A real delight

Rating: 9/10 (22 June 2008)

Timid young Victor Van Dort (the always fine and personable Johnny Depp) is engaged to be married to the sweet and equally mousy Victoria Everglost (Emily Watson in peak charming form). Complications ensue when Victor accidentally weds the nice, lovely and radiant, but very much deceased corpse bride Emily (beautifully voiced with exquisite passion by Helena Bonham Carter). Directors Tim Burton and Mike Johnson, working from a bright and witty script by John August, Caroline Thompson and Pamela Pettler, concoct a deliciously quirky and inspired cinematic meditation on life, death, love, kindness, sacrifice, and mortality. Depp, Watson, and especially Carter all do sterling work as the appealing main characters; they get excellent support from Albert Finney as the grouchy Finis Everglot, Joanna Lumley as his similarly sour spouse Maudeline, Tracy Ullman as overbearing shrew Nell Van Dort, Paul Whitehouse as her meek husband William, and Richard E. Grant as smarmy, wicked nobleman Barkis Bittern. It's an immense pleasure to hear legendary Hammer horror veterans Christopher Lee as the mean, fearsome Pastor Galswells and Michael Gough as the wise Elder Gutknecht. The film further benefits from several wonderfully macabre touches like the groovy skeleton jazz band and a lovably grotesque Peter Lorreish maggot (a sublimely slimy Enn Reitel). The stop-motion animation is remarkably fluid and lifelike; Emily in particular has a genuine touching grace and sadness to her. A nice bit of irony can be discerned from how the living take being alive for granted while the dead enjoy an extremely merry afterlife. Danny Elfman's lush, melodic score, the divinely rich and vivid 19th century Gothic atmosphere, the incredibly catchy and funny songs, and Pete Kozachik's often stunning cinematography are all terrific as well. Despite the ghoulish premise, this picture proves to be strangely moving and even life-affirming. A total one-of-a-kind offbeat and uplifting treat.