"Why go up there when people are dying to get down here?"

Rating: 10/10 (20 November 2007)

When Maggot says: "You don't know me, but I used to live in your dead mother.", you really cannot miss the man behind these lines. It is obvious that dark knight Tim Burton got something to do with it and his "Corpse Bride" is real winner. Visual masterpiece and I'm very unhappy that Academy didn't award this genius because his animated movie is so different from all others. But that day will come when Burton is going to get an Oscar. I'm sure of that.
The story is about Victor Van Dort (Johnny Depp) who has to marry a woman named Victoria Everglot (Emily Watson). The marriage is set up by their parents before Victor and Victoria even get to know each other. Victor jumbles his vows so he goes into the woods to practice. When he finally gets it right, he says his vows correctly and places the ring on a weird looking twig in the ground. That happens to be a hand of Corpse Bride (Helena Bonham Carter), so Victor is now married and he is taken to the Land of the Dead to join his new wife.
Only Burton could direct this bizarre but brilliant story (with help of Mike Johnson) and this is movie for everyone to watch, with so many dark humor and so many funny situations. All funny moments are coming from the characters that are made perfectly and really every one of them has something special that makes him different from other. Parents (Everglot and Van Dort) are made like their only wish is to get some profit from marriage of their kids. Everglot's get money and Van Dort's get reputation. Barkis Bittern is very negative character and he's a true villain. All other characters are opposite of him. Victor is innocent and good, just like Victoria. Corpse Bride (her eye pops out just like Ragetti's in Pirates) has heart at the end and she's not that "dead" as it seemed. Elder Gutknecht, Skeletons, Black Widow Spider, Maggot and other crew are simply brilliant. Actually there are so many emotions in every character that that cannot be described by words.
Burton connected everything with other movies. He assembled his usual cast - Johnny Depp (their fifth collaboration), Helena Bonham Carter (his wife), Christopher Lee, Deep Roy, with few new faces (Emily Watson, Albert Finney, Jane Horrocks, Paul Whitehouse...). I just have to say that all actors made their characters alive. Everyone did excellent job. Some scenes from Pirates can be seen here (eye, hand). Victor (Depp) lets butterfly at the beginning of the movie (in "Sleepy Hollow" Depp lets bird out of cage). Have you noticed that main characters have names Victor and Victoria (name of Blake Edwards musical comedy starring Julie Andrews; name comes from German original). Also Burton uses one of the most famous movie lines : "Frankly my dear I don't give a damn!" (from "Gone with the Wind") when old skeleton sees his alive wife. And there are lots more very funny and innovative scenes to be seen in this one.
Special thing is music. Danny Elfman is great and all his musical numbers are simply outstanding (from first when parents are singing to my personal favorite when skeletons are singing ). Elfman is going to win that Oscar statue, just like Burton and Depp will one day. Oscar is not measure of a great director, actor or songwriter but I'm purposely mentioning Oscar as the higher standard of every person involved in movie. But as long as they keep up doing their job in the way they done it till now they are all winners in my eyes.