u/FantasticBumblebee0

No cartoons just live-action stuff from the last 20+ years rather than the entire 43 year History.

A while back, I had made a post on this subreddit in regards to Rowling and her support to Johnny Depp. For one comment I came across, while it was a general (and rightful) calling out of Depp, the comment brought up about Tim Burton and his racism. It had reminded me of critique of him I had heard and even had myself of (especially) his later filmography, but when looking back at it all, and how it relates to "outsiders/outcasts" and pseudo-progressiveness, it made me think about how it ties to Rowling and her whole fake persona of being progressive.

And when looking at the subtle stuff of HP with reinforcing the status quo and bigotry, it made me realize that Burton definitely would've been a good fit to adapt HP into film, not in terms of something good, but reinforcing all that is bad. Okay hear me out for a moment:

With ESPECIALLY the remakes/adaptations by Tim Burton (in particular Planet of the Apes and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), I notice this repeated pattern where he will mostly just follow storybeats almost 1:1, mostly ignoring any deeper context just for his own shallow aesthetics (though in the latter, he removes any character of Charlie and forces a whole thing about Wonka on us). With Harry Potter, I could definitely see him following ALL the storybeats, or as much as possible, while blindly ignoring all the implications. We'd get stuff like SPEW in his films. Or hell, look at his adaptation of Ms. Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, where he erases all the symbolism and themes in regards to WW2 and the Holocaust.

And with all that in mind, with Harry Potter and the Wizarding World a major thing I notice is the whole allegorical stuff of bigotry or (fake) progressive stuff, which would really blend with Burton. Aside from his infamous "black people don't fit my aesthetic" rant, in a lot of his films we really also see with how he likes the idea of an outsider, but it's usually not someone actually marginalized (nonwhite people, queerfolk, etc.). With how HP pretends to be progressive, and the whole aspect with an outsider having power but using it to reinforce the status quo, it would definitely suit Tim Burton. And also with all the racist implications and later with changing race of characters for personal agendas, it would also go quite well with Burton's colorblindness.

And for some two last things to bring up: You know how recently there's this weird aggressive defending of Burton's Chocolate Factory adaptation, and particularly Depp's depiction of Wonka? Well imagine that chaos with the insanity of HP fans because "it follows the book really close". Or, imagine all the open misogyny and apologia we'd get from audiences and fans from a Snape played by Johnny Depp...