carefully crafted Tim Burton storytelling - but its been done before

Rating: 8/10 (21 November 2005)

Tim Burton's the Corpse Bride is the latest in a revival of stop motion animation. Beautifully crafted figurines are matched perfectly with the voice actors. Stand out performances include Joanna Lumley (Mrs. Everglott), Tracey Ullman (Mrs. Van Dort and others), Albert Finney (Mr. Everglott and others) and Johnny Depp (Victor Van Dort).
The story itself is very creative and the locations and scenes are classic Tim Burton. My problems with the movie were very few and were more then overshadowed by the beauty of the simple story and the richness of the characters, but the movie was not without its flaws.
Chief of all was the very cheesy songs that were in the movie. I have no idea why they were included but they just served to rip me out of my illusion and remind me, I was in a cinema. They weren't even catchy! The second, was the feeling I'd seen all of this before, which i had a few years ago when Tim Burton releases his other much loved stop motion feature, The Nightmare Before Christmas. Same goulish black humour, same lovingly crafted settings, same elegant and slender characters and those same annoying songs were in that movie also.
However, be that as it may, I still enjoyed that movie, and if you take the kids to see this one then chances are they were too young for TNBC. There are some rather frightening scenes in this one that may scare little kids (like when we first meet Emily-the Corpse Bride) but nothing so sinister as to keep them awake at night.
Definitely one for everyone this Christmas and expect to see the merchandise under trees very soon.