Tim: My Batman lighter than Nolan's

Tim Burton has said he thinks his film versions of Batman were much more light-hearted than Christopher Nolan's.

The Frankenweenie director thinks his Caped Crusader in his 1989 film Batman and the 1992 sequel Batman Returns looked as though he was having fun in the sun compared to where the current Dark Knight series has taken the comic-book vigilante on the big-screen.

Tim said: "I recall at the time, people worried about our version being too dark. It's like, well, it looks like a light-hearted romp in comparison. 'Batman on Ice.'"

Opening next week, The Dark Knight Rises wraps up director Christopher Nolan's trilogy that launched with 2005's Batman Begins and continued with 2008's The Dark Knight.

Chris elevated the superhero genre to grand proportions, with Christian Bale's Batman becoming a haunted wreck and a hunted fugitive unjustly condemned by the city which he gave his all to protect.

Tim's Batman, played by Michael Keaton, was a dark soul, too, but the films had a levity and a campier quality that has diminished as today's stream of superhero flicks take their idols and action more seriously.

"The great thing about what comics have done is that you can take something and look at it in different ways," Tim said in an interview at the Comic-Con fan convention, where he showed off footage of his animated comedy Frankenweenie.

"It's like a folk tale or fairy tale. You can kind of revisit things and show things in a different way," he added.