Tim Burton’s 7 Best Leading Ladies

With spooky season upon us, it’s time for the Tim Burton watch-a-thon of our dreams. Some of us wait all year just for an excuse to binge-watch our favorite Halloween-themed films (and series), many of which have been directed by the wonderfully weird Tim Burton. From Beetlejuice to Wednesday, his signature style is the ideal spooky aesthetic.

His films and series also boast some of the best leading ladies on the silver screen. While some filmmakers have trouble creating multi-dimensional female characters (i.e. Quentin Tarantino), Tim’s women are some of the best and most eclectic, fully-realized female characters out there, especially within the horror genre. He successfully creates creepy atmospheres without resorting to damsel-in-distress tropes often seen in horror productions. In honor of the best month of the year, we’ve decided to highlight the best of Tim Burton’s leading ladies.

Sally in ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’

Sally, voiced by the effervescent Catherine O’Hara in The Nightmare Before Christmas, subverts the damsel in distress trope. Sure, she’s distressed and locked in a tower, but she saves herself. And then she saves the day! Let’s also not forget that “Sally’s Song” is one of the most beautiful and heart-wrenching songs in the entire film. As Jack Skellington seeks a way to be his true self in Halloween Town, Sally shows him that he doesn’t have to fit into a mold to make people happy.

Lydia Deetz in ‘Beetlejuice’

Even before Nightmare Before Christmas, however, there was Beetlejuice (1988). Sure, its titular character is a creepy dude trying to come back from the dead (or from hell?) by manipulating a teenage girl who just lost her mom. But that teenage girl, portrayed by Winona Ryder in one of her earliest roles, just so happens to be a textbook badass. Many of us could identify with Lydia when we first watched Beetlejuice—she’s a teenager trying to figure out her identity and determine her place in the world. And as she does so, she happens to save the world from becoming Beetlejuice’s paradise.

Wednesday Addams in ‘Wednesday’

A fairly new character in the Tim Burton catalog, Wednesday Addams had a long history before Tim (and Jenna Ortega) transformed her into the Gen Z queen of darkness. Her iconic lines in the Netflix series, such as, “There’s nothing quite like the feeling of being proven right,” underscore how unafraid she is to be herself. Add in her iconic viral dance moves, and Wednesday is a shining example of a teen who will happily go against the grain to do what’s right — all while being morbidly lovable.

Katrina Van Tassel in ‘Sleepy Hollow’

Portrayed by Christina Ricci (who also played Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family films of the 90s), Katrina Van Tassel has a long history in Sleepy Hollow lore. But Tim’s reimagining of the character is what makes her stand out as one of the best leading ladies. Christina described Katrina to CNN as “a fairy tale, a princess-y character, very one-sided, no emotional depth.” 

While that may sound like a curse, it’s actually a blessing in disguise, according to Christina. “She is a storybook character, she’s not real. That means you have so much more freedom, in that you don’t have to make anything she does believable or make people believe her choices in the story.” In many ways, this interpretation opened Katrina up to more possibilities—playing up her witchiness, embracing her feelings for Ichabod, and settling for a “happily ever after.”

Mrs. Lovett in ‘Sweeney Todd’

Sweeney Todd has a long history—Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett began as the anti-heroes in an 1846 short story, “The String of Pearls: A Domestic Romance” by James Malcolm Rymer and/or Thomas Peckett Prest. The story then became a play before becoming the 1979 Stephen Sondheim musical, which Tim then adapted into a 2007 film. But we would be remiss to not include a Helena Bonham Carter character, and what better portrayal than the classic Mrs. Lovett?

She’s not exactly a role model—she helps Sweeney murder people and chop them into pieces to stuff her meat pies—but she wears her heart on her sleeve. Mrs. Lovett is just a kooky entrepreneur who will go to any lengths to get the love she deserves! She may not be a good person, but she is a great character.

Kim Boggs in ‘Edward Scissorhands’

Winona Ryder knows how to play a Tim Burton character. It’s been a while since we’ve seen her in one of his kooky projects, but the only character more memorable than Kim Boggs in Edward Scissorhands is the titular character himself. (And that’s only because he has scissors for hands!)

Kim is the ultimate popular girl, someone many of us might have aspired to be at one time or another. But unlike her friends, Kim is kind and warm, and as she gets to know Edward, she sees him for the gentle creation he is. In many ways, their tale is as classic as Romeo and Juliet, and it taught us to love people for who they are instead of what they appear to be.

Catwoman in ‘Batman Returns’

There have been plenty of Catwomen over the years, portrayed by Anne Hathaway, Zoë Kravitz, Halle Berry, and more. But no one can compare to Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman in Tim Burton’s Batman quadrilogy. Her Catwoman is nuanced—she dons her stitched suit after an attempt to murder her is unsuccessful (thanks to her cats). While feeding Tim’s comedic style, Michelle is both terrifying and relatable, showing us that women can be multifaceted characters, just as we are in life.