Corpse Bride is so well done from an animation standpoint, that it makes it worthwhile just because of that. The use of the black and white, with splashes and hints of color while in the real world, sort of reminded me of Sin City, and the Wizard of Oz effect of adding color when in the land of the dead achieved the desired effect to show it as a more warm and inviting place than the cold aristocratic environment that Victor (Johnny Depp) was accustomed to. From a production standpoint, Corpse Bride is lush and fantastic.

Where it lacks, is in it's characters, and the story could have been fleshed out better. None of the characters are very strong, and I wouldn't call the movie particularly memorable. The Nightmare Before Christmas was more enjoyable for me personally, but Corpse Bride is not without it's charm. I did think it would be funnier than it was, though. I did find the maggot kinda funny, but mostly because he reminded me of Peter Lorre. Perhaps if it was a bit funnier, the characters would have been a bit more viewer friendly for me, but I don't want to give the impression that I didn't like it, because I did, I just didn't love it.

B

B+. This movie is paradoxical. An animated movie that is inappropriate for very little kids. It shows an environment where the land of the living is more lifeless and dreadful than the land of the dead. Humor and warmth at the most morbid moments. A formulaic chick-flick combined with Burton weirdness. It kind of works.

The animation is fantastic. Besides the luscious imagery, the animators have really captured the essence of Johnny Depp's look and performance that you forget he's not the actual one acting it out, especially in the many sequences where he utters not a word.

Story/depth/character-wise this movie is very formulaic without much development, although there are some really original moments here and there.

Above average film. The voice acting was all great, and the animation was top notch. I was particularly impressed with the scenes in which the Corpse Bride danced in the wind... wow! Great job with the wind and the fabric. At times, it's suprisingly realistic and very humanistic. Unfortunately, I thought it was too brief and the characters could have used a little more work... Pleasent, nonetheless, as a short little story. Nice work from Tim Burton yet again.

A-/B+

I agree with alex young, the funny thing is that at the end (yes this is a spoiler ridden topic!) that I wished that they had found a way to die and end up surrounded by the friendly colorful dead people rather than the drab aboveground. No wonder why the lead character wanted to commit suicide so quickly.

The reason really to go see this is the wonderful Danny Elfman score which eclipses his work on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but Nightmare Before Christmas is more fun and James and the Giant Peach is more friendly.

Eh.

Still, sadly one of the better films in a year that hasn't offered us much.

So apparently other people here didn't do their senior thesis on the macabre imagery in the Graveyard of the Innocents in medieval Paris.


Guys! This movie was so beautiful! And not gimmicky "Hero" type beauty...tThe real thing! Eccentric and memorable.


I think this thread needs some skeleton love


There...I feel much better.

A-, full review already up.

Brilliant. And I completely agree.

I just want to note how pitch-perfect the last 20 minutes or so were. Especially when the dead walk the earth. It was stunning.

Wonderfully melancholy little movie. And awfully funny too.

A- sounds about right.

The songs were, I'm afraid to admit, a bit weak. But I loved, love, loved the skeleton number.

Except, stylistically, it's not that much of a leap from Frankenweenie, A Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach and oh... almost anything Tim Burton's ever produced/directed.

That dinner scene was straight out of Beetlejuice.

It's not that the movie was bad, it's just that Tim Burton's eccentricities these days are so... expected. No surprises really.

I thought it was far too short. And I dunno that I bought the relationship between Victor and Victoria. Otherwise, I didn't really have any problem with it...interesting and well animated, if a bit ordinary...

You know, I'm starting to hate the theater.

Came home, popped on HBO, there was a "First Look: Corpse Bride". It looked so much more bright and crisp on a nice HD Television.

Oh well.

Original one of Tim's best ever

B+

Saw it earlier today, and enjoyed it. Its wierd, sick, and funny at the same time! Its alot like Nightmare Before Christmas. I enjoyed the refences to Peter Lore and Gone with the wind. enjoayble.
B+

I thought NBC was better but I enjoyed this one a lot.
I do agree that the story and the character development is pretty thin, but it I still thought it was a beautiful, delightful film and one of the best of the year. (unfortunately...)

