Film director Tim Burton is know for bringing the dead to life in films such as Beetlejuice, Corpse Bride, and The Nightmare Before Christmas but he has literally breathed life into his latest creation, “B.” (short for Balloon Boy), which debuted at the Tim Burton Retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art.

B. was created, Frankenstein’s monster-style, from the leftover balloons used in children’s parties at the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. Forbidden from playing with other children because of his jagged teeth and crazy-quilt stitching, B. retreated to a basement lair, where he obsesses over Albert Lamorisse’s film “The Red Balloon” and dreams that he, too, will be able to fly someday.

His dream came true when he was drafted for this years Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade as part of the whimsical “Blue Sky Gallery” series introduced in 2005. “There’s always been something about balloons,” Burton reflected. “You see them deflated and you see them floating. There’s something quite beautiful and tragic and sad and buoyant and happy, all at the same time.”