Let sleeping corpses lie!

Rating: 1/10 (25 September 2005)

WIth so much hype for Burton and this film, the in-theater experience was just like visiting a morgue. The matinée audience I shared the showing with was as quiet as if at a funeral. And, they were right, because there is nothing here we have not seen before, done better, probably by many of these same artists.
The story makes no sense whatever. The story is dead. Here is a boy who does nothing all day, which is his personality and aspirations. He has no motivation, and so, he is dead, and thus fits into the story.
Then, for no reason, he marries this corpse, and gradually comes to become enamored with the dead chick. He feels at home with the dead, since he does nothing. He has more in common with Emily as is shown by their piano duet. (Victoria does nothing, like Victor, but less since Victor seems permitted to play piano.) Just when they seem to be hitting it off, Victor returns to the surface to see Victoria and he flops again.
Then, in the end, he wants to marry Emily, but then he sees Victoria, and you start asking yourself....How can Victor be so shallow and have two would-be brides? Nobody believes Victor knows what he wants or who he is. So, why are we talking about him and this pointless story?
The music is dead, and not as memorable as many of the characters who seem to be familiar from somewhere...The skeleton dog is the same, Emily looks a lot like Sally, there are many clones..no, homages, to Nightmare. Vincent looks like Vincent from Vincent, Burton's thesis project. We have seen this before. There is neither development nor creativity. The characters are dead.
The movie is a short 76 minutes. And there seems to be some good go-motion animation and there is clearly some digital clean up. However, this whole project is dead. The kids in the audience were bored, confused. The adults were less so. DO yourself a favor, let dead dogs lie. Rent Nightmare.
Will