 "Photo: Warner Bros.")
 "Photo: Warner Bros.")
3 Stars Corpse Bride Dir. by Tim Burton Warner Bros.
After wowing audiences this summer with his hyper-visual remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Tim Burton is back with a project close to his heart (or, perhaps, his grave).
Corpse Bride uses an updated version of the stop-motion clay animation used in The Nightmare Before Christmas and the result is dazzling to watch.
Johnny Depp voices the unlikely groom, Victor Van Dort and Helena Bonham Carter does a superb job of bringing the Corpse Bride to life. Carter even sings several tunes from the score created by long-time Burton collaborator Danny Elfman. This project is Depp's fifth collaboration with Burton (creatively at least, Depp is to Burton what Uma is to Quentin.)
When Victor is forced to marry Victoria Everglot (voiced by Emily Watson), the daughter of broke, evil aristocrats, he forgets his vows at the rehearsal and runs into the woods to save himself from embarrassment.
While he wanders the forest reciting his vows, an unlikely set of circumstances leads him to accidentally marry Emily, an unfortunate bride-to-be who was killed on her wedding day. She rises up from the ground, still in her wedding dress, grabs Victor's hand, and proclaims him her new husband. They descend into the Land of the Dead, a bizarre, raucous place where the deceased gather at local pubs, and skeleton barbershop quartets delight the undead.
To appease her new groom, the Corpse Bride offers Victor a wedding gift. He opens the box to find his deceased dog's skeleton wagging its tail at him. "Isn't he cute?" asks Emily. "You should have seen him with fur," replies Victor excitedly. Although Emily is beautiful, Victor does not wish to be married to "a bride without a pulse." He finds himself longing to be back with Victoria in the land of the living. The two women are both enchanted with Victor, and they both make valiant attempts to end up with him. When Victoria and the Corpse Bride meet above ground, it is easy to sympathize with both, and the story takes a surprisingly poignant turn.
Burton enjoys reusing his actors; besides Depp and Carter, Christopher Lee returns from Charlie to play the reluctant Pastor Galswells (his voice still sounds like Saruman's) and Albert Finney plays Victoria's father. When the characters are in the Victorian world above, they are shrouded in a gray cloud of gloom and rain that is reminiscent of Nazi Germany. Ironically, it is only in the underworld where characters start to come alive and show some personality.
Critics may point out the similarities between Corpse Bride and The Nightmare Before Christmas, but the updated animation and exciting voice work should be enough to fill the theaters. At a brisk 77 minutes, Burton has crafted an over-the-top animated film that is amusing and spooky, and still retains a universal message both kids and adults will enjoy.
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