color me a shade of disappointed blue...

Rating: 5/10 (2 October 2005)

While I am not among the nodding legions who hail every work of Master Burton "an artistic masterpiece," I will acknowledge his talent for visual flair, which is in abundance in "Corpse Bride." Unfortunately, the dazzling eye candy falls flat in the wake of a blandly conventional story (boy is arranged to marry girl; meets dead girl; boy then finds his commitment in question) that simply isn't "fresh" enough to merit the painstaking craft of stop-motion animation. The ghoulish undead underworld looks like a tamed version of Clive Barker's Midian (from "Nightbreed"), the song lyrics are mostly indecipherable (but that might be a good thing), and the gags revolve around painfully obvious puns and dangling/popped-out eyeballs. And, once again, Burton hammers home the importance of "accepting people for what they are...even if they ARE dead," as he's done in seemingly all of his films. The presence of veteran actors Michael Gough (voicing one of the wise undead) and Christopher Lee (as a wonderfully cantankerous priest) provide some bright spots, but cannot elevate "Corpse Bride" above its glaring superficialness.