The retrospective, consisting of a gallery exhibition and a film series, considers Burton's career as a director, producer, writer, and concept artist for live-action and animated films, along with his work as a fiction writer, photographer and illustrator. Following the current of his visual imagination from his earliest childhood drawing through his mature work, the exhibition presents artwork generated during the conception and production of his films, and highlights a number of unrealized projects and never-before-seen pieces, as well as student art, his earliest non-professional films, and examples of his work as a storyteller and graphic artist for non-film projects.

In addition to Sweeney Todd, which starred Johnny Depp in the title role, Burton's many films include Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Batman. His adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, starring Depp alongside Anne Hathaway, Alan Rickman, Michael Sheen, and Helena Bonham Carter, is due to be released in 2010.