Nowhere near as good as Nightmare before Christmas

Rating: 6/10 (22 October 2005)

I have been looking forward to seeing this film for some time, what with all the teasers, etc, and I'm a great fan of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp. But this film fails to deliver anything near as entertaining or witty as NBC. The music is almost instantly forgettable and I'd be more willing to believe that Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote the songs rather than Danny Elfman (and that is not a compliment). Frequently, the words were difficult to make out and what I could hear sounded like lazy lyrics. And this was in a high quality cinema, not off a pirate DVD.
I went with my wife, my 8-year old son and a friend of his. The two boys were very good, although I was worried about them getting restless because of the pace of the plot, which I felt was very slow. My wife and I agreed that it had very little substance. And nowhere near as much humour as NBC.
The animation was as beautiful as ever, especially the Corpse Bride herself, but I found the almost monochromatic style in the living world irritating after a while. It was too dark or flat.
With such a fantastic line-up of actors it was a shame that their talents were not used to the best. The characters were too clichéd in my opinion.
I suppose in a way you are kept in suspense about what's going to happen in the end, but not that much. But I don't want to spoil it so I won't say exactly what happens...
SPOILER Let's just say that no rabbits are pulled out of hats...