The Honeymoon is Over
Corpse Bride is Amusing, but Predictable
Within the first 15 minutes of Tim Burton's new animated film Corpse Bride I had completely figured out the plot (along with the so-called "mystery" of the bride's untimely demise). Yet, I was drawn to the film, partially because of the wonderful stop-motion animation that is rarely seen in this day and out of a desire to see my expectations exceeded. While the animation in the film is extraordinary, the story is little more than a haunted fairy tale filled with lifeless characters.
Directed by: Tim Burton and
Mike Johnson
Written by: John August (screenplay) and
Pamela Pettler (screenplay)
Starring: Johnny Depp,
Helena Bonham Carter,
Emily Watson, and
Tracey Ullman
Rated 
(for
some scary images and action, and brief mild language)
Running time: 76 min.
FilmGuru's Rating : 5 out of 10.
Johnny Depp voices Victor, a young man betrothed to a girl he has never met. Their families have arranged this wedding, hers to bring wealth back into the family and his to give their nouveau riche status a bit of respectability. Victor meets Victoria (Emily Watson) moments before their wedding rehearsal, but their shared situation makes them kindred spirits and they quickly fall in love. After fumbling through the rehearsal, Victor is sent away to learn his vows and -- by bizarre circumstance -- ends up married to a dead girl instead. The corpse bride, Emily (Helena Bonham Carter) takes Victor down below where the dead pass time for eternity. There he is introduced to the afterlife although he is still alive and wants to get home.
The animation of Corpse Bride is a testament to a long-gone art form. With the exception of Burton's own The Nightmare Before Christmas, I can think of only a handful of other films in the past twenty years that used stop-motion animation. I grew up on science fiction and fantasy films, many of which employed the special effects of stop-motion photography. Ray Harryhausen was the master of the art form, and it is nice that Burton pays tribute to him in this film. (The piano that Victor plays when he meets Victoria is labeled "Harryhausen.")
Also worth note is the lack of color in this world. The living world is colored with a series of muted blues and grays, making the film seem like an old black & white horror movie. When Victor wakes up in the underworld, however, the afterlife is teeming with bright, vivid color. Of course, most of the dead are either white skeletons or blue-skinned undead, but the rest of the underworld has color, something sorely lacking from Victor's life.
The characters (both alive and undead) are not remarkable. The corpse bride is hauntingly beautiful, even if her left arm and right leg are nothing but bone. The other undead characters are stereotypical background noise, including a maggot (voiced by Enn Reitel) that does a bad Peter Lorre impression throughout the film. The living characters are likewise uninspired. Each of them plays like a character in a poor melodrama, with bad characters so obviously bad that they inspire the audience to want to boo and hiss. Victoria acts likes furniture throughout the film, never really accomplishing much but being moved from room to room by other characters. It made me wonder why Victor found her attractive.
While the story progresses quickly, it is amazingly predictable. Unfortunately, the film fails to show motivation for the characters and their actions. Victor adapts quickly to the idea of being surrounded by the dead. In fact, the dead hardly produce much fright for anyone at all.
There are a couple of musical numbers in the film, including a horrible initial song about the pending wedding as viewed from both sides of the family. Although most were not nearly so unpleasant, all are fairly forgettable.
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