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TIM BURTON'S CORPSE BRIDE (2005)
Director: Tim Burton. Hacktors: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Richard E Grant, Christopher Lee. Rating/5: 
The lowdown: Twelve years after he brought us a uniquely dark slice of stop-motion animation with The Nightmare Before Christmas, Tim Burton brings us another intricately macabre tale. Set in Victorian England, Corpse Bride sees clumsy, stuttering Victor (Depp) attempt to marry Victoria (Emily Watson), but fumble his vows. The marriage is postponed and Victor heads off into the icy woods, practising those vital lines. He places the wedding ring on what looks like an old twig sticking out of the ground, but is in fact the skeletal finger of the titular lady (Bonham Carter)... Good points: As you might expect if you're a fan of Nightmare, Corpse Bride looks incredible and bombards you with one insanely imaginative visual idea after another. Most of the characters look as though they've been stretched lengthways or sideways - the fantastic Pastor Galswells (voiced by Christopher Lee), for instance, is over half the height of his own church when wearing his colossal spiky headwear. When Victor is dragged down to the land of the dead, Burton's in his element, turning sheer death obsession into laugh-out-loud comedy, in a way which only he could. Here's a good example: the otherwise beautiful Corpse Bride has a hole in her cheek, displaying a couple of teeth (Romero just got there first with one of his main zombies in Land Of The Dead!) and a talking maggot behind her left eye, which often causes the orb to pop out. On paper, it sounds gruesome: on the screen, it's hilarious. There's all kinds of fun had with skulls, heads and eyeballs, and it's all charming and very amusing. I particularly liked the way that the world of the living ("upstairs", as it's described at one point) looks grey and drab, whereas the afterlife looks like a colourful blast! Another plus-point is the running time: 80 minutes, which is fine by me. Throw everything you've got at us, then let us stretch our legs, why don'tcha? Corpse Bride is simple, lean and wholly ingenious. Christ: even the songs are fun! Bad points: Having praised the slender running time, it would have been nice to get inside Victor's head a little more. Without giving anything away, he does seem rather fickle in a confusing manner. Still, that's stick-thin models for you. The ending, too, struggles to resolve the story (which is based on a Russian folk tale) and doesn't quite pull it off. But hey, we get a beautiful image instead. Fair trade. Overall: The most morbid mainstream flick in years and one of the best. Release Date: Gets a wide release this weekend in the States on September 23, 2005. Then hits the UK from October 21, 2005. [Reviews Menu] [Home] © Copyright Slasherama 2002-present |