatocla .co'mfliFcfmovicsr’ncws;’2009-{J1-20-dark-kni rhi-
`
`oscars N.htm (accessed and printed September 17, 2013). Attached hereto as
`Opposer’s Exhibit 17.
`
`“In Pictures: 10 Coolest Massively Multiplayer Games.” Forbes. Published June
`3 0, 2009. http://www.forbes.c0m/2009/06/3 0/massively-multiplayer-games-
`technology-personal-tech-warcrafi slide 3.htn1l (accessed and printed September
`23, 2013). Attached hereto as Opposer’s Exhibit 18.
`
`“On A Grim Island, A Caped Crusader For A Teenager’s Inner Adult.” The New
`York Times. Published September 04, 2009.
`|1u):2'r’www.n rtimes.comr’2009/09/05/artsfteIevi.sion.’05asvlum.h1ml (accessed and
`
`printed September 18, 2013). Attached hereto as Opposer’s Exhibit 19.
`
`“Batman’s First Appearance At A Bruce Wayne Price.” The New York Times.
`Published February 26, 2010.
`1111 1:;’:"a1‘lsbeal.bl0 15.11 times.L:om;’20l 0f02l26:’bat:m1ns-first-a _1_ea.ra11ce-at-a-
`
`
`bruce-wayne-price/ (accessed and printed September 18, 2013). Attached hereto
`as Opposer’s Exhibit 20.
`
`15.
`
`16.
`
`18.
`
`19.
`
`20.
`
`(F13104861}
`
`

`
`“Batman Beats Superman In The Marketplace.” The New York Times. Published
`February 26, 2010. http://www.n}gimes.com/2010/02/27/books/27arts—
`BATMANBEATSS BRF.html (accessed and printed September 18, 2013).
`Attached hereto as Opposer’s Exhibit 21.
`
`“Batman Named Greatest Comic Hero.” The Guardian. Published February 28,
`2012. htl 3://www.1hc ILiardiun.comlbooksl20 I 2ll'ebl28l|3am1an- r1'ea1est-co11ric-
`
`
`lg (accessed and printed September 17, 2013). Attached hereto as Opposer’s
`Exhibit 22.
`
`“Sheldon Moldoff, Batman Comic Book Artist, Dies at 91.” The New York
`Times. Published March 08, 2012.
`http://www.ny_times.com/2012/03/08/books/sheldon-moldoff-batman-comic-
`book-artist-dies-at-91.html (accessed and printed September 19, 2013). Attached
`hereto as Opposer’s Exhibit 23.
`
`“Holy Profits, Batman! Comic Collectors Clean Up.” CNN Published May 11,
`2012.
`I1llQtllbusiness.b]ogs.cnn.coml2{)1 2l{.15l1 Ilholy-profits-batman-comid
`collectors-clean-up/ (accessed and printed September 19, 2013). Attached hereto
`as Opposer’s Exhibit 24.
`
`“Graphic Books Best Sellers: Five Batman Books Crowd The Hardcover List.”
`The New York Times. Published July 06, 2012.
`http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/20l2/07/06/graphic-books-bestsellers-fiVe-
`batman-books-crowd-the-hardcover-list/? r=0 (accessed and printed September
`19, 2013). Attached hereto as Opposer’s Exhibit 25.
`
`“Mattel Sees Brightened Profits From Batman, Barbie.” Forbes. Published July
`17, 2012. http://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/20 12/07/1 7/mattel-sees-
`fii_gh1c1r<:d_-prolits-f1'om-batman-darkflg1ight-t0ys-horror-movie-clolIsl (accessed
`and printed September 17, 2013). Attached hereto as Opposer’s Exhibit 26.
`
`“Batman, Barbie Help Lift Mattel.” The Wall Street Journal. Published July 17,
`2012.
