Corpse Bride

### Written by

Tim Burton(characters), Carlos Grangel(characters),John August(screenplay),Caroline Thompson(screenplay),Pamela Pettler(screenplay)

### Produced by

Allison Abbate,Tim Burton,Derek Frey(associate producer),Tracy Shaw(associate producer),Jeffrey Auerbach(executive producer),Joe Ranft(executive producer)

## Cast

Johnny Depp... Victor Van Dort

Helena Bonham Carter... Corpse Bride

Emily Watson... Victoria Everglot

Tracey Ullman... Nell Van Dort / Hildegard

Paul Whitehouse... William Van Dort / Mayhew / Paul The Head Waiter

Joanna Lumley... Maudeline Everglot

Albert Finney... Finis Everglot

Richard E Grant... Barkis Bittern

Christopher Lee... Pastor Galswells

Michael Gough... Elder Gutknecht

Jane Horrocks... Black Widow Spider / Mrs. Plum

Enn Reitel... Maggot / Town Crier

Deep Roy... General Bonesapart

Danny Elfman... Bonejangles

Stephen Ballantyne... Emil

Lisa Kay... Solemn Village Boy

## Songs

According to Plan | Music by Danny Elfman | Lyrics by John August and Danny Elfman

Remains of the Day | Music and Lyrics by Danny Elfman | Additional Lyrics by John August

Tears to Shed

Music and Lyrics by Danny Elfman

Additional Lyrics by John August

Tannhauser: Pilgrim's Chorus

Written by Richard Wagner

The Wedding Song

Music and Lyrics by Danny Elfman

## Trivia

* The puppets used neither of the industry standards of replaceable heads (like those used on The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)) or replaceable mouths (like those used by Aardman Studios in Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)), but instead used precision crafted clockwork heads, adjusted by hidden keys. This allowed for unprecedented subtlety, but was apparently even more painstaking than the already notoriously arduous animation. One animator even reported having recurring nightmares of adjusting his own facial expression in this fashion.
* When Victor plays the piano, he leans back and the nameplate says "Harryhausen," a reference to stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen.
* The movie had a 55-week shoot and included 109,440 individually animated frames set up and filmed.
* Multiple identical puppets had to be created, so that more scenes could be accomplished in a shorter period of time. In all, fourteen puppets of the Bride and Victor were created, and thirteen were created of Victoria.
* This movie was based on a nineteenth century Russian folktale, which Joe Ranft introduced to Burton while they were finishing The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). This movie began production in November 2003, while Burton was completing Big Fish (2003). He continued with production on his next live-action movie, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), which was produced simultaneously with this movie.
* This is the first movie to be made with commercial digital still photography cameras (31 Canon EOS-1Ds MARK II SLR cameras with Nikon Lenses), instead of film cameras.
* Co-director Mike Johnson spoke about how they took a more organic approach to directing this movie, saying: "In a co-directing situation, one director usually handles one sequence, while the other handles another. Our approach was more organic. Tim knew where he wanted the film to go as far as the emotional tone and story points to hit. My job was to work with the crew on a daily basis and get the footage as close as possible to how I thought he wanted it."
* This movie, along with Cars, is dedicated to the memory of Pixar's Joe Ranft, who sadly passed away due a car accident in August 2005.
* Small moving elements, such as candle flames, were photographed in MiniDV.
* In a 2005 interview with about.com, co-director Tim Burton spoke about the differences between directing this movie and The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), saying: "The difference on that was that one I had designed completely. It was a very completed package in my mind. I felt like it was there. I felt more comfortable with it. With this, it was a bit more organic. It was based on an old folk tale. We kept kind of changing it but, you know, I had a great co-director with Mike Johnson. I feel like we complemented each other quite well. It was just a different movie, a different process." He also spoke about casting Johnny Depp as Victor, saying: "It was weird because we were doing both at the same time. He was Willy Wonka by day and Victor by night so it might have been a little schizophrenic for him. But he's great. It's the first animated movie he's done and he's always into a challenge. We just treat it like fun and a creative process. Again, that's the joy of working with him. He's kind of up for anything. He just always adds something to it. The amazing thing is all the actors never worked together. They were never in a room together, so they were all doing their voices, except for Albert (Albert Finney) and Joanna (Joanna Lumley) did a few scenes together, everybody else was separate. They were all kind of working in a vacuum, which was interesting. That's the thing that I felt ended up so beautifully, that their performances really meshed together. So he was very canny, as they all were, about trying to find the right tone and making it work, while not being in the same room with each other."

## External Links

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0121164/?ref\_=nv\_sr\_srsg\_0