Corpse Bride
| ♥ | This article is dedicated to Joe Ranft (March 13, 1960 - August 16, 2005), who died from traffic collision at Mendocino County, California, U.S. |
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Corpse Bride (also known as Tim Burton's Corpse Bride) is a 2005 stop-motion animated musical dark fantasy horror film directed by Mike Johnson and Tim Burton with a screenplay by John August, Caroline Thompson, and Pamela Pettler based on characters created by Burton and Carlos Grangel. The plot is set in a fictional Victorian-era village in England. Johnny Depp leads the cast as the voice of Victor, while Helena Bonham Carter voices Emily, the titular bride. Corpse Bride is the third stop-motion feature film produced by Burton and the first directed by him (the previous two films, The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach, were directed by Henry Selick). This is also the first stop-motion feature from Burton that was distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was dedicated to executive producer Joe Ranft, who died in a car crash during production along with Pixar's Cars. Laika also helped with the production of the film. Corpse Bride premiered on September 7, 2005, at the Venice International Film Festival and was released on September 23, 2005, in the United States and on October 13, 2005, in the United Kingdom.
Plot
Victor (Johnny Depp) and Victoria's (Emily Watson) families have arranged their marriage. Though they like each other, Victor is nervous about the ceremony. While he's in a forest practicing his lines for the wedding, a tree branch becomes a hand that drags him to the land of the dead. It belongs to Emily, who was murdered after eloping with her love and wants to marry Victor. Victor must get back aboveground before Victoria marries the villainous Barkis Bittern (Richard E. Grant).
Why It Rocks
- Great stop-motion visuals animation, especially for 2005 and Tim Burton standards.
- The idea for the movie with the bride for the undead corpse is rather interesting and unique.
- The character designs look great and fit in with Tim Burton's style very well.
- Victor is a likable and charming protagonist.
- The voice acting for Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter is well done.
- Johnny Depp's voice performance for Victor is well improvement over Willy Wonka from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (despite that he does a decent job of playing him).
- The soundtrack is nice-sounding and unforgettable.
- Some moments can be pretty funny, such as some parts when Victor practices his wedding vows in the forest.
- The part where Emily gives Victor his childhood dog Scraps was heartwarming, and was rather funny when Victor told him "Play dead.. oh, sorry".
- It uses simplicity quite well.
- It has a lot of the continued charm of other movies that Tim Burton made or helped make, such as The Nightmare Before Christmas and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
- Lots of good plot twists and turns.
- "There's an eye in me soup."
- It has a good ending with Victor finally being married to Victoria, and Emily being freed.
Bad Qualities
- Sometimes, the story can feel a little fast-paced and too short, with the runtime being at 77 minutes.
- Some parts can be fairly inappropriate for a family film. For instance, at the part where Victor is in the forest practicing his wedding vows, he says "With this hand, I will cup your-" before realizing that he has his hands on his chest in a suggestive manner, and then saying "Oh, goodness, no!". Although it's not meant to be too scary, no blood is shown, and it is fairly typical of Tim Burton productions, there are also a few scary scenes, such as two character deaths and some grotesque imagery of corpses.
- Some animation errors. For instance, in one scene, a character is shown eating something that appears to be chicken, but a little later, it changes to soup.
Reception
Corpse Bride received critical acclaim with praise for its animation, characters, songs, and humor. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 84% approval rating with an average rating of 7.24/10 based on 196 reviews. The site's consensus reads: "As can be expected from a Tim Burton movie, Corpse Bride is whimsically macabre, visually imaginative, and emotionally bittersweet". Another review aggregator, Metacritic, which assigns a rating out of 100 based on top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 83 based on 35 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".
Awards
Although the film won the National Board of Review for Best Animated Feature, the film was nominated for the 78th Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature but lost to Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, which also starred Bonham Carter. The film won the Annie Awards Ub Iwerks Award for Technical Achievement in 2006, where it was also nominated for Best Animated Feature, Best Character Design, and Best Direction.
Videos
Trivia
- It is the first time that Tim Burton has released two movies (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Corpse Bride) in one year (2005).
- Coincidentally, both movies were distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.
- It is one of the stop-motion animation movies from Warner Bros. Pictures.
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