`
`http://online.wsj.corn/article/SBl00014240527023 03 75490457753243 063986445
`6.html#printMode (accessed and printed September 19, 2013). Attached hereto as
`Opposer’s Exhibit 27.
`
`“‘Dark Knight Rises’ Scores Second Highest-Grossing Midnight Opening.”
`Business Insider. Published July 20, 2012. http://www.businessinsider.com/the-
`dark-kni Iht-rises-becomes-second-lri vhest- Irossin hmidni Ilit-o enin0—20l2-7'
`
`
`
`(accessed and printed September 17, 2013). Attached hereto as Opposer’s
`Exhibit 28.
`
`“‘Dark Knight’ Draws Big Audiences Despite Tragedy.” The Wall Street
`Journal. Published July 20, 2012.
`
`21.
`
`22.
`
`23.
`
`24.
`
`25.
`
`26.
`
`27.
`
`28.
`
`29.
`
`(Fl3l04861)
`
`

`
`30.
`
`31.
`
`32.
`
`33.
`
`34.
`
`35.
`
`http://online.wsj .com/article/SB] 000087239639044446430457753 932001 05 6541
`2.html (accessed and printed September 17, 2013). Attached hereto as Opposer’s
`Exhibit 29.
`
`“The Dark Knight Rises (for iPad).” PC Magazine. Published July 20, 2012.
`http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2407452,00.asp (accessed and printed
`September 19, 2013). Attached hereto as Opposer’s Exhibit 30.
`
`“‘Dark Knight’ Grosses $354.6 Million In US.” The Wall Street Journal.
`Published August 05, 2012.
`http://online.wsj.com/article/SBl 000O87239639044351710457757121377076992
`8.html#printMode (accessed and printed September 19, 2013). Attached hereto as
`Opposer’s Exhibit 31.
`
`“The New Top 20 Best Comic Book Superhero Films Of All Time — Revised
`Edition.” Forbes. Published August 22, 2012.
`http://www.forbes.com/sites/markhughes/2012/O8/22/the-new-top-20-best-comic-
`book-3LIperilero-lllms-oilalI-time-revisetl-editiom‘3! (accessed and printed
`September 19, 2013). Attached hereto as Opposer’s Exhibit 32.
`
`“‘The Dark Knight Rises’ Tops $1 Billion, Surpasses ‘The Dark Knight.”’
`Forbes. Published September 05, 2012.
`11119:/./www.1'0rbes.comfsitesr’ma:'k}1Ltgl1esr’2012//09r’0Sf:he-da1'l<-l<nigl11-1‘ises-1ops-
`1-billion-surpasses-the-dark-knight/ (accessed and printed September 17, 2013).
`Attached hereto as Opposer’s Exhibit 33.
`
`“‘The Dark Knight Rises’ Raises Christopher Nolan’s Warner Bros. Gross To
`$3.5 Billion.” Forbes. Published September 30, 2012.
`http://WWW.forbes.com/sites/markhughes/2012/09/3 0/the-dark-knight-rises-raises-
`christopher-nolans-wamer-bros-gross-to-3-5-billiorfl (accessed and printed
`September 17, 2013). Attached hereto as Opposer’s Exhibit 34.
`
`“Batman And Superman: Millions Of Fans Strong.” DC Comics. Published
`August 26, 2013. http://www.dccomics.com/blog/2013/O8/26/batman-and-
`superman-millions-of-fans-strong (accessed and printed September 19, 2013).
`Attached hereto as Opposer’s Exhibit 35.
`
`36.
`
`“All-Time Box Office: USA.” IMDb.
`
`http://www.imdb.corrflboxoffice/alltimegross (accessed and printed September 17,
`2013). Attached hereto as Opposer’s Exhibit 36.
`
`37.
`
`“The Highest Grossing Movie Franchises Of All Time.” CNBC.
`http://www.cnbc.com/id/4025965 3/page/ 10 (accessed and printed September 17,
`2013). Attached hereto as Opposer’s Exhibit 37.
