"Relies more on visually pleasing the audience"

Rating: 7/10 (13 October 2005)

Victor messed up his vows during a wedding rehearsal, and is traveling through the woods, reciting his vows. He stops to rest in the woods,and while practicing, he gets them right and puts his wedding ring on a finger-shaped stick in the ground and says his wedding vows. The stick turns out to be a rotted finger belonging to a murdered girl, who returns as a zombie and insists that she is now Victor's lawfully wedded wife.
When seeing this film, one will make the connection to The Nightmare Before Christmas, which is unfair in the sense that they are two totally different films, only similar in the animation. Leave it to Tim Burton to take us inside his "cooky-artist" head to bring us the beautiful Corpse Bride.
Technically, Corpse Bride is ahead of the race in every sense of the word. Lightyears ahead of NBC in terms of style, with quirky characters bug eyes and legs as thin as toothpicks. Stop-motion animation is a form that should be more explored in film. Corpse Bride unfortunately relies too heavily on it's animation and strays away from it's story.
It seems the motivation of the main character, to fall in love with this corpse is a little hard to follow. At first, he's terrified of her, then wants to run and hide from her, then falls in love with her and will die for her...but loves someone else in the end. Corpse Bride takes all these emotions throws them into a blender and hits the ultra mix button. This leaves the viewer with an awkward feeling at the end towards our so called hero.
Okay, so it is a kids movie, so harping on the emotional value could be unfair. But Depp as the lead offers nothing to the movie, which his character always looking shocked, we get Depp voicing it all whimpy. It's good to see the other cast members giving their voices more range, I mean when you hear Christopher Lee's voice as the towns Pastor it's so deep and recognizable that anyone can notice. Helena Bonham Carter does the best with her incredible singing talent and voiced with a lot of depth and emotion.
Danny Elfman's score, along with everyother Burton movie, takes the film to another level. With surprise musical numbers, which aren't too apparent in films these days. It takes you back to those old Disney films.
Seeing the underworld, so vibrant and alive, and seeing the living world, so dreadful and dead, it makes you wonder who's really who in this world. Seeing the two at opposite ends is a feast for the eyes, which is what many people will see this movie for. If you're looking for great animation and musical numbers, then Corpse Bride is the film for you, other-wise the story is kinda of dead.