The dead walk the aisle
If director Tim Burton produces more stop-motion animations, it wouldn’t be surprising that people would start branding them as Burton’s animated macabre anthology. Corpse Bride would be the second installment of the series, after The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Here, Burton loosely adapts a Russian folktale about a man who accidentally married a dead bride, previously denied of marriage by the circumstance of death. The unlucky newlywed Victor (Johnny Depp) must try to find a way to break the marriage contract with the walking cadaver (Helena Bonham Carter) and return to the arms of the living fiancée Victoria (Emily Watson) before her parents decide to marry her off to stiff-upper-lip Barkis Bittern (Richard E. Grant) instead.
Corpse Bride makes the mistake of trying to imitate the superior The Nightmare Before Christmas, with lame, uninspiring and pointless musical numbers. What it lacks in design and melody, it makes up with humour. The best gags and funny lines mainly comes from the Bride’s posse of the dead, but I was totally floored by the Bride’s eye-socket resident and Peter Lorre impersonator. Those unfamiliar with Mr Lorre (that makes 99% of you people under the age of 50) will find the Maggot only fairly amusing.
Aside from the laughs, the tale also benefits from an unexpected development in the “love triangle”, which leads to a poignant and touching ending. Burton’s preceding live-action features are more technical showcases than dramatic experiences (see Sleepy Hollow or Big Fish), so it’s ironic that he conjures the most emotional response out of a production where all the actors are made out of steel, silicone and fabric. - BMF |
