Filled with the trademark visual plethora to expect from Burton, with the laughs, very good movie

Rating: 8/10 (2 October 2005)

Although I might not say Corpse Bride is a great film on the level of Nightmare Before Christmas (there are some things involved with the characters of Corpse Bride that aren't as realized as in Nightmare, and the songs aren't as instantly classic, arguable I'm sure), I would not tell you not see this film if you are the least bit a fan of Tim Burton's work or of his previous stop-motion film. This time the story brings a torn to-be married gent named Victor (Johnny Depp voices, thankfully not too recognizable) who is in that uncomfortable point as in other movies where he can't take having to marry someone he barely knows, Victoria (Emily Watson), and her money-hungry parents. So, as a lark, he places his engagement ring on a tree, and within a minute he's taken down unwittingly to the land of the dead- as the corpse bride's husband. Things get complicated then within this sort of quasi love triangle, where the terrific horror clichés (and others) of old lay the framework for a really sweet, neo-classical love story.
For the sheer visual marvels that Burton, co-director Mike Johnson, and their genius team (creating more than 100 MILLION frames for each second of animated film), it gets a high recommendation from me. Any reservations I have at all with the film (as I said, not as strong character connections, in particular Victor doesn't hold up like Jack Skellington did with inner conflicts) should not be held too much in comparison with the previous effort from the director. Much of the humor that is brought into the film, which involves about a couple of dozen (at least) puns and gags at old horror films (dancing skeletons and a Peter Lorre inspired earthworm give it two or three points out of the ten automatically), is key and makes the film's more serious elements some balance. It would be one thing if this was all romantic melodrama, but by making it also a sly comedy of (un-dead) manners, it doesn't sell anybody short seeing the film.
Kids (maybe not the wee little ones, like 5 and up) will love the wildness of the film, of the kind of awe that Burton tries to bring out in most of his films; adults will find the gags and some punchlines very funny, and there is one animated song/sequence- I forget it's name but it involves the multiple skeletons, the second song in the film- that ranks up there with 'Pink Elephants' in Dumbo for creating such an array of wonders that it practically doesn't matter what the characters are singing about. At the least, Tim Burton's Corpse Bride is a complete triumph of style (not quite) over substance, and at best it delivers more for the eye than any other animated film has this year.