A Film Addict Reviews! Corpse Bride

In the spirit of the current season, I’ve been trying to watch more of the Halloween type films. It is one of my favorite holidays and it sucks that I can’t celebrate the usual way I like to. My family and I would scare the entire neighborhood by turning our front yard into a bit of a haunted house. Some of our inspirations for decorations have come from Tim Burton films. So, I decided to give Corpse Bride another shot since its been a long while since I’ve seen it.

2005’s Corpse Bride is about a young man named Vincent (Johnny Depp) gets put into an arranged marriage with Victoria (Emily Watson). After being nervous about getting married and ruining his vows, he flees into the words and accidentally gets married to a Corpse Bride (Helena Bonham Carter).

The Story

For what this film is, it is a pretty good story. It is very easy to follow along and keeps you engaged until the very end. Nothing feels like it was just thrown together last minute to madden it for time. Every little plot detail that was introduced gets solved at the end of the story and gives a satisfying ending. Of course, you have to thank the powerhouse that is Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, and Danny Elfman.

The Animation

I think this is where this film excels. Stop motion animation is probably one of the harder forms of animation and I appreciate all the hard work gone into it. Ever single motion is expertly moved and in the film it just flows so naturally and fluidly. Every character moves like how they look like they would move and when they speak, that looks natural too. The set design does look more real than the characters though. I noticed it with a couple of shots but that’s easy to get over. Another thing that I’m impressed with it actually how they managed to get such fluid moving shots in the film.

The Acting

I liked the acting in this film. Johnny Depp did a excellent job voicing his character. The voice fits the animation motions and how you would more or less think how his character would sound. Helena Bonham Carter did well playing off of Johnny’s character. Oddly enough too, she’s a pretty decent singer. I would have not thought that she can sing as well as she did but she held her own on her song.

The Music

First off, let me just say that I like Danny Elfman’s music. He has always been a pretty good creator of halloween type music from Oingo Boingo to Beetlejuice and now this film. The score has the usual Tim Burton film sound to it with the slight feeling of the films tone attached to it. The songs are memorable as well along with Danny himself singing in a couple of them. It was an excellent score from someone who I enjoy to listen to his older days of being a weird rocker in the 80s.

Opinion and Verdict

Overall, I enjoyed watching it again. It felt like a nice blast from the past and it is a good official start to my Halloween film viewing. I would recommend this film to everyone. It has the gray and dreary look that Time Burton films have and music that will make you dance. It can rival the some Disney films with some of the songs. Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Danny Elfman together is probably one of the best collaborators in Hollywood. There hasn’t been a film that the three of them have done together that I have not liked it yet and I hope they do more in the future.

If you liked this review and want to read another one, here is my latest one: Seven Samurai