Not deathly, but not lively

Rating: 6/10 (11 September 2009)

Well, this is no Nightmare before Christmas, but taken as its own work, it's a decently told fairy tale of a man torn between his living, breathing love-of-his-life, and the woman he accidentally marries, who despite being a charming and romantic individual unto herself is, well, dead. He has to choose between these two tender, caring women, without breaking either of their hearts--even if one of their hearts isn't beating. He has to live up to the obligations and promises he makes, no matter how clumsily, 'til death do they part--even if they're already dead. Yeah, yeah, I can come up with them all day, and really that's the basic gist of 90% of the humor in this thing.
It looks pretty, though the "Downstairs" neon lighting is a change from expectations. There are some really stunning moments of animation in here, but some of it is really flat, especially in the non-lead character design (is that a scrotum on her head?). I actually really like the lead characters for the most part, Johnny Depp's voice work is better than expected, but the movie doesn't get going until the "She's a corpse bride!" song and a lot of the minor characters seem to merely stretch out screen-time. Plus, the evil Lord Barkis is... well, not really all that stand-out-ish, as characters are concerned. He feels almost obligatory.
Fans of movies Burton's a fan of will get excited by those little asides (Victor and Victoria, really?), and fans of Burton get exactly what they want from him. This movie isn't bad but it's certainly not great, and for some reasons seems to miss some of the magical excitement of a lot of Burton's other works, animated and live-action--much like, unfortunately, a good part of his later career, which seems to spare no expense of the visuals but only seems half-hearted in the execution.
--PolarisDiB