MoMA has an exhibition of Tim Burton's films, drawings, sculptures and other artifacts running throughout this year.
He's a master at creating a world for his puppet-like characters to play in. I remember seeing PeeWee's Big Adventure and Beetlejuice and thinking it was like a real-life cartoon, with cartoon-like characters.
I think he's only been successful at any sort of character development with Big Fish, but I don't think that is his forté anyway.
Hopefully the Burton A-Game will be back on-screen in March for Alice in Wonderland. Something he was born to direct.