`
`(F13l0486l)
`
`

`
`38.
`
`39.
`
`40.
`
`“The Most Valuable Comic Books Of All Time.” CNBC.
`http://www.cnbc.com/id/3 83 83325/page/ 11 (accessed and printed September 17,
`2013). Attached hereto as Opposer’s Exhibit 38.
`
`“The Most Valuable Comic Books Of All Time.” CNBC.
`http://www.cnbc.com/id/3 83 83325/page/5 (accessed and printed September 17,
`2013). Attached hereto as Opposer’s Exhibit 39.
`
`“Batman.” Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britarmica Inc., 2013.
`Web. htt
`:ffwww.b1'itannica.con1/ rintito M66965 8?cilation=undefined
`
`(accessed and printed September 19, 2013). Attached hereto as Opposer’s
`Exhibit 40.
`
`Dated: New York, New York
`September 24, 2013
`
`FROSS ZELNICK LEH
`
`AN & ZISSU, P.C.
`
` ‘ Weinberger
`
`Leo Kittay
`866 United Nations Plaza
`
`New York, New York 10017
`
`(212) 813-5900
`
`Attorneys for Opposer
`
`(FUI0486 1)
`
`

`
`EXHIBIT 1
`
`

`
`9/18/13
`
`TIM BURTON, BATMAN AND THE JOKER - NewYorkTirnes
`
`
`
`El): New flork Elms M ov ies
`
`TIM BURTON, BATMAN AND THE JOKER
`By Joe Morgenstem; Joe Morgenstem isa frequent contributorlo this Magazine
`Published: April 09. 1989
`
`WHEN TIM BURTON REPORTED to Pinewood Studios near London last October to direct Hollywood's big-budget version of "Batman," he
`was 29 years old and an absolute bafflement to the British crew.
`
`There they were, more than 300 strong, about to start shooting a $30 million spectacular with a top-notch cast headed by Jack Nicholson,
`Michael Keaton and Kim Basinger, with elaborate sets covering nine sound stages and most of the 95-acre back lot, and with a script that called
`for action sequences of daunting complexity. And there Tim was, with his wild black hair, his vagrant's wardrobe and his California space cadet's
`demeanor. Though the Brits knew he had already directed two features, "Pee-wee's Big Adventure" and "Beetlejuice," they also knew he had
`never done an action picture in his life. Talk about innocents abroad: "Batman"s leader hadn't even brought a proper winter coat.
`
`It's easy to take Tim Burton for an innocent. "This movie's so monumental," he marveled to a visitor, sounding much like a Visitor himself. But
`his first two features, both resounding hits, are the work of a visionary artist; they look like no other movies ever made. "Pee-wee's Big
`Adventure," with Pee-wee Herman, might have been shot in the suburbs of another planet; the settings are radiantly pretty and deeply strange.
`
`"Beetlejuice," last year's sleeper with Michael Keaton, is a spook show of such startling inventiveness and sophisticated wit that it's breaking away
`| from its core audience of young moviegoers and finding an adult audience in video rentals. On the strength of these two films alone, Burton
`finds himself in the catbird seat that's been vacant since George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis (who directed "Back to the Future"
`and "Who Framed Roger Rabbit") hit the big screen: Now he is Hollywood's most original young director.
`
`Although "Batman" doesn't open until late June, a widely distributed trailer has already given millions of American moviegoers a taste of the
`film's darkly elegant style. The most talked-about "coming attraction" in recent memory, it elicits applause and often cheers with its succession of
`electrifying images: Gotham City mouldering in post-modern decay; the sleek black contours of the Batmobile and Batwing (the Caped
`Crusader's airplane); the hero himself flitting, batlike, from deep shadows into a pool of sulphurous light.
`
`This visual design, with the same boldness that has characterized Tim Burton's work thus far, extended to every corner of the "Batman" set.
