Burton's Mad World Is Now Six Feet Under

Rating: Null/10 (30 October 2005)

Starting off in the bleak world of the living, The Corpse Bride introduces us to Victor (Johnny Depp) and Victoria (Emily Watson), the couple soon to be wed and just about meet. Both shy and anxious about marrying someone they do not love, they meet and thankfully DO love each other. Phew! But then....
Whilst practising his admittedly very difficult wedding vows, Victor places the ring on what appears to be a hand-shaped branch in the spooky forest/cemetry. The hand-shaped branch turns out to be the actual hand of a corpse bride (Helena Bonham-Carter) and now Victor and Corpsey are married. Oops.
Burton's animation is incredible. Quirky and Gothic, he's cleverly depicted the land of the living in near monotone and the land of the dead in vibrant, almost electrifying colour. Skeletons dance and maggots pop out of eye-sockets in some truly gorgeous song-and-dances. Victor tries to escape his gruesome but oddly fetching wife and return to save his True Love from the evil Lord Barkis, but he then learns that even though his wife hasn't got a pulse, she's still got feelings.
The Corpse Bride can be safely assured of a spot in the canon of clever, funny and entertaining animated movies, although it probably won't get any further than that. Its short run-time and simple, although sweet, story makes it a kiddy classic with some appeal for adults. But despite its advanced visual effects, The Corpse Bride is not as wacky as other Burton ventures like Big Fish and it seems to fall just a tiny bit short of being spectacular.