 |
 |
| Release Date: | September 23, 2005 (US), October 21, 2005 (UK) |
| Runtime: | 76 min |
| Rated: | PG |
| Genres: | Animation, Comedy, Family, Fantasy, Musical, Romance |
| Directed by: | Tim Burton, Mike Johnson |
| Written by: | John August, Caroline Thompson, Pamela Pettler, Tim Burton |
| Starring: | Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Emily Watson, Tracey Ullman, Christopher Lee, Michael Gough |
|
 |
 Every few years a stop motion film gets released that makes everyone talk about how wonderful it is to see a nice traditionally made animated film in this CG-riddled age, only to be completely forgotten about when the next Pixar film gets released. This year we’re treated to two: Nick Park’s Wallace and Gromit feature film, and Tim Burton’s The Corpse Bride. Both films I have been eagerly awaiting, being somewhat old-school in the animation department myself, I love seeing the old techniques being kept alive. It was co-directed by Tim Burton and Puppet-master Mike Johnson, who previously worked as assistant animator on Nightmare before Christmas and animator on James and the Giant Peach.
If we’re talking about technique, then The Corpse Bride is an absolute masterpiece. To compare it with the other animated feature with Burton’s name (Nightmare Before Christmas) is to compare a Cadbury’s Dairy Milk with finest Belgian Chocolates...both are great, but the latter’s got a certain special quality. I had to check with a few articles on the internet, but I was assured the film was indeed achieved with puppets; and what puppets! The facial animation really is outstanding, and the fluidity of movement is phenomenal- in terms of quality, this film really will stand as a milestone.
Story-wise, the film is fairly typically Burton; Victor, our main protagonist (who has more than a passing likeness to the title character in Burton’s short film, Vincent) is to be married to a girl called Victoria, who he has never met. It is a marriage of necessity for Victoria’s family, formally of great family fortune, but who are now completely bankrupt. The minute the young couple meet however, they fall deeply in love, the only problem being Victor’s extreme clumsiness. He flees to the woods for some privacy to practice his vows before the ceremony whereby he accidentally weds a beautiful young lady, who just happens to be dead!
It is apparently based upon a Russian folk tale, and it is overall a delightfully macabre but family-friendly tale, my only problem with it being the characters. The films running time is a little over an hour, and it’s quite difficult to really become that attached to characters in that time. The voices are competently done, and it boasts a somewhat impressive cast- Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham-Carter, Emily Watson, Christopher Lee, Joanna Lumley, Richard E. Grant, to name but a few… It just would have been nice to see a little more character development.
The songs are less intrusive on the film than they were in Nightmare before Christmas, but that could be partly because there are less of them. The music is wonderful, as you’d expect from long-term Burton collaborator, Danny Elfman, but quite often you do get the impression they’ve stuck a song in the script just so they can skip over parts of the story. It would have been nice to see a bit more of the corpse bride’s background, but instead you just get a jaunty little number sung by a (most delightful) skeleton filling you in with the highlights.
It’s still a very enjoyable family film, regardless of the slight discrepancies, and it can lay claim to being the first film in a very long time that’s rekindled my love of animation! |
|
|
|
|
Rachel Hunter
Back to top