`Indeed, the design dictated the monumental scale of the production. Take the movie's climax, a cliffhanger heightened by Gothic horror. On the
`crumbling parapet of an old cathedra1's bell tower, Batman and a photo-joumalist named Vicki Vale hang by their fingertips while the evil Joker
`tries to dislodge them, and send them hurtling to their deaths 1,000 feet below.
`
`As shot on a British sound stage not long ago, the climactic struggle was less lofty by 960 feet - special effects will transform the camera's
`perspective - but still a gut-wrenching spectacle to behold. From his perch on the 40-foot-high set, Jack Nicholson's Joker, scarred face masked
`by a manic leer, kicked away at the dangling figures of Michael Keaton's Batman and Kim Basinger's Vicki, while the propeller of a wind
`machine, spun by a deafening Volkswagen engine, buffeted the three stars with rotor wash from the Joker's unseen helicopter, and the camera
`peered down from a scaffold. Standing next to the camera was Tim Burton, his face frozen in tense empathy.
`
`IN REALITY, THE ACTORS WERE WEARING INVISIBLE safety harnesses, and the director had support of his own: all those skilled
`technicians who'd spent years making action spectaculars. His mainstay on the floor below, the first assistant director, 53-year-old Derek
`Cracknell, called to him with a loudspeaker after the shot was finished
`
`"How was that, guV'nor?"
`
`In a flash, Burton switched from rapt spectator to calm critic. "It was OK," he replied through his own loudspeaker, "but let's do it once again."
`
`Tall and thin, Burton would look mournful if his mouth weren't always breaking out in goofy grins. "I've been accused of being a drug addict
`since about the time I was 8, " he said later. "It's these heavy-lidded eyes." Though he was dressed in dark gray pants that might have come from
`Goodwill and a grungy black sweater flecked with tiny white skulls, he denied having a dark personality himself. ''I'm very split, a bit like an
`optimistic pessimist. When I explore dark themes, like the ones in ‘Batman,’ I do it lightheartedly. I don't like mean-spirited movies."
`
`I Burton seems genuinely sweet-spirited. Sweetness being a rare quality in Hollywood directors these days, it served as his secret weapon on
`' "Batman"; almost everyone on the set wanted to take care of him. (Off the set, the director, who turned 30 during production, met a young
`German painter, Lena Gieseke, at a party in London; they married in February.) As a conversationalist, he's often reticent; he can be borderline
`eloquent if he wants to be, except for a habit of not finishing sentences. "I used to speak completely in shorthand Never ever finished a sentence.
`Really have trouble. .
`.
`. I guess I. .
`.
`. I think people have already heard the thoughts in my head." This speech pattern seems to be a legacy of
`childhood and adolescence: long years of living inside his head, of sketching and scheming, of beginning to work out the weird landscapes of his
`films.
`
`ONE WELLSPRING OF TIM BURTON'S VISION WAS THE series of cheap but stylish gothic horror films that Vincent Price made in the early
`1960's. "Vincent Price helped me get through childhood," Burton said. "I saw all of his horror movies on TV. A lot of them were based on Edgar
`Allan Poe short stories. There's something about those Poe melodramas that's very cathartic: unseen demons, dying alone, going insane, being
`
`vwvw.n}iimes.com/1989/04/09/mag azine/tim-burton-batman-and-the-joler.htrrl ?pag ev\ratnted= print&src= pm
`
`1/4
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`

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`9/18/13
`
`TIM BURTON, BATMAN AND THE JOKER - NewYorkTimes
`
`trapped and tormented in a rear room. .
`
`.
`
`.
`
`Another influence was animated cartoons. A cartoonist since grade school in suburban Burbank - his doodles of monsters looked like windows
`into other worlds - Burton won a Disney fellowship to study animation at the California Institute of the Arts (founded with Disney money).
`Then, at age 20, he went back to Burbank to work as an apprentice animator on the Disney lot. Burton loathed the assembly-line drudgery.
