Tim Burton As Crazed Genius

Rating: 9/10 (8 September 2007)

Ah, yes, Tim Burton: the Dr. Frankenstein of the movie industry. While his career has been mostly hit-and-miss (hit: this, "Nightmare Before Christmas," "Beetlejuice"; miss: "Edward Scissorhands," "Frankenweenie"), that doesn't make his ability to work any less phenomenal. And while he's a far cry from the best director ever, "Corpse Bride" puts him somewhere up there.
This amazing story is a very darkly comic musical about a man who unwittingly gets sucked into the abode of the dead... and a shocking contract with the tragic Corpse Bride! Oddly enough, Johnny Depp does his best work ever as a voice-only performance. Helena Bonham Carter, on the other hand, simply delivers a great quality to the Bride. What's great about this film is that it is just so like Burton, with its astounding Walt-Disney-meets-Edgar-Allen-Poe ingenuity. And to be completely honest, "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is better, but "Corpse Bride" is much like Burton himself: not the best, but getting very near. I look forward to more of the director's stop-motion in the future.