The Corpse Bride
2005, Dark Fantasy, 77 minutes
Tim Burton’s “Corpse Bride” is a visually stunning, yet tender film. The film centers around Victor (Johnny Depp), a painfully awkward young man who is about to be entered into an arranged marriage. Corpse Bride (Helena Bonham Carter) is a young woman whose dreams were shattered and yet, quite simply, longs to be freed from this experience. “Corpse Bride” plays out like poetry in many ways.
This approach only occasionally falls short, and “Corpse Bride” comes together beautifully with stunning production design, stunning stop-motion animation, and Danny Elfman’s constantly entertaining, often hilarious score and soundtrack.
In the words, he inadvertently places the wedding ring on the Corpse Bride (Helena Bonham Carter), a young woman who was murdered on her wedding day for her parents’ money.
“Corpse Bride’s” brilliance lies in its acceptance of its characters. Emily, the Corpse Bride, is a sympathetic rather than a frightening character…and Bonham Carter captures wondrously a woman whose dreams have been shattered and yet, quite simply, longs to be freed.
Emily, Victor, and Victoria are all sympathetic, authentic characters caught in an awkward situation that only Tim Burton could truly present.
As the film begins, a wedding is being planned between Victor’s parents and the Everglots.
Nell and William Van Dort (Tracey Ullman and Paul Whitehouse) are wealthy fishmongers; Victoria Everglot (Emily Watson) is the daughter of destitute aristocrats Maudeline and Finnie (Joanna Lumley and Albert Finney).
A marriage would bring her family money and his family class.
Victor and Victoria had never met, save in the title of a Blake Edwards comedy, but when they are eventually acquainted, they are startled to discover that they love one another despite everything.
Victor is so bashful that he cannot say the words to his marriage vow and runs away to practice in the overgrown graveyard outside the church.
The film’s motivation is to make Emily a sympathetic person rather than a terrifying one.
She was slain on the eve of her wedding, and she now wants to be a nice wife for Victor.
Three teenagers are miserable while two of them should be joyful; it is not fair, even if one of them is deceased.
Burton fills the frame with subtle grace touches and witty nuances, like he does in all his photographs.
To summarize, this is one of the finest movies to watch at any moment, and the characters may shift your view on most things, such as love and despair.