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Tim Burton's Corpse Bride (Mark's Take)
01/10/2005 . Source: Mark R. Leeper 
This is another joyously morbid fairy tale from Tim Burton. A nebbish makes a fatal mistake and accidentally weds a zombie. These mixed marriages - one living and one dead - never really last. But while this one does our hapless hero gets to meet the underworld society of the dead. The mock morbidity is a lot of fun, and it all comes to a heart-warming ending. The animation is not cutting edge, but it is very good. There are a host of familiar voices as a great cast of actors speaks the roles. The film is enchantingly unwholesome.
Rating: +2 (-4 to +4) or 7/10
TIM BURTON'S CORPSE BRIDE is a new Tim Burton animated film in the mould of FRANKENWEENIE and THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS. Once again some of the most lovable people are the ones that traditionally give us nightmares. Like Charles Addams and Edward Gorey before him, Burton knows how to poke a loving jab at things we are supposed to find horrifying. In actual fact, they probably have not been horrifying since Victorian times.
Victor Van Dort (voiced by Johnny Depp, perhaps named Victor for Victor Frankenstein) is in love with patrician Victoria Everglot (Emily Watson). Both sets of parents are very anxious to see the marriage take place. The Van Dorts want to climb the social ladder. Normally people like the Everglots would not want to be seen hobnobbing with people like the Van Dorts. But the Van Dorts have money and the snobbish Finnis Everglot (Albert Finney) wants to tap their resources and is even willing to marry his daughter off to them. Willing, that is, if only Victor can get his marriage vows correct.
The stern Pastor Galswells (Christopher Lee) is losing all patience with Victor and his bad memory. He sends Victor away to practice what he is to say during the marriage ceremony. Victor now can get the words right, but now he is saying them in the wrong place. He is saying them just over the place where a poor and maltreated young woman had died and was buried. Before Victor realizes what he has done he has said his marriage vows to a corpse (Helena Bonham Carter). And this is all she needs to return to life, or at least walking death. The dead woman is delighted to find someone would marry her, considering her delicate condition of being dead.
Victor is now married and it is time to meet the non- surviving members of his wife's family and others from the land of the dead. And of course there is a loveable dog only slightly less loveable for being only a dog skeleton.
Tim Burton likes to deal with the same people from one film to the next so the actors doing the voices are people like Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter who are veterans of previous Burton films. Danny Elfman (who else) nicely provides the music. The songs are pleasant, but it is too early to tell if the music will be as memorable as that of THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS. In at least one way this film does not live up to that predecessor.
In that film it seemed that there was often interesting creative action in every part of the screen. There were throwaway gags and gimmicks happening all over the background. This film perhaps does not have all the creativity that that film had. There is less going on in each frame. Possibly it is less distracting to have less peripheral action, but it is also a little disappointing. Many of the gags seem less original and more retreads from cartoons from the 1930s and 1940s. But the story has its heart in the right place.
This is a tale of love and death, though ultimately much more about love. Parents may want to avoid bringing children much less than eight or ten, but anybody else should have a great time. The biggest fault is that the pleasure lasts only 78 minutes. I would rate TIM BURTON'S CORPSE BRIDE a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale or 7/10.
Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 2005 Mark R. Leeper
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