`"You're strapped to a table all day and you have to draw. I just flipped out." But the studio gave him enough money to do a six-minute animated
`short of his own. "It was great, a very nice thing to do."
`
`The short was called "Vincent." Narrated by none other than Vincent Price, it tells of a wild-haired 7-year-old boy named Vincent, bearing a
`striking resemblance to Tim Burton, who lives an outwardly normal life in the suburbs, but imagines himself isolated, beset by bats, wandering
`tormented through dark corridors.
`
`Here was the first of Tim Burton's surreal landscapes, drawn with charming precocity in the style of such classic German expressionist films as
`"Metropolis" and "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" - tilted horizons, walls converging in forced perspective, stairways curving infinitely upward.
`"Vincent" went into commercial release in 1982 and won several film festival awards. Vincent Price remembers its creator fondly: "I was so
`struck by Tim's amateur charm. I mean amateur in the French sense of the word, in love with something.
`
`Tim was in love with the medium, and dedicated to it."
`
`Another film that Burton made at Disney, "Frankenweenie," was a live-action, 29-minute riff on the Frankenstein legend. Another little boy
`living another outwardly normal life in the suburbs brings his dead dog back to life after the dog is hit by a car.
`
`Here again, Burton put his indelible stamp on a movie that might have looked like a 1960's television sitcom in the hands of another director.
`The dog's rebirth, in an attic laboratory, is a clever parody of the original "Frankenstein," yet riveting all the same.
`
`The dog's second death, by fire in an abandoned miniature golf course, is a scene of remarkable power; it prefigures several eerie dreamscapes in
`"Pee-wee's Big Adventure" and "Beetlejuice." The motion picture rating board found "Frankenweenie" too powerful for very young audiences,
`and gave it a PG instead of the G that Disney's own distribution policies required. As a result, the movie was never released. But other people in
`the industry saw the short at private screenings, and were impressed.
`
`One of those was Mark Canton, president of worldwide motion picture production at Warner Bros. "As soon as I saw Tim's movie," Canton
`recalls, "I said I'd better meet with Tim." Warner had been looking for the right director to do a children's feature with Paul Reubens, the
`performer whose alter ego is Pee-wee Herman; now Canton added Burton's name to the list of possibilities. Reubens, who had never heard of
`Burton, didn't want him or anyone else on the list. But the studio was insisting that he make his choice, and, at a party, Canton told Reubens he
`should see "Frankenweenie."
`
`"The next morning," Reubens says, "I was watching it in a screening room. I watched the first minute and said 'O.K., this is my guy.’ "
`
`PEE-WEE HERMAN IS A SIMPLE pleasure for most little kids, but many adults find him troubling; he's nerdily anal and eerily androgynous,
`as well as bursting with an anarchist's joy. Burton, then 26, went with the joy: "I loved the Pee-wee character. I never made any judgments on
`it."
`
`"Pee-wee's Big Adventure" is the story of a man-child's search for his stolen bicycle. (That's the whole plot: boy loves bike, boy loses bike, boy gets
`bike.) Much of its silly charm comes from Reubens himself: his Pee-wee is a flesh-and-blood cartoon. But it took Burton, with his artist's eye and
`his background in animation, to create the pastel-colored, live-action world in which Pee-wee thrives. (Mostly thrives: a few passages are shaky,
`and the ending is really dumb.) The director left visual imprints that are easy to find: dinosaurs on a desert landscape; a scary character, named
`Large Marge, whose face changes to that of an animated puppet; an absurdist throwaway when Pee-wee glances out of his bathroom window
`on a sunny morning and a school of fish swims by. Some of Burton's set pieces, like one in which the hero rescues pets from a burning pet shop,
`are shot in bold silent-comedy style. Other moments are unexpectedly lyrical. After Pee-wee discovers that his beloved bicycle has been stolen,
`for instance, there's a dreamy, touching sequence, a little bike ballet, in which the screen is crisscrossed by pedaled vehicles of all sorts: unicycles,
`bicycles, tricycles, penny-farthings, bicycles built for two, four and six.
