Corpse Bride (2005) (Movie Review)

     Even though Tim Burton didn’t direct 1993’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas”, his name is still frequently associated with spooky stop-motion films aimed at younger viewers. I’ll admit, ever sense I first watched “The Nightmare Before Christmas”, as well as Tim Burton’s haunted stop-motion short titled “Vincent”, I so badly wanted to see a theatrically released, spooky themed stop-motion picture that would be both written and directed by Tim Burton himself. My childhood wish was finally granted way back in 2005, with the animated picture “Corpse Bride”. 

I remember being in my middle school years when this movie premiered, and I remember not liking it upon my first viewing. Over the years, it’s grown on me, and now days I look back on it as a more favorable Tim Burton offering. While I wouldn’t call this movie a classic in the same vein of other Burton or even other animated productions, it’s never the less had a secure placement among the many animated movies that I love to re-watch around the Halloween season. I suppose you could call it a guilty pleasure, although, despite some reservations I have with “Corpse Bride”, I really don’t think the film is quiet polarizing enough for me to brand as a “guilty pleasure”. At the 78^th Academy Awards, “Corpse Bride” was nominated for best animated picture, and personally, I wish it won over Dream Works “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit”. So, lets take a closer look at the very first spooky themed, animated stop-motion movie that Tim Burton directed.  

    Set in a fictionalized Victorian era village in England, a young man named Victor is getting cold feet, as he’s forced into an arranged marriage with a young woman named Victoria, who he has yet to meet. By the way, am I the only one who finds it a little redundant that a man named Victor is marrying a girl named Victoria in the Victorian era? Anyway, while their time together is short, the young lady takes a liking to her groom to be, all while her cranky parents are put-off by his clumsy antics during a rehearsal. Grief-stricken after his performance, Victor wanders out into the woods, and aims to hopefully perfect his wedding vows. 

Through an absolutely breathtaking sequence, Victors vows resurrect the corpse of a bride, who was slain in the woods, and waiting for someone to set her spirit free. Seriously though, the scene when she first comes to life is a thing of gothic beauty to behold, with great build-up, and these awesome haunted visuals of moon light shining through skinny trees, and birds ominously present ... it’s easily one of the great highlights of the film, and gives me chills every time. Also, the segue between the spooky woods and Victor’s arrival in the land of the dead is bridged with one of the most inventive scene transitions I’ve ever seen. Now as a resident in the world of the dead, Victor finds himself in quiet the odd predicament, especially between helping the cursed zombie bride named Emily find her proper match, or returning to the young Vitoria who won his heart first. Meanwhile, lurking in the shadows is a mysterious Lord Barkis, who aims to win the hand of Victoria, and is secretly the murderer of our Corpse Bride Emily.

    The film is drenched in the same kid friendly, yet gothic atmosphere that characterized “The Nightmare Before Christmas”, and it carries Burton’s signature trademark of crafting a whimsical experience through a macabre story and setting. 

It feels like something original that came straight from the mind of Tim Burton, and it’s so refreshing for a film to capture the same spirit of all those classic fairytale stories, without being a reimagining of an already known title. Naturally, the film is gorgeous to look at, with Burton’s signature designs and practical puppet effects carrying the film. Also, just like how both Halloween and Christmas were characterized as polar opposite settings in “The Nightmare Before Christmas”, “Corpse Bride” features an equally effective contrast between the land of the dead and the land of the living. 

In a clever twist, it’s England’s living inhabitance who are characterized as being more dead and life-less than all the residents of the underworld, who’ve learned to truly live after losing everything that tied them to the mortal world. It works as both a satire and commentary, but what I really love is how it characterizes the individual settings. The land of the dead is bursting with personality, color, and in my view is even superior to the previously featured Halloweentown from “The Nightmare Before Christmas”. While I always loved the concept, I never liked how that films Halloweentown was characterized as a joyless black and white picture. This time around, it’s the spooky setting that’s drenched in all these stunning purples and greens, as well as populated with an assortment of delightful characters.

   Honestly, I find the majority to these ghostly inhabitances more likable and appealing then the main leads. We have Michael Gough, who’d previously played Alfred in Tim Burton’s Batman, voicing an Elder Skeleton, and is easily one of the most lovable additions in the film. Jane Horrocks brings a lot of charisma to the voice of a residential Black Widow Spider. Even Enn Reitel dose a solid Peter Lorie impression as he voices a Maggot that resides within the corpse bride’s head. 

Of course, it’s the Corpse Bride herself named Emily who’s at the heart of the picture, and carries the film with ease. She has a tragic backstory that effectively plays to our sympathy, but beyond that, the character is so innocent, and chalk full of charisma, to the point where I’m with her on every step of the journey. Helena Bonham Carter delivers a spirited performance, infusing the bride with a lot of personality, but can also convey the more complex emotions of the character. I also like how the tables are reversed in this figurative beauty and beast story, as the girl is usually the normal good looking human, while the male is grotesque and deformed. This time it’s the male with a normal appearance, and the woman who’s monstrous. Although, with that said, Emily is actually quite beautiful for a zombie … in fact, I think she’s more appealing than the human female.        

