Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride is a stop-motion animation film produced and directed by Tim Burton in 2005. The film was nominated in the 78th Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature but it lost to Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, another clay stop-motion animation film, even though some supporters thought Corpse Bride should win. Corpse Bride featured an all-star cast of voices including Johnny Depp (his first film as a voice actor), a veteran voice actress Helena Bonham Carter and Emily Watson. This animated film is full of Tim Burton‘s trademark and references to his previous works like The Nightmare Before Christmas and Beetlejuice.
The story is set in small English town in Victorian era. A shy young man named Victor Van Dort, son of a rich merchant family, is set in an arranged marriage with Victoria Everglot, daughter of a penniless aristocrat. On wedding rehearsal day, Victor couldn’t perform his vow perfectly and is forced to practice it in the woods. After he could remember all the word, he practice his perfectly correct vow to a branch of tree without knowing that it’s actually a corpse of a dead bride named Emily, who was killed on her wedding day while waiting for her groom. Victor has been taken to the land of the dead. He has to find his way back to the world of the living.
From facial expression to body movement, the animation in the film is top-notch. Even though the plot is simple, the film is well paced and beautifully presented. The ending is also worth waiting for. It’s understandable that the movie is shot (only 77 minutes of running time) as it is painstakingly created with 109,440 individually animated frames that were shot during 55 weeks.
All in all, Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride is another remarkable animated film depicting the living and the dead in harmonious and colorful way. You couldn’t judge anything from its outside look – like this grotesquely looking film that is a gem under a scary mask.
4 Stars out of 5 – recommend to all animation lovers. the film has a beautiful story as well as a wonderfully smooth animation.
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Oh! I read Tim Burton’s Book ‘The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories ‘. It’s High Imagination.