Tim Burton's Corpse Bride

Review by Jason Gaston

I've always liked stop motion animation. Call it a holdover from my youth when Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was an annual tradition or what have you, but this kind of animation has always fascinated me. There's a magical quality to it like you're watching toys come to life or something.

Of course, with the glut of computer animation and the short-sightedness of studio heads claiming that CGI animation is all people want to see anymore, stop motion is in more danger of becoming obsolete than 2D animation. Strange that, at this time of animation eradication, we've got not one but two high profile stop motion pictures in theaters. Wallace and Grommit and Tim Burton's Corpse Bride. Perhaps the success of these two movies will be a wake up call to the dunderheads who think that crap like Shark Tale is the way of the future.

While it is a flawed movie, Corpse Bride is still heads and tails above most animated movies by sheer imagination alone. This is a wondrous movie full of Tim Burton's gothic sense of style that made Beetlejuice and Batman such treats to watch.

Corpse Bride tells the tale of a 19th century man named Victor who is about to marry the daughter of an affluent yet destitute family. Victor's family sees this as a chance to enter high society while his future in-laws see it as a way to save themselves from the poor house. Although Victor and his soon-to-be-bride hit it off, Victor is nervous and retreats to the woods to practice his wedding vows, only to accidentally marry the fabled Corpse Bride, a beautiful dead woman who takes him back to the Underworld with her.

So, the question here is... what will Victor choose? A life with the living or the dead?

Although thin on story and thick in some completely forgettable and time-killing songs, Corpse Bride is an entertaining experience and a welcome change of pace.

I've always said that there are two Tim Burtons, the original and the sell out and, like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Big Fish, this is a welcome return to the golden age of classic Burton. How else would you describe a movie where the dead are more alive and colorful than the living as other than classic Burton?

I enjoyed this movie despite its flaws. It's beautifully imaginative and even poignant in its tale of love and despair. Not quite up to The Nightmare Before Christmas' standards, but if the previews for Chicken Little are any indication, I'll take it over that any day.