fantastic breath taking

Rating: 9/10 (13 February 2007)

The team of Tim Burton and Jonny Depp (Edward Scissorhands) return for this sophisticated, humorous brilliantly directed fantasy animation in which a remarkably look a like animation of Depp is juxtaposed with Emily Watson's posh character to create a charming marriage focused story in which there are proposes, engagements and remarkable weddings to look out for.
The reason I loved this film was the slowness and gentleness of the plot. When the groom wrongfully proposes to the corpse in the forest many audiences would believe it to be ridiculous and coincidental in the way it came across. However I believed it conformed to the fantasy genre beautifully and with Burton's known dark mind for the genre it is really effective and will defiantly engage you into the plot as the stakes are raised for Depp's character as he wonders what is happening to him.
The two worlds are amazing. The land of the living and the land of the dead are amazingly portrayed, especially the dead as it shines with life and light, strange but a different concept to the ideology of the dead. The skeletons, zombies, corpses etc are fantastic, gruesome and funny (watch out for the singing skeleton whom I simply loved!) the living world also appears more dark and gloomy than the death world which is an interesting technique used by Burton and one which is an essential make to this film.
In comparison to the nightmare before Christmas the animation is fantastic. The detail to the gruesomeness of the two worlds is amazing and breathtaking. The creep characters to are also splendid and confirm to audience's expectations. Unfortunately the songs don't quite match those in Nightmare but are still humorous and do tell the story well.
The film is always consistent in grabbing the audience attention, the odd joke is really funny (with usually play on words and puns of the genre) the characters are interesting to observe and help make the story what it is and the animation is breathtaking, one of my all time favourite animations, after only one viewing.
watch it now!!!