‘Corpse’ dead on arrival
In almost exactly the same style as the macabre 1993 masterpiece “The Nightmare Before Christmas” (created by Tim Burton), “Corpse Bride” is another Claymation film that converges the worlds of the living and the dead.
For this bizarre installment, Burton is co-director and it features the voice talents of Burton’s undoubtedly favorite actor, Johnny Depp (“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”). Depp lends his voice to the character of Victor, a shy, scrawny English bloke who, through inherent clumsiness, makes a disaster out of his regimented wedding rehearsal. All I will say about this part is that there are flames involved. This disaster causes Victor’s apprehension toward marriage to be even greater than it already was. So he flees to the neighboring woods (which look like the very gates of hell) in hopes that he can pull himself together.
Sadly, Victor’s chronic nervousness is far from conquered when, after unwittingly sliding his wedding ring onto a dead tree branch, he awakens Emily, the Corpse Bride (voiced with eerie whispers from Helena Bonham Carter, “Big Fish”) and is soon dragged down to the underworld of the afterlife. As Victor tries to return home through a horde of rattling skeletons and spindly spiders, his fiancé, Victoria (Emily Watson, “Gosford Park”) anxiously waits in the village of the living, wondering where he disappeared to and if he will ever return.
Spotted with a few moments of laughter and lots of melodrama, this film lays comfortably across the altar of visual creativity (even the characters look as dismal as their surroundings). Maybe that’s why the acting is so mediocre. Because so much attention is devoted to the technological elements of the film (which are all mesmerizing) there doesn’t seem to be much emphasis placed on the characters, which makes them nothing more than silly two-dimensional cartoons (although every character in the film looks richly three-dimensional).
The music is grandiose and all of the settings are incredibly vivid, despite the pervasive use of a black and grey color palette. Every scene oozes with spookiness and there are plenty of moments where decaying body parts function as punch lines. All of these things keep “Corpse Bride” in a playfully morbid mood and a perfect film for the looming Halloween season. But the predictable characters, cute clichés and mechanical storyline make this movie nothing more than another outlet for Tim Burton to revel in his gothic ideas.
Because most of the humor and plot twists are aimed at a younger audience, this film seems best suited for children. But, there were a few scenes that even I thought were creepy (would kids really enjoy watching dead bodies slowly emerge from the ground underneath an ominous full moon?). Whether or not this film contributes to children’s nightmares is debatable, but it’s clear that Burton’s latest concoction is a fun visual treat for everyone. It remains average, however, because the excitement of the plot dies so quickly.
Casey T. Allen is a movie critic for the Utah
Statesman. Comments can be sent to
caseyal@cc.usu.edu.