Tim Burton’s ’’Corpse Bride’’ is certainty a wonderful introduction to the Halloween holiday. Its subject of the macabre, eerie skeletons dancing, blowing horns, beating drums and pounding the beat to the sounds of big band jazz and some pretty good dance tunes of the past, is very amusing. And it’s surely a blast for the little ones and adults alike watching this motion picture. I saw this delightful children’s movie back in September and after watching it I found it to be very entertaining, and enjoyable.
The clay animation and cinematography are wonderfully done, along with a pretty good cast, and storyline which focuses on the strange and funny dilemma a young bridegroom encounters when practicing his wedding vows.
I also found the vocal appearances of legendary actor of British horror, Christopher Lee pleasantly surprising despite his brief role. Tim Burton does a lot of good things with animation in this movie. Like ’’The Nightmare Before Christmas’’ Tim Burton continues his unique artistic creativity and wit with exaggerated facial features, jargon, dialect, and more of the macabre that all adds a big boost of energy, and laughable charm to this animated tale.
Although some scenes are very dark at times, I found the 20th century gothic European ambience to be very entertaining, and pleasantly spooky. There is so much to see in this delightful animated folklore. Tim Burton and Mike Johnson direct ’’Corpse Bride’’. John August, and Pamela Pettler wrote it. The running time for this movie is 1:30, and released on September 23, 2005.
In this movie, a musician (Johnny Depp) is preparing for his wedding, but he has difficulty remembering his wedding vows. Later things take a strange turn when he finds himself at the gravesite of a dead bride whose been murdered by her spouse. While Victor is practicing his wedding vows a rotted and decomposed hand comes out of a grave. Victor places a wedding ring on the finger of the rotting hand, and out comes a dead bride. As a result, the dead bride has convinced Victor that she’s his new wife. Victor now crosses into the underworld of the dead, and plans his new wedding to his corpse bride.
Meanwhile, in the world of the living the family of Victoria Everglot (Emily Watson), Victor’s fiancée gets a visit from the evil and sinister Lord Barkis Bittern. (Richard E. Grant) Lord Barkis Bittern is a greedy man who seeks wealthy woman, and later kills them. He marries Victoria and vows to kill her after she’s told him she’s poor.
Victor is now in the underworld of the dead, he discovers how his corpse bride (Helena Bonham) died. He finds out that Lord Barkis Bittern left her to die on their wedding day. Victor makes a decision to remain in the underworld of the dead and remain with his corpse bride. But in order for Victor to remain with the dead he must drink a poisonous drink, die , and return to life in the underworld. But something terrifying happens when Lord Barkis appears he drinks a class of the poisonous drink, and meets his dead wife. I stop here you’ll find out what happens next when you see ’’Corpse Bride.’’
Final Thoughts on ’’Corpse Bride’’
Overall, ’’Corpse Bride’’ is a very entertaining and fun movie. As I mentioned earlier it’s an excellent introduction, and kick off to the Halloween holiday. ’’Corpse Bride’’ has a lot to offer its young audiences, great animation, cinematography, a fun musical, and an entourage of funny little spooky characters that enthusiastically resembles a haunting depiction of a children’s Halloween book. Tim Burton once again provides and excellent ensemble of animated characters, animation, life, and a good plot in his second masterpiece of clay animation. Acting by this cast also adds an abundance of enthusiasm, and good pacing as well. Tim Burton’s ’’Corpse Bride’’ is a funny and entertaining animated adventure children and adults audiences will enjoy. ’’Corpse Bride’’ scores 5 stars it’s a must see for the little ones, and adult fans of Tim Burton’s clay animated theatrical releases.