Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas has become an animated cult classic. © 2000 — Touchstone Pictures — All rights reserved.

BD: And you used forced perspective with the giant.

TB: Well, we did a little bit to make him bigger. We took what we had and then we just tried to push it a bit further

BD: What we can expect from The Corpse Bride, the stop-motion movie you’re producing next year?

TB: We’re still working on it. It will be a companion piece to The Nightmare Before Christmas, but with more human characters.

BD: Will the technology be more advanced?

TB: Well, you know, there’s something about the hand-made thing — if you’re ever over in London, you can come over here and visit the energy where you see sets and moving puppets, and we’ll have to wait and see how it translates to the screen… computers are different. They have a different vibe. You get another vibe when you walk onto a bluescreen set. You try to go with what’s right for each particular project.

BD: All this talk of the death of 2D must make you laugh.

Burton will next take on the task of adapting Roald Dahl’s beloved children’s book to the big screen.

TB: Yeah, well, Lilo & Stitch did OK. The moment they say something’s dead, you know they’re wrong.

BD: And what about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?

TB: By the stories you read in the papers, you’d think I’ve already finished it. So it’s a bit premature.

BD: But it won’t be effects heavy.

TB: No, I’ll rely as much on the practical as I can.

BD: Are you worried at all about taking on another icon?

TB: Yeah, well, I should learn my lesson [after Planet of the Apes], but it’s OK.

BD: But it will be great for you to work with Johnny Depp again. He’s become your alter ego, and seems to possess just the right eccentricity and sweetness for Willy Wonka, don’t you think?

TB: He’s real great and I obviously love working with him. I love people who are willing to become different people each time — it’s real fun. But, you know, the fun of it is exploring, especially when you’re dealing with not just icons but anything. You want that private time because when you’re on the set, you don’t have privacy, you’ve got this sort of immediate kind of quick response to things. But that time, to be private and think about it and develop it inside, I like to try to protect that as much as possible.