`
`When the movie came out in 1985, many critics didn't know what to make of it or dismissed it as kiddie pap, though ardent admirers included
`David Edelstein in The Village Voice and Pauline Kael in The New Yorker. But "Pee-wee's Big Adventure" proved a hit with young audiences; it
`cost less than $7 million to make, and took in more than $40 million at the box office.
`
`No one could have predicted a success of that magnitude. Still, it's clear why Burton had such a firm grasp of children's tastes. He wasn't that far
`removed from his own childhood, with its painful memories that still haunt him. He talks with great reluctance about growing up, leaving many
`questions unanswered. Brothers or sisters? A younger brother, Daniel, but Burton doesn't want to discuss him: "We haven't talked for a couple of
`years." Father? "He works for the Burbank Park and Recreation Department, organizing sports leagues, stuff like that. I'm not close to him. It's
`been a source of confusion. I'm just something of a remote person in some ways. I've had an incredible desire to get out of the house from an
`early age." (He did move out for a while, at 17, to live with his grandmother.) Mother? "I don't know. It sort of freaked me out several years ago,
`realizing I don't know a whole lot about my parents, don't even know some of the basic facts, like where they were born."
`
`Tim's mother, Jean Burton, who runs a little gift shop in Burbank called Cats Plus -all the merchandise has a cat motif - seems to remember
`every foot of film Tim has shot. "I know he feels there were painful conflicts between us," she said. "I think they were all from within. Tim was
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`awfully tough on himself in many ways." Tim's father, Bill Burton, spoke proudly of how much his son had accomplished, but there were more
`unanswered questions, unfinished sentences, when he talked about the distance between them. "It's hard for me to understand why we. .
`. ." he
`began, then dropped the painful thought.
`
`AS A KID, BURTON was never a big fan of comedy. "I always found more humor in horror," he said on the "Batman" set. "One of my favorite
`things was in the original ‘Frankenstein,’ where we have this hunchbacked, twisted man with an absurdly short cane walking up this
`expressionist stairway and, halfway up, he stops to pull up his sock."
`
`Burton feels strongly about the need for a rich stylistic mix. "You can't define a movie as just one thing. You throw any number of interesting
`elements into it and see what happens. I always try to achieve a tone where I take absurd material and make it feel real."
`
`That's the tone of "Beet1ejuice," his second feature, which cost about $13 million and has grossed some $80 million to date. Its starting point is a
`haunted house, but the resident spirits are an endearing couple of young, newly dead ex-urbanites who lack the haunting skills to scare off their
`beloved old house's new owners.
`
`The director threw a lot into "Beetlejuice," and the results are wildly uneven; if there's a chink in Burton's armor, it's his script sense. The movie
`starts to unravel at just about the halfway mark, and doesn't find itself again until the end. But the first hour is a knockout. Burton plays trompe
`l'oeil games of scale and dislocation, shifting the action back and forth between the sylvan beauty of a New England village, a little model of the
`village come to life, a nightmare landscape infested with monster worms and a hereafter that's more bizarre than the space saloon in "Star
`Wars." He stages an inexplicably hilarious dinner at which the guests are possessed by Harry Belafonte's calypso music. He also gets out of the
`way — no small part of the director's craft -as Michael Keaton does one of the most explosive comic turns of recent years in the title role of
`Beetlejuice, a scrofulous spook who tries to tutor the apprentice ghosts.
`
`Burton likes to say he relishes "extreme characters"; it's hard to imagine a character more extreme than Keaton's. The script called for a
`relatively conventional approach, that of a stereotypical Middle Eastern thug, but the actor had a better idea, a sort of hebephrenic satyr gone to
`seed, and found his young director open to it.
