Corpse Bride

Originality in film and modern media needs to be given attention when it pops up, because there is still a risk of new ideas becoming less relevant and profitable against easily repeatable formulas that people may claim to despise but might still end up seeing it (the Transformers franchise was once proof of this). The 2005 stop-motion film, Corpse Bride is in