Corpse Bride [Blu-ray]

 

 

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Tim Burton has become reknowned for his movies about the weird and the macabre. Sometimes weird, FUNNY and macabre.

And "Corpse Bride" has all three qualities, mixing in the bizarre and wacky with a bittersweet love story. It also has the sort of goofy ickiness that really expert haunted houses have -- you're enjoying the ghouls and skeletons too much to care who it's aimed at. This is an "underground" film in the best sense of the word.

Victor (Johnny Depp) is at the rehearsal for his arranged wedding, when he forgets his vows. Not a good omen. He runs out and rehearses it by himself, and ends up slipping the ring on the finger of a dead girl, Emily (Helena Bonham Carter). But Emily, who died tragically, falls in love with Victor and considers herself married to him.

Now Victor is trapped in the underworld, which is a surprisingly cheery, upbeat place when you consider everyone is dead. He tries to find his way back to the world of the living, but soon finds himself more drawn to the tragic Emily. Now he must make the ultimate choice: Will he return (for as long as he lives) to his arranged bride, or stay in the underworld with the Corpse Bride?

You'd think a movie about dead people would be depressing. At the very least, dark. But surprisingly "Corpse Bride" is neither -- instead, Burton has crafted a sweet, enchanting little love story where one of the people happens to be dead, and which is set in the underworld. There's nothing frightening about it. If anything, it's enchanting.

Is the plot original? Heck no -- boil it down, and you have a boy-meets-girl-while-engaged-to-another-girl story. But it's the delivery that's charming, from the funny dialogue ("Play dead!") to the colorful inhabitants of the underworld (like the pirate, or the intimidating minister). The macabre humour and song-and-dance numbers add to the charm of this world, where the dead are more alive than the living.

And the voice actors seal the deal; what could have been merely funny becomes touching, in their hands.Johnny Depp brings the timid, tremulous Victor to life, and makes his dilemma believable, while Carter makes us look past protruding bones and bluish skin, to the sweet romantic Emily was. The only problem is that moronic maggot -- it's an annoying distraction.

It's not quite on the level of cult classic "The Nightmare Before Christmas," but "Corpse Bride" is still a hilarious, bittersweet little story with a macabre twist. Delightful.

Any fan of Tim Burton's 'Nightmare Before Christmas' will love this film. It's a darkly gothic, yet beautiful love story about a young man, Victor who accidentally marries a corpse while practicing his wedding vows. His 'bride' Emily had been spurned by her lover in life, and is desperate to find love with her new groom, whilst the hapless Victor wants only to return to the land of the living and his beautiful fiancée, Victoria. Meanwhile the sinister Lord Barkis Bittern is determined to step into Victor's shoes and marry Victoria himself.

Filmed in stop/motion (like Nightmare) the film has a surreal but captivating air. The living world is colourless and dark whilst the land of the dead is a vibrant, lively place, full of music and colour...a nice twist on the usual view.

Tim Burton has once again teamed with Johnny Depp (the voice of Victor) and his real life partner Helena Bonham Carter (the corpse bride). He also uses the voices of other well-known talents such as Joanna Lumley, Richard E. Grant, Tracey Ullman, Christopher Lee and Jane Horrocks to name but a few. Danny Elfman composed the music for the movie and with his usual flair has matched the mood of the film perfectly.

The DVD has been well produced and there are several featurettes including a music only track, interviews with Tim Burton and Danny Elfman, production galleries, and a look at the actors performing their voice-overs. This is a quality film on a quality disc and well worth adding to your collection.

"Hey, give me a listen

Your corpses of cheer

At least those of you

Who still got an ear

I'll tell you a story

Make a skeleton cry

Of our own jubiliciously

Lovely Corpse Bride"

"Tim Burtons' Corpse Bride" is a film that may well suffer from heightened expectations, given the place that "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas" has in popular culture and the long period we had to wait for a second hauntingly animated film done with similarly distinctive characters. But this 2005 film, which has just been nominated for the Best Animated Feature Academy Award in time for its DVD release, has its own charm and will win its own cadre of devotees that will want a figure of the lovely Corpse Bride on their nightstand. After all, there is something poignant in the question: can a heart still break once it has stopped beating?

Directed by both Burton and Mike Johnson (who animated "James and the Giant Peach"), this is the story of the unlikely love triangle in which Victor Van Dort (voiced by Johnny Depp) finds himself involved. A marriage has been arranged between Victor and Victoria Everglot (Emily Watson). His parents, who sell fish, want the prestige of being associated with the Everglots, while her parents, who are secretly broke, want the neuvo riche money of the Van Dorts. The prospect of marrying a woman he has just met is rather daunting to Victor and after botching the rehearsal he goes off into the woods to practice his vows, which is how he comes to accidentally marry the Corpse Bride (Helena Bonham Carter). She brings Victor home to meet her friends and he ends up taking her to the land of the living to meet his parents. He tries to explain that he never wanted to marry a corpse (who does?), but his character is such that he does not want to hurt her with the truth and he is touched by her wedding gift and the fact she had a real name (Emily) and a tragic story (apparently murdered by her fiancée for the family jewels).

