My Review: Corpse Bride Has Some Skeletons in the Closet

Rating: 4/10 (30 November 2005)

It seems like basic Hollywood math. Tim Burton stop-motion animation the voices of Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Albert Finney, and Christopher Lee = film-making at its finest. Still, Corpse Bride simply doesn't add up to much of anything.
If you've seen the previews for this films, you know the story already. Guy's marriage is arranged for him, he freaks out, goes into the woods, and accidentally marries a dead woman. Sounds Ashton Kutcher-esquire to me.
And the previews also show some of the wonderfully lush and imaginative visuals that Tim Burton provides. Really, the detail and polish of the animation here puts Nightmare Before Christmas to shame. The opening shot of a butterfly flying around a European village was one of the most beautiful shots I've seen in an animated film since the ballroom scene in Beauty and the Beast. Still, interesting visuals are not enough to carry a film.
The biggest problem with Corpse Bride comes from one of Tim Burton's common film-making partners: Danny Elfman. While Elfman's songs for Nightmare Before Christmas were charming, well written, and integral to the story, the songs in corpse bride are uninteresting and unmemorable. It's hard for yours truly--the self proclaimed musical theater whore--to say that the worst part of this film was its songs and it would have been much better without them, but it's the truth. While listening to the songs of Nightmare Before Christmas for the first time inspires you to go out and buy the soundtrack (which by the way is a great addition to one's CD collection), listening to the songs of Corpse Bride for the first time inspired me to vomit and to write to Tim Burton asking him to urge his wife, Ms. Bonham Carter, to stick to acting instead of singing.
And then there are the problems with the plot and characters. The ending of the movie was more abrupt than Rene Zelwegger's breakup with Kenny Chessney, and certain characters that initially are introduced simply for the sake of a gag, such as the maggot that pops out of the bride's eye in those previews, keep coming back unnecessarily. In all honesty, though animation was a perfect medium for this story, the filmmakers should have considered ditching the family friendly feel of the movie. If this was done as a film for adults--minus the hideous songs--it would have been hysterical. Honestly, there need to be more films with jokes about necrophilia or getting a stiff one over a stiff one, and this could have been one of them.
If you are a fan of Tim Burton, do yourself a favor. Take your $10 that you were planning to spend on a ticket to Corpse Bride, go to Blockbuster and rent Nightmare Before Christmas, Edward Scissorhands, Big Fish, and Sleepy Hollow. You'll have a much more enjoyable time.