Corpse Bride

Rating: ****/*****, or 8/10

Tim Burton's love for traditional stop motion animation, already evident in The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), is further displayed in Corpse Bride, which also sees his fifth collaboration with his muse Johnny Depp (and the third with his lover Helena Bonham Carter). A young man (Depp) is forced to wed a woman (Emily Watson) by both their obnoxious greedy parents, though the pair carries genuine affections for one another. When practicing his vows alone in the dark woods, he accidentally places his ring around a female corpse's finger, after which he finds himself married to this woman (Carter) in the afterlife. Though it's a far more cheerful and colorful place than the one he just left behind, he wants to return to the world of the living to finish the marriage before his bride is suckered into marrying a ruthless impostor out for her money. Meanwhile the corpse bride herself has some unfinished business up above. Applying his typical dark Gothic visual style to every aspect of the animation process, the movie is first and foremost a celebration of life, love and (the unavoidability of) death (which makes it ironic the movie is done with puppets instead of real actors, save for the voice work). Why be gloomy over death when you can't escape it anyway? Stop worrying about it and learn to love life instead! Such life lessons are most effectively, and wonderfully devoid of cheesiness, delivered via a series of swinging songs, courtesy of Burton's regular composer Danny Elfman (11^th collaboration) which provide the most fun in this delightful movie. However, the off-beat look to the animation and a decent number of visual and dialogue gags also make for a great time to be had by young and old alike. Burton would return to stop motion for Frankenweenie (2012).

Starring: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Emily Watson

Directed by Tim Burton and Mike Johnson

USA/UK: Warner Bros., 2005