Have you seen Balance(animated short)?

I have seen the short film, very well done but I do not know the answer to your question. I am not sure that the numbers represent anything, or at least anything that we are supposed to understand. Perhaps the director chose them for person reasons. I can see the Burton resemblance you mentioned as well, I am sure Burton has seen this and was inspired by it when creating some of his characters, as it was an Oscar winning piece of animation. Burton is greatly influenced by many other artists, check out Edward Gorey.