A-

Very good and fun movie.

B+

B

Not as good as it should have been, but not as bad as it could have been.

BJs Grade:

A-

great watch, going to see it again some time

C+

Okay the 1st time I saw it I thought eh its good but its not great. Yes I got some laughs and I thought the story was kinda sweet. The movie moved so slow it was painfull in parts also it was waybto easy to guess what was gonna happen. The should havee been much longer and I wanted it more dark but I guess thats just me

2nd was freaken painfull 1 the movie is not worth to me a second viewing 2 the people I went with.

Good points:

Excellent animation, fun characterizations. Much more developed story than "Nightmare".


Bad points:

Too short. Not enough character development or reasoning behind Victor's switch from one girl to the other and then back again. Elfman's music not as memorable as in "Nightmare".

I give it a B, but only because I love this kind of thing.

I'm sad to say it, but I agree with you. I found myself comparing this to Nightmare point by point, and found it lacking on every point.

The animation was fantasitc, but...it was TOO fantastic. I thought that the very slight jerkiness in Nightmare was part of its charm. But this was so perfect that it was no longer art. The backgrounds weren't right so I didn't get that great sense of perspective and distance that I got in Nightmare. For this one, they should have just done CGI.

The plot was really too thin, and the part where Victor marries the Corpse Bride was awkwardly contrived. The Bauckus "But first a toast" was even worse.

ALL the voice talent was wasted. As far as I can tell, big-bad Depp said 10 words and about 1000 versions on "uh...uh...um." Ditto for the rest of the them. (except Chris Lee, who was the only one who made use of his character.)

There weren't nearly the songs I expected. The one main theme (the one they play on the piano) was so beautiful that I want the sheet music, but they should have repeated it, with lyrics.

I think they could have saved it if they had re-written the Bauckus plot to make him a good guy, and added an additional bad guy. Like, say, Emily was killed by the real Bad Guy, and Bauckus was heartbroken but wanted Victoria for the money. Then at the church scene Emily and Bauckus would meet each other and Bauchus would commit suicide knowingly to be with Emily, effectivly switching spouses to make it all happily ever after. Then they could all go after the Bad Guy. But I guess that wouldn't have worked for Tim Burton.

There was one and only one thing I REALLY like about this movie, and made it worth the price of admission. Whenever Victor or Emily played the piano, they pressed all the correct keys, instead of faking it. Amazing, for stop motion.

Actually, I noticed that, too, and forgot to mention it. It was that attention to detail that made me enjoy the film, but it certainly wasn't the characters or story.

I take it you can play the piano since you noticed that.?

Yeah except when her hand broke up and crawled up his the piano was still playing

I always hate it when movies about musicians have people faking it. It especially bugs me when you see musicians in the background who aren't even the main characters and they aren't playing the instruments correctly. What, you couldn't hire real musicians to fake it for the camera?

I did notice the playing was correct as well...

I can play piano, but I'm not great (for what it's worth, I think I'm about a Level 5 intermediate and not improving.) I like New Age but I'm very limited with translated piano/vocal/guitar sheet music, unless it's a theme written specifically for piano. The Corpse Bride theme is like that -- hope they have the sheet music. If not, the playing in the movie is so exact that maybe I could get the music just from watching the DVD over and over and over and over...

and btw, did you notice that Victor played a "Harry Housen" piano?

EDIT: Woo-hoo! They do have the sheet music! http://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/mt ... =MN0050672

The only time that I didn't mind an actor faking it, was Michael Pare in Eddie and the Cruisers. He clearly didn't know real guitar chords, and he didn't sing, but his right hand and arm moved like he knew what he was doing, and he kept the right rhythm, and his talking voice was very similar to John Cafferty's singing voice, so that, along with his perfect lipsynching, made those his songs more than they were John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band's songs, and Pare effectively killed any chance they had at a recording career because of it.



haha...no, I didn't notice, but that attention to detail in the animation is really the only saving grace of the film.

Did Jamie Foxx play the proper keys in Ray? I thought he did (was classically trained).