Fun, sepulchral fantasy

Rating: 8/10 (9 March 2020)

Practicing his wedding vows in a creepy forest, Victor (voiced by Johnny Depp) finds himself accidently betrothed to Emily, the titular character (v. Helen Bonham Carter), who years earlier had been murdered on her wedding day. Similar to Burton's earlier film 'Beetlejuice' (1988) and the more recent animated films 'Coco' (2017) and 'The Book of Life' (2014), "Corpse Bride' presents an amusing view an after-life populated by a variety of energetic dead people. The imagery and spindly or rotund characters in the film are similar to 'A Nightmare before Christmas' (on which co-director Mike Johnson worked) or, in some cases, to Terry Gilliam's iconic animated sequences in 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' (1969). The story is slight but entertaining (although the narrative is fragmented a bit by the musical interludes) and the voice talent excellent.