`
`"When I came in and said, ‘This is what I'm doing, this is my choice,‘ " Keaton recalled, "Tim heard me loud and clear. You know, people
`assume he's really strange, with that look of his. I don't think he's strange at all. I just think he's very imaginative."
`
`Once again, many critics turned thumbs down. In The Times, Janet Maslin found the movie "about as funny as a shrunken head." (The
`Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences seems to have agreed; "Beetlejuice" was nominated for just one Academy Award - for makeup —
`which it won.) In The New Yorker, however, Pauline Kael wrote: "The best of W.C. Fields was often half-gummed-up, and that doesn't seem to
`matter 55 years later." Tim Burton, Kael said, "takes stabs into the irrational, the incongruous, the plain nutty. And though a lot of his moves
`don't connect, enough of them do to make this spotty, dissonant movie a comedy classic."
`
`LIKE MANY FEATURES, "Batman," which was also a campy television series in the 1960's, took a long time to be born. Producers Jon Peters
`and Peter Guber and Warner Bros. acquired the rights from DC Comics Inc. nine years ago, commissioning some 10 scripts from different
`writers. Then, through Mark Canton at Warner, they met Burton, who was still doing "Beetlejuice" on the Warner lot. "He had humanness,
`lovingness, but he also seemed tough and strong," Peters says. "He had a passion for ‘Batman’ and a desire to do something completely different
`with it."
`
`Once Burton hooked up with Sam Hamm, the first of the writers eventually responsible for "Batman's" shooting script, a darkly funny new
`approach began to emerge: Bruce Wayne as a schizoid hero who needs to dress up in strange clothes; the Joker as Batman's doppelganger,
`almost the evil side of the same character. (Wayne's sexually ambiguous sidekick Robin was replaced by the unambiguous Vicki Vale.) "We had
`a great time together," Hamm said. "I think Tim's the first director out there to be filtering junk culture through an art—school sensibility. He's
`also got a fairly strong morbid streak, but he's too much of an ironist to take his own morbidity seriously."
`
`When casting time came, the producers and the studio picked Jack Nicholson to play the Joker - an exciting if expensive choice - and endorsed
`Burton's idea of having Michael Keaton play Batman. This was a controversial choice but an intriguing one; it's hard to guess how Keaton, with
`his mercurial comic style, will play the hitherto-stolid character of the Dark Knight. "I'd considered some very good square-jawed actors," Burton
`said, "but I couldn't see them putting on a Batsuit. You look at Michael and you see all sorts of things going on inside."
`
`'I\/vo other key choices were made at the director's behest: the production designer Anton Furst, who'd done Stanley Kubrick's "Full Metal
`Jacket," and the cinematographer Roger Pratt, who'd shot "Mona Lisa," "Brazil" and the current British import "High Hopes." But as much as
`the money-men believed in Burton's taste -or in the grosses of his first two films - they knew him for a babe in the woods when it came to the
`logistics of action shooting. So they built a strong production team around him: the first assistant Derek Cracknell; the line producer Chris
`Kenny, a veteran of James Bond epics and Spielberg's "Empire Of the Sun"; Ray Lovejoy, the editor, who cut "2001" and "Alien"; and Peter
`MacDonald, the second—unit director, an action specialist who himself had directed "Rambo III."
`
`A DIRECTOR MAY be a hero to the studio when his movies make plenty of money, but he's another working stiff to the crew. How was Tim
`Burton seen and judged by his technicians and other associates on "Batman"? Derek Cracknell, the first assistant director, declined to be
`interviewed for this piece. It was not that the two hadn't gotten on, Cracknell said through a publicist; it simply wasn't a situation he chose to
`discuss. This suggested two things to me: the ironclad tact of a gentleman who thinks his guv'nor is incompetent, or the distress of a top sergeant
`at having to serve a new general young enough to be his son.
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`As it