The Corpse Bride (* * * *)

As a big Tim Burton as well as Stop Animation fan it will come to no surprise for most of you to know that I liked Tim Burton's The Corpse Bride. I thought this movie was a lot of fun, it was clever and interesting. Tim Burton definitely has his own style and it's very obvious with this movie. The music was good and the characters were very funny. The only drawback to The Corpse Bride was that it moved pretty slow and the plot was very thin, but it was easy to overlook these problems because the movie was so clever.

First of all, if you are a Tim Burton or Nightmare Before Christmas fan you have probably already seen The Corpse Bride. If you haven't, then you might as well go and see it because you will most likely enjoy it. The style is on par with Tim Burtons previous work and although not as good as Nightmare, it's very similar. As with all of Burton's films it's dark in appearance and visual style but very light hearted, funny and heartwarming in depth.

The story seems to remind me of several fairy tales mixed into one weird story. It's basically the story about Victor Van Dort, the groom of the story. He mistakenly marries a Corpse, hence The Corpse Bride. Because he doesn't really want to be married to the corpse he must find a way to leave the land of the dead, get rid of the corpse and marry his intended bride Victoria Everglot. The story revolves around these main characters and their families in a very funny way. The dialogue is really good and is what really keeps you interested as the story progresses rather slowly. Not all of the dialogue is sung to the audience, a lot of it is spoken. You are more interested in what the characters are going to say next, rather than what they are going to do next.

The music was done by Danny Elfman, (who else for a Burton film) and is very clever. It is somewhat of a musical as the music has dialogue that helps tell the story. There are several characters that sing and the lyrics are very funny. The music has it's own style, similar to the Halloween style of Nightmare.

The characters were very good, the style and look of the clay-made characters was very funny. Burton has such great creativity and the ability to put it onto the screen. Each character has a sort of exaggerated shape physically that somewhat defines what their personality is. Each is voiced by several Burton regulars including Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Christopher Lee, Albert Finney , Danny Elfman and Tracy Ulman. The voices match the characters very well and the characters are the best part of the whole film.

Unfortunately because the plot is thin, the movie progresses very slow. The movie is short so it's not that big of a deal. I wasn't bored watching the movie but I do think it could have been paced a little better.

The Bottom Line...

The Corpse Bride is a good movie, it's fun and very clever. If you are a fan of Tim Burton movies, especially The Nightmare Before Christmas, you will like The Corpse Bride. It was difficult not to compare it to Nightmare and if I were to do so I don't think it's as good. I recommend this movie to people who like animated movies and are interested in seeing something different. Young kids might be scared during some parts, but most of the scary stuff is humorous in nature so it's not very frightening. Young kids might just be bored during the movie because although it's short it does move slowly. I would say that the movie was intended more for teenagers and adults than kids. The visual style and animation is great, it amazes me with what they can do with clay. Rated PG for mild scary images and action.