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Corpse Bride


Review by Clint Morris

Arguably, Tim Burton has done more to bring stop motion animation to the largest number of people than any other filmmaker in history.

First with The Nightmare Before Christmas and now with Corpse Bride Burton takes the most popular aspects of childhood TV classics like "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" (and its many holiday spin-offs) and adds his own magical stamp of creativity evident in many of his feature films like Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and Batman Returns.

Corpse Bride

In Corpse Bride Burton enlists his favourite star, Johnny Depp, as the leading voice of Victor, a nervous ninny of a young man who is inexplicably forced to marry Victoria (Emily Watson) a girl he’s never met.

While practicing his wedding vows in a dark forest he unwittingly places the wedding ring on the finger of a long-ago spurned—and dead—bride (Helena Bonham Carter).

Victor’s resulting entrapment into the strange world of the living dead prevents him from returning to his real wedding where his future in-laws soon find a replacement groom in the form of a greedy opportunist.

Borrowing from some of Disney’s classic cartoons, Burton’s dead give a wonderfully entertaining cabaret performance with dancing skeletons and head (and no body) waiters. The digitally enhanced filming makes you forget the stop motion. That’s good in that the quality of the film is seamless and almost 3D. But it’s bad in the sense that it’s easy to take the painstaking process for granted. However, that’s the way Burton likes it — clever, rapid-fire sight gags that leave you stoked for more of the same.

Just as in Nightmare, the film’s songs and score are done by soundtrack guru Danny Elfman who deserves praise for music that’s fresh and easily separate from Burton’s Jack Skellington classic from 1993.

Although the story and dialogue from Nightmare shined with more imagination, Corpse Bride is still a well-crafted, deadly little tale that’s full of life.

DVD Extras

As per usual with Burton, there are countless amounts of extras and featurettes. Some are your usual fluff pieces such as "Inside the Two Worlds: Includes interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, and production drawings". 

But do to the amazing nature of the way the film was produced, the featurettes on the creation of the stop-motion process adds an extras element of intrigue and interest which would otherwise be lacking if this was just a normal film. "The Animators: the Breath of Life",  finds out how an animator approaches his character’s motivation and why individual animators possess unique skills, while "Tim Burton: Dark vs. Light" explores what inspired Burton to bring the Corpse Bride to life.

Another addition is a music-only track, which allows you to watch the film with solely Danny Elfmans fantastic score playing, and none of that annoying "Dialogue" or "Plot".

Conclusion: Movie 70% Extras: 60%


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