Burton returns to what makes him work best...

Rating: 8/10 (20 December 2005)

In a nutshell, Burton works best when he is at his mildly weirdest. For all seventy-four minutes of The Corpse Bride, we get the Tim Burton who made such gems as Ed Wood or Beetlejuice, as opposed to the Tim Burton who made such unmemorable pieces as the 2002 Planet Of The Apes or Big Fish. In essence, The Corpse Bride is Burton simply being Burton, rather than a big studio filtering Burton through their lens. It is far from perfect, but it is a charming little piece that is really on fire when it works. Much like Ed Wood, Burton brings back a core cast to provide voices for his stop-motion creatures. Some of the voices, such as Tracey Ullman or Jane Horrocks, hardly have any distinction. Others, such as Christopher Lee and Johnny Depp, remind you why Burton chose to work with them in the first place. In fact, it is Christopher Lee's voice acting that steals the show during most of this piece. When his ridiculously-shaped character is present, one almost salivates in anticipation of his next statement. For certain, this is one of Tim Burton's most satisfying creations.
The stop-motion animation is also brilliant, although one has to wonder if the painstaking work done to achieve it was worth the result. Sure, these puppets move so subtly that one could mistake them for real actors if not for their ridiculous body shapes. Observant viewers will note the use of stop-motion legend Ray Harryhausen's name on a piano, but I think that Harryhausen would look at this piece and wonder if maybe just a little too much effort is involved. On the other hand, compared to the so-called ultra-realistic effects of such films as the recent Star Wars episodes or Final Fantasy, perhaps the obvious fakery combined with the smooth and strangely lifelike motion has its own peculiar charm. In that sense, Burton's greatest charm, his ability to mix the absurd and unreal with a grounding in reality, is what makes The Corpse Bride work. The film is a delight to look at, one more than just one level. The attention to detail in the backgrounds of some scenes alone is breathtaking.
Sadly, the weakness of The Corpse Bride is in its soundtrack, and to some extent its story. I do not know whether this was partly the fault of the theatre I saw it in, which gets worse every week, but critical moments such as when we learn how the Corpse Bride became a corpse in the first place were almost indecipherable. Were it not for an exceedingly obvious plot and some pre-release hype, I would have had no idea exactly what drives the Bride to so doggedly pursue Depp's character. The Van Dorts and the Everglots are about as deep as a puddle, and Barkis Bittern only exists to give the audience something to sneer at. Fortunately, Burton is also wise enough to give this character the send-off that he anticipated the entire audience would be chanting for by the time the film finished. But aside from Victor Van Dort and the Corpse Bride, we know about as much about every single character in the story by the end of the film as we did at the beginning. It is this absence of dimensions that scuttled both Planet Of The Apes and to a large extent Sleepy Hollow.
However, if Tim Burton manages to control his propensity to create shallow characters, he could potentially reach even greater heights than his biopic of Ed Wood. His scene composition and design are beyond reproach. He must also be given credit for occasionally turning to the kind of subject matter that Hollywood would not normally dare touch. It is he who gave us back a Batman who gave a reason for doing what he does other than the opportunity to nance around in a funny suit, after all. Helena Bonham Carter should also be reminded that this is easily her most non-mainstream role since Fight Club, and not coincidentally, also her best. Johnny Depp proves that apart from providing a distinctive or memorable leading man (he doesn't here), he can also be depended upon to put in a solid performance. Anyone who is familiar with Burton's dramatic leanings will have no trouble guessing who Victor Van Dort is meant to be a proxy for. That Depp restrains his urge to make his presence felt in order to fit the wider dramatic picture is a true credit to him. And the animators, of course.
Out of ten, I gave The Corpse Bride an eight. It is not Burton's best work, nor is it the most compelling film I have ever seen. What it is, on the other hand, is a walk through the imagination of a non-standard man that manages to be entertaining and charming as it is also puzzling. And I know I will not be the only one to say that Hollywood needs to make more of those films.