Dead Funny

Rating: Null/10 (18 January 2006)

Visually stunning and suffused with Tim Burton's trademarked comedy-Gothic feel, this is not a bad movie  but had the unrealised potential to be so much better.
It doesn't favour favourably in comparison with Burton's other necromantic animation, 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'. Both films feature the musical talents of the director's regular composer, Danny Elfman. In 'Nightmare' Elfman voiced the hero, Jack Skellington, and the movie benefited greatly from his superb light-operatic vocalisations. He produced a superb score for that film. The music in 'Corpse Bride' isn't bad, but it's performed, for the most part, by actors  Depp, Helena Bonham-Carter, Albert Finney and Joanna Lumley  who clearly don't have a musical bone in their bodies. Elfman is featured, as a scat-singing 'Mr Bonejangles', and his 'Skeleton Crew' sequence is the most energetic and tuneful portion of the picture.
Depp's English accent is faultless, and he  along with the rest of the cast  resist the temptation to engage in 'cartoon acting'. There are few 'silly voices' and the animated figures are subtly matched with their dramatic vocalisations. Paul Whitehouse's elastic larynx is used to good effect, as he voices half-a-dozen supporting characters.
It looks moody and lush, and probably deserves a second viewing just to relish the expressive subtleties of design and characterisation. It's good. It's also much better than Burton and Depp's other offering this year, the overrated and saccharine-sweetened contrivance that was 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'. I liked it. It just deserves to be a much better film than it actually is.