The location was a real American town

Although the suburb the film is shot in looks outlandish, it is set in a real American town.

The suburb is based on Burton’s childhood in Burbank, California, and the filmmaker considered using the city for his film, but insisted that it had changed too much for his purposes.

Instead, he used another real city, Tinsmith Circle, Carpenters Run in Lutz, Florida. In 1990, the town had only just been built and the crew repainted each of the houses in one of four pastel colours to give it the iconic look.