[MOVIE REVIEW] Corpse Bride (2005)

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Title: Corpse Bride

Starring:  Johnny Depp, Emily Watson, Helena Bonham Carter, Tracey Ullman and Christopher Lee

Genre: Horror / Fantasy / Halloween / Romance

Company:  Warner Bros and Laika Entertainment

Directed by: Tim Burton

Year: 2005

MPAA Rating / TV Rating: Rated PG – For Some Scary Images and Action, and Brief Mild Language

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Best Buy  //  Blu-Ray.com

 When a young man named Victor Van Dort is engaged to a young woman named Victoria Everglot (Victor, Victoria, get it?) due to Victor's family, the Van Dorts wanting to get Victor to marry Victoria because they want to be in high society; while Victoria's parents, the Everglots, want Victoria to marry Victor in order to get more money from the Van Dorts, Victor ends up messing up his wedding rehearsals to Victoria and ends up going into the woods to practice his wedding vows.  Unfortunately, Victor accidentally places his wedding ring on a bony finger that was embedded in the ground and he ends up being engaged to Emily, the Corpse Bride.  Meanwhile, in the living world, a sly and diabolical gentlemen named Lord Barkis Bittern wants to take Victoria's hand in marriage in case Victor does not come back to the living world.  

Can Victor get back to the world of the living and who will he choose: Victoria or Emily?

I have been watching many of Tim Burton's animated films and "Corpse Bride" happens to be one of his most ingenious works yet!  I loved the fact that this movie was based off an ancient folktale about a man accidentally marrying a corpse as I love reading about folktales in general and this movie definitely has the ancient folktale feel to it.  I also enjoyed seeing the two different worlds between the living world and the world of the dead as they contrast each other in a very unique way.  In this case, the world of the living is seen as a dreary black and white world while the world of the dead is shown in a loud and colorful manner, which is surprising since you would expect to see the world of the dead as a dreary place while the world of the living is a colorful place.  I also enjoyed the relationship shared between Victor and Emily, even though Victor at first didn't want to be in the world of the dead.  Even though the idea of even communicating with a talking corpse is horrifying at best, this film managed to make the interactions between Emily and Victor be as charming as can be and I was able to really enjoy their innocent bantering with each other!  I really loved the way that each voice actor portrayed the characters as they made them come to life, especially with the performance of Johnny Depp as Victor as he made Victor sound timid yet friendly at the same time.  I really loved Helena Bonham Carter's performance as Emily the Corpse Bride as she was probably the most interesting character in the entire movie and I loved the way that Emily is so innocent and yet can be pretty frightening when she wants to be!

The only issue I had with this film was that I felt that the songs in this movie were not as memorable as "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and they didn't really get me to feel so much for the characters' situations since they weren't catchy or emotional enough.  I also wished that the movie actually explored the characters a bit more like explain how Victoria's family got into financial troubles in the first place and what was Lord Barkis Bittern like as a character before he is introduced into this film.

Overall, "Corpse Bride" is a great film for anyone who is a huge fan of Tim Burton's dark comedy films and who loves watching films starring dead characters in general!