Rating:
- 4/4 Stars
Overview/Story:
Vaguely inspired by a Russian folk fable, "Corpse Bride" tells the tale of Victor (voice of Johnny Depp) and Victoria (Emily Watson), a young man and woman in aristocratic England whose arranged marriage is foiled when he accidentally proposes to a dead woman. In the woods where Victor has gone to practice his marriage vows, he places the ring upon a twig that turns out to be the bony wedding finger of Emily (Helena Bonham Carter), a deceased bride who rises from the earth in her tattered gown to accept his proposal. Before he can object, she whisks him into the underworld of lost souls to announce their alliance. Above ground, Victoria worries for the fiancé she'd barely met, while their parents - hers are old rich, trying to save face, his are nouveau-riche embarrassments - fret about the intended merger. Emily is a dish, despite the missing flesh on her cheeks and the tendency of one of her legs to fall off. And the creatures in Deathland - a herd of black widows, a jazz band of skeletons, the lively remains of Victor's old dog, Scraps - make it hard for a guy with a pulse to give it up. Eventually, that is Victor's dilemma: Either give up his mortal life for an endless party among the dead or find a way to get back to sweet Victoria and have a traditional, if wholly ill-conceived, marriage. Despite their differences, Emily and Victoria get along fine when the girls finally meet.
Cast & Info:
Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Emily Watson, Tracey Ullman, Paul Whitehouse
Director: Tim Burton, Michael Johnson
Release Date: Sept. 23, 2005
Running Time: 78 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Official Website: http://corpsebridemovie.warnerbros.com/
Official Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/corpse_bride/
First 10 Minutes:
Like Tim Burton's other stop-motion photography movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas, he starts out with a fine musical crafted by one of the greatest musicians, Danny Elfman. The tune is led by Victor and his family preparing to head over to Viktor's wife to-be's home to meet the family and take tea. While this is in play, Victoria's mother and father prance around their home singing their beloved song "According to Plan" also by Danny Elfman, in which they describe how poor they have become and they must find a suitor for Victoria to save their family from the poor house and living in poverty whilst Victor's family chants their lyrics to the same catchy tune in which they hope their goofy son doesn't screw it all up. Upon entering the home both families are not too fond of each other, but nonetheless Ms. Everglot (Victoria's Mother) invites all of them to take tea. Victor stops short, and begins playing a beautiful tune on the piano which carries into Victoria's room as she prepares herself to meet her future husband. All the while you're enveloped by scenes of their dark, gothic home which gives you the feeling almost of a haunted house, but in fact the family is very unemotional and nothing exciting happens ever within the walls of the home. Victoria follows the tune to the top of the staircase where she see's Victor playing. Walking down to him she startles him and Victor begins apologizing for playing so loudly. She explains she wishes she could play and that he played beautifully. The gaze into each other's eyes if they were immediately in love, although this was indeed the first time the met. Which is ironic, since both were worried in the beginning of not liking their future spouse. Victoria hands Victor a small flower which was in water as a sign of acceptance, and they are immediately interupted by her wicked mother. Thus spinning the long chain of events which force Victor to run out of the house, and into the woods where he meets his real future wife, which was needless to say, less than expected.
Director:
Tim Burton is a director I could talk about for hours, write a book, make a web site, draw his picture, knight him, and right his name in the kingdoms of heaven and it still wouldn't be good enough. He's amazing. I've been infatuated with Tim Burton films ever since I saw 'The Nightmare before Christmas' which inspired me to watch every previous film he made, then make sure to watch anything he directed after. Tim Burton is one of the last people you'd imagine would become one of the most acclaimed directors in the world. He is an introverted, unassuming person. His career got underway at the most famous animation studio in Hollywood, he landed his first directing gig because of a bootleg tape of a short film that was never released, and (for a while, at least) he had a movie in the top-ten grossers of all time. After high school in 1976, Burton attended the California Institute of the Arts. Cal Arts had been founded by Disney as a "breeding ground" for new animators, though they did offer other courses of study. Burton entered the Disney animation program in his second year, thinking it would be a good way to make a living. In 1979, he was drafted to join the Disney animation ranks. Burton did not enjoy being an animator, not one little bit. Imagine, if you will, what it's like to be an animator. Films are projected at 24 frames per second. For a 90-minute film, that's over 129,000 individual frames. Characters are drawn separately and then put together, and placed over painted backgrounds. The work requires talented artists, but they cannot deviate from the structured manner of drawing the characters. Burton had been brought in to work on The Fox And The Hound. It bored him silly. The studio recognized that Burton's talent was not being utilized. They made him a conceptual artist, the people who design the characters that appear in the films. He did early work on The Black Cauldron, the adaptation of the second volume of Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain (a seven-volume fantasy series). If you're familiar with Burton's artwork, you can imagine that his concept drawings were nothing like your standard Disney fare. It didn't go over too well, and it was not used. However, he was set loose on his own projects. These included a poem and artwork that years later would become The Nightmare Before Christmas, the animated short Vincent, and the live-action short Frankenweenie. A list of his movies include:
// Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985)
// Beetlejuice (1988)
// Batman (1989)
// Edward Scissorhands (1990)
// Batman Returns (1992)
// The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
// Edwood (1994)
// Mars Attacks! (1996)
// Sleepy Hollow (1999)
// Planet of the Apes (2001)
// Big Fish (2003)
// Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
// Corpse Bride (2005)
(Information, and short biography gathered from various Tim Burton web sites)
Checklist:
Weird, Crazy, Sexy, Absurd, Chaotic... Stuff (may contain small spoilers)
// Beautifully mis-figured bodies, like in The Nightmare before Christmas.
// Musicals composed by Danny Elfman.
// Lots of death, skeletons, mutilated beings from the underworld.
// Magical, gothic scenery and vivid colors make for nice eye-candy.
// Johnny Depp = amazing actor/voice over.
Conclusion:
Basically... if you enjoyed The Nightmare before Christmas you will enjoy The Corpse Bride just as much if not more. The magic is there, the music is there, the acting is there, the scenery is there, the story is there. This is out for rent or to buy now (Topped DVD sales it's opening week with $7.7 Million), so if you haven't seen it, or are looking for a new DVD to add to your collection, GET THIS. If you enjoy Tim Burton's films, you know that The Nightmare before Christmas was made in 1993, and till this day still grosses millions of dollars in movies, apparel, toys, and other countless collectables. Having the original release of The Corpse Bride on hand will be a great collector's item, and a wonderful movie to share with the family, or by yourself for years to come.
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