What do you do when you find out you are engaged to a dead woman? Seriously, what do you do? Tim Burton has taken the gothic and gruesome idea of marrying a decaying corpse with a maggot living in her head and given it a spunk and life only his imagination could spark.
In an unnamed and gloomy Victorian city our aptly named duo Victor Van Dort (voice by Johnny Depp) and Victoria Everglot (voiced by Emily Watson) have been arranged to be married. The details of the courtship are easy, the two have never met. Victor’s family is made up of fish tycoons Nell and William (voiced by Tracey Ullman and Paul Whitehouse) and while the Van Dort family may be part of the economic class that interests the Everglots (voiced by Joanna Lumley and Albert Finney), their social standing leaves a bit to be desired. Unfortunately, they can’t afford to be picky, literally. You see the Everglots are all but bankrupt and their daughter’s marriage to Victor will be their ticket back up the social ladder.
While the Victor and Victoria marriage guides our story it is Victor’s nervousness that kicks it off. After a botched rehearsal Victor heads into the woods to reflect and practice. Practicing his vows he mistakenly places the wedding ring on what he believed to be the root of a tree, but instead it turned out to be the bony finger of the Corpse Bride (voiced by Helena Bonham Carter).
It is here that we are introduced to the colorful world of the Land of the Dead where dancing skeletons and songs lead by Bonejangles (Danny Elfman) are all-to-common. Victor makes an effort to get back to Victoria, but not even she is able to convince her family Victor has been taken captive and engaged to a dead woman (not exactly a plausible excuse) and she is swiftly engaged to the mysterious Barkis Bittern who just so happened to be in the right place at the right time and has his eyes on the “ultimate” prize.
Corpse Bride is a total Tim Burton effort and you can see it throughout, as this seems to be where Burton shines. Somehow he has managed to master the art of stop-motion animation to a point where you cannot believe your eyes. It is astonishing how a world filled with highly detailed puppets can take on such life. They have put together scenes that look as if they would take years to put together, yet Burton was putting this film together at the same time he made Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. You will notice some of the slightest gestures and the way a dress flows as the women stroll down a staircase.
Filmmaking technique aside where Corpse Bride succeeds is in its story. Rated PG this one may be a bit too scary for really young kids, but overall this is a family feature, and a family feature with heart. The unique thing about the story is that while Victor is placed in a dilemma in which he is married to a dead woman his plight is not determining how he is going to get rid of his decaying new fiancee, rather how he will decide between these two great women. As morbid as that sounds the way this story is told it really works.
As with some of the CGI-animated features that have been in theaters there are moments where you will marvel at what Burton has managed to do with these puppets and a lot of credit goes out to character designer Carlos Grangel who designed all the characters for the feature with painstaking detail and it only takes a few minutes in the feature to realize what a magical piece of filmmaking you are in for.
Personally, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory did nothing for me despite how creative Burton got with the story, but with Corpse Bride he has put together something that can not only be enjoyed based on its visual beauty but on its story as well. A delightful mix of comedy, thrills, romance and drama make Corpse Bride a welcome addition to a year of films lacking anything unique.