There are additional complications in that Victor still has feeling for Victoria, whose parents quickly find another groom, Lord Barkis Bittern (Richard E. Grant), as news spreads that Victor has eloped with a charming corpse. If Victoria is going to get married, then perhaps Victor should make sure he and Emily get a proper wedding as well ("Dearly beloved and departed," intones the skeleton presiding over the ceremony). Meanwhile, Burton and Johnson are filling the frame with macabre character details in the tradition of wall-to-wall visual delights within the frame that is the hallmark of contemporary animation, whether it is computer generated, stop motion, or the truly old school method of painting images on cels.

If "The Nightmare Before Christmas" took great pleasure in having the creatures of Halloween take over the symbols of Yuletide, then "Corpse Bride" is content to turn the worlds of the living and the dead upside down. The living are done in the washed out browns of a daguerreotype while the dead are shown in brighter colors favoring a blue palette. For the most part the living are dreary, hateful, and ultimately boring people, while the dead all seem to be jumping around a lot more than they probably did when they were alive. Their songs are perkier too (i.e., "Remains of the Day"), or at least more revealing (i.e., "Tears to Shed"), than those sung by the living (i.e., "According to Plan"). Plus, I like any fight scene where I can yell, "Look out! He has a fork!"

I ended up rounding up on "Corpse Bride" for several reasons. First, the title character has a compelling beauty with her large eyes and lovely blue skin, especially as she glides around in her billowing wedding dress. Second, I just like this style of animation, pretty much regardless of what is happening in the story but especially since it always strikes me as being in the spirit of Chas. Addams (Morticia and Emily have to be related on some level, right?). Third, given that both Emily and Victoria are sympathetic characters, I could not see how "Corpse Bridge" was going to come up with anything approaching an actual happy ending, so I was pleasantly surprised (even though Johnson and Burton foreshadow Emily's fate before the movie's title pops up on the screen). There is also the nice touch when the film underscores the fact that social class distinctions do not matter when you are dead, even if you are not gone.

"Die, die, we all pass away

But don't wear a frown

Because it's really okay

You might try and hide

And you might try to pray

But we all end up

The remains of the day"

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5.0 out of 5 stars Great Blu-ray Pick
I made a great Blu-ray choice with Corpse Bride,It looks so wonderful on Blu-ray and on a big 55in LED TV...Thanks again for this wonderful choice...

Published 6 months ago by Scott J

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Burton Classic
A must for either a Tim Burton fan or a Johnny Depp fan (or both!). Watching this movie is entertaining in many ways: the story, the dialogue, the voices, the Burton "quirkiness",... Read more

Published 15 months ago by thaismomma

5.0 out of 5 stars Give it a Chance
Tim Burtons "Corpse Bride"

I LOVE Tim Burton flicks. I've seen each and every one of his films time and time again. Read more

Published on July 25 2008 by Jamieson Villeneuve

4.0 out of 5 stars Magical story telling!
Just when I tought Tim Burton could not get any better... Well The corpse bride is just funny & absolutely silly! Read more

Published on July 21 2008 by Martine

4.0 out of 5 stars pretty well done stop motion animation film from Tim Burton
for the most par,i liked this stop motion animation film,directed and
produced by Tim Burton.he also produced The Nightmare Before Chtistmas
and James and the Giant... Read more

Published on Oct 28 2007 by falcon

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Depp and Burton Movie -- naturally
Ahh, another of my Depp faves...I watched this a quite a few months back, but the magic is not lost. Read more

Published on May 23 2007 by Deppian

4.0 out of 5 stars Ghoulfriend
Tim Burton has become reknowned for his movies about the weird, the macabre, and the very funny. And his new stop-animated masterpiece "Corpse Bride," a host of bizarre characters... Read more

Published on Mar 22 2007 by E. A Solinas

5.0 out of 5 stars A dark masterpiece of Burton's unique imagination
Wouldn't it have been great to have been buddies with Tim Burton as a child? He must have been the coolest cat around, a genius with an imaginatively poetic attraction to the... Read more

Published on Sep 4 2006 by Daniel Jolley

4.0 out of 5 stars Mixed feelings but was vindicated at the end!
I saw this movie when it was newly released in the theatre and i had mixed feelings about it. On one end i loved the imagery and the dark, gothic tones to the movie. Read more

Published on Aug 23 2006 by Sherry Ripper

5.0 out of 5 stars Pure magic.
Any fan of Tim Burton's 'Nightmare Before Christmas' will love this film. It's a darkly gothic, yet beautiful love story about a young man, Victor who accidentally marries a... Read more

Published on Jun 15 2006 by Ms. H. Sinton

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