On that note, the main characters all play their parts fine, and are acted well, but with the exception of the corpse bride Emily, I’ve never really loved any of these main characters. Johnny Depp voices our lead named Victor, and while he isn’t bad, there was nothing about the character that stood out to me other then the straight forward goof-up who finds his feet at the end. His human love interest named Victoria is again voiced well by Emily Watson, but I just find the character average and forgettable. Richard E. Grant delivers an enjoyably sinister vocal performance as the villainess Lord Barkis, but I must admit, he too is kind of a boring and generic antagonist. Despite serving an integral part of the story, and effectively tying into Emily’s tragic fate, the character simply doesn’t have much of a presence, which makes him dull when compared to other memorable villains from countless other animated Halloween movies. The one other human character I have to mention is the village Pastor named Galswells, who was voiced by the late great Christorpher Lee. Despite being a small part, Christorpher Lee is a lot of fun, and is given full rein to elevate his voice in a way that he rarely did in live action. Personally, I think this film would have been better if he was somehow the main antagonist, as opposed to the actual villain.  

    Just like with “The Nightmare Before Christmas”, “Corpse Bride” is also a musical, but this time with half the number of songs, and honestly, only half of them are descent. The opening number called “According to Plan” does its job setting up both story and character, but I wouldn’t call it a high-note to kick off the film. 

Emily’s song called “Tears to Shed” would have been one of the films great emotional highlights if it was just Emily seeing alone, but unfortunately that Peter Lorie Magot and Black Widow Spider are also singing, and they spoil the sobering mood of the song. The third act of the movie kicks off with “The Wedding Song”, which is an absolutely rousing musical number, with all the colorful underworld inhabitance getting together for one big joyous celebration. My favorite song number by far is the “Remains of the Day” sequence, in which we’re given the full backstory off our re-animated bride, but the tragedy of the subject is in contrast to an up-scale musical number in a jazzy night club. It genuinely fits with the tone of the film, and the animation on display is outstanding, with striking colors, a busy environment, and arguably the greatest ensemble of stop-Motion Skeletons senses the days of “Jason and the Argonauts”. In fact, I think this song was meant as a homage to Disney’s classic animated Silly Symphony short called “Skeleton Dance”.

    Also, you can’t get any better than the lead Skeleton singer voiced by the wickedly talented Danny Elfman, who’s clearly channeling Sammy Davis in his delivery. As per usual with Burtons films, Danny Elfman both wrote the songs and composed the music. While the songs come off as hit and miss, Elfman’s instrumental score for “Corpse Bride” is excellent, and his use of piano ques really help adding some dimension to the characters. One of my favorite scenes is when Victor attempts to make an apology to Emily for deceiving her earlier, and instead of a long “forgive me” speech, the two just sit-down in silence while tapping a few random keys on a piano. Things escalate into a delightful little piano duel, and the two have excellent chemistry in this one scene. It’s so good, it makes me wish the two got together in the end. While that doesn’t happen, we do still get a satisfying conclusion in which both our bride and groom are released from their own figurative and spiritual bondages. Despite kind of a forced climax in which Victor gets into a sword fight with the villain, the film still closes on a subtle, and even beautiful final note. I especially like this one detail in which the bride takes her first and final breath of air before her spirit departs, as her lack of breathing had been established several times through the picture.    

   It’s also worth noting that the film was dedicated to the memory of Executive Producer Joe Ranft, who sadly passed away in a car accident during production. If you’re not familiar with his name, he storyboarded a number of classic Disney movies from the late 80’s through the 90’s, including “Beauty and the Beast”, “The Nightmare Before Christmas”, “The Lion King”, and “Toy Story”, so it’s great that he contributed to this film as well. In the end, “Corpse Bride” is a great example of how you should never judge a film by its title. 

I remember after first seeing the trailer, “Corpse Bride” looked and sounded like a really stupid idea for a Halloween special, but director Tim Burton gave it a really nice touch, and surpassed my expectations. The story revolving around a man who finds himself accidently engaged to zombie bride plays less like a gothic horror, and is a testament for original story ideas in our repetitive age of remakes and reboots. It’s an original, romantic, and a surprisingly toughing film about long lost love, and is a visual marvel to behold. Again, I wouldn’t place “Corpse Bride” quite as high on the animated Halloween totem pole as films like “Coraline” or “ParaNorman”, but it’s still good, and well worth checking out this October if you haven’t seen it yet. It’s one of Tim Burton’s more uplifting and wholesome films, but not without some enjoyably dark visuals, and a lot of imagination on display.

Thanks for reading my review of the animated 2005 Halloween movie “Corpse Bride” … and continue to make every day in October feel like Halloween!