Herb Kane
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Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride
Studio: Warner Brothers
Year: 2005
Rated: PG
Film Length: 77 Minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Enhanced Widescreen
Audio: DD 5.1
Color/B&W: Color
Languages: English, French & Spanish
Subtitles: English, French & Spanish
MSRP: $28.98
Package: Single disc/Keepcase
The Feature:
Set in a 19th century European village, this stop-motion, animated feature follows the story of Victor Van Dort (voiced by Johnny Depp) and Victoria Everglott (voiced by Emily Watson) who have reached the eve of their arranged marriage without having met face-to-face. Her parents (Joanna Lumley, Albert Finney) are high class but broke. His parents (Tracey Ullman, Paul Whitehouse) are nouveau riche - fish mongers who struck the mother load. So this engagement is intended to keep Victoria's family solvent.
When Victor and Victoria meet, it's love at first sight. Unfortunately, during the wedding rehearsal, Victor freezes up, can't remember his lines, and flees in humiliation. On the way home, he wanders through a graveyard. While reciting his vows in an attempt to memorize them, he accidentally places the ring on a skeletal finger (which appears to be a stick). He then discovers, to his dismay, that he has married Emily (Helena Bonham Carter), the Corpse Bride. And she's not a cadaver to be trifled with. This earns Victor a trip to the underworld to meet his new in-laws. Meanwhile, Victoria's parents, wasting no time now that Victor has vanished, plot to marry their daughter to a sleazy gentleman, Barkis Bittern (Richard E. Grant).
Leave it to Tim Burton to buck the trend. When it comes to animation these days, it's all digital. Since the release of his popular collaboration with Henry Selick, The Nightmare Before Christmas, fans have been clamoring for a sequel. Although Corpse Bride doesn't precisely fill that need, it scratches the itch. Selick was not involved in the production (Mike Johnson, who previously worked on the animation teams of both The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach, fills the gap), which supposedly took ten years to complete, but you would never know it. And the animation, which is stop-motion rather than computer generated, looks wonderful. The story is off the beaten path, but it's not as bizarre as Burton sometimes gets (despite indications to the contrary, there's no actual necrophilia). It is suitable for all but the youngest viewers.
If there's a Burton animated formula, this movie follows it. We spend a lot of time with strange creatures, there's a lot of fantastical imagery, and the composer (in this case, Burton regular Danny Elfman) contributes a few jaunty but forgettable musical numbers. At times, the movie plays like a (dark) comedy (a lot of the satire is subtle and will go over the heads of younger viewers), but there's a surprising tenderness to the proceedings and there are plenty of in-jokes sprinkled around (for example, the brand of the piano played by Victor is a nod to one of the stop-motion trailblazers, Ray Harryhausen.)
The main characters (Victor, Victoria, Emily) are nicely developed, and we feel for all of them. Emily's tragic tale is touching, as is her plight: a woman murdered before she can fulfill her lifelong dream of reaching the altar. Corpse Bride clocks in at a skinny 77 minutes, so there's no room for extraneous material. I suppose the official title of the movie is Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, presumably to distinguish it from Shakepeare's Corpse Bride or Jane Austen's Corpse Bride.
The Feature: 3/5
:star::star::star:
Video:
The film looks great - better, in fact, than many of the recent crop of computer animated motion pictures. The unique look of the characters (the faces are almost all eyes, and the eyes are expressive) works. The background details match those in the foreground. Color de-saturation is also used effectively. The Land of the Living is clearly monochromatic, while The Land of the Dead however, was much more vibrant. Colors were always seemingly accurately. Blacks were deep and rich.
The film is razor sharp and appears crisp throughout. The image was rock solid as I noticed no signs of shimmering, nor were there any signs of edge enhancement or other compression related issues. As we might expect with such a new release, the print was absolutely immaculate and free of any blemishes or dirt.
Video: 4.5/5
:star::star::star::star:1/2
Audio:
The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack of Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride worked well if not just slightly underwhelming. Not a huge action-like film, so don’t expect an explosive soundtrack. However, there is a pleasing soundfield, satisfactorily wide. Elfman’s score and songs are the highlight in this sense. Here, the music sounds solid with nice stereo imaging in the front and pleasing rear envelopment. Most importantly, dialogue seemed natural and bold and was always intelligible. As well, the music was bold but never competing.
There is occasional rear-surround use which is tactful and never overbearing or gimmicky which includes isolated dialogue. Not much to speak of from the LFE side of things.
A soundtrack that doesn’t necessarily stand out but does most things very well.
Audio: 3.5/5
:star::star::star:1/2
Special Features:
Included are a number of brief but individual segments relating to the film and the various animation techniques used to create it, starting with:
[*] Inside the Two Worlds includes interviews, behind-the-scenes footage and production drawings with the filmmakers describing the worlds of the living and the dead in the movie and explaining why the land of the dead needed to be so much more colorful. Duration: 4:02 minutes.
[*] Danny Elfman Interprets The Two Worlds is time spent with the movie's musical and longtime Burton composer. Duration: 4:55 minutes.
[*] The Animators: the Breath of Life. Find out how an animator approaches his character’s motivation and why individual animators possess unique skills. The stop-motion animation used in the film (a tribute to the most-famous and best-loved stop-motion animator in pictures, Ray Harryhausen, Burton prominently labeled the piano in his film not a Steinway but a "Harryhausen".) Duration: 6:35 minutes.
[*] Tim Burton: Dark vs. Light. Explore what inspired Burton to bring the Corpse Bride to life about the director through the eyes of the actors and filmmakers he worked with. Duration: 3:35 minutes.
[*] Voices from the Underworld. Here, we meet the actors behind the voices, and see how they craft their unique characterizations based on their puppet counterparts. Duration: 5:55 minutes.
[*] Making Puppets Tick. This includes a tour of the puppet workshop. Duration: 6:30 minutes.
[*] The Voices behind the Voice includes scene-by-scene comparisons of the actors performing their voice characterizations next to the finished shots in the film. Duration: 7:30 minutes.
[*] The Corpse Bride Pre-Production Galleries is the lengthiest of features which focuses on the development and the design of the assorted puppets involved. Duration: 13:25 minutes.
[*] And lastly, the Music-only Track has been included. Fans of film scores will enjoy the feature as it presents Danny Elfman’s score in Dolby Digital 5.1 – vocals of the songs however have been eliminated.
Though the feature may have been better served as one single feature length documentary (a manner in which this reviewer prefers), this choppy collection of mini-featurettes still seems to serve a useful purpose and offers a wide range of interesting and informative production tidbits pertaining to the film.
Special Features: 3.5/5
:star::star::star:1/2
**Special Features rated for the quality of supplements, not the quantity**
Final Thoughts:
Tim Burton carries on in the dark, romantic tradition of his classic Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas with his most recent offering brought to you just in time for Valentine’s Day. It’s a tale of optimism, romance and a very lively afterlife, told in classic Tim Burton style. Admittedly, your reviewer isn’t the biggest Burton fan in the world. While it is an enjoyable film, those who are not fans of this type of work might want to take a pass. However, those of you who are indeed fans of Tim Burton will not be disappointed.
Even though I may have had corpse-like feelings for the film itself, the DVD offers fine value with an outstanding audio/video presentation and special features that do an adequate job at offering an inside look at the world of Burton’s animation.
Overall Rating: 3.5/5 (not an average)
:star::star::star:1/2
Release Date: January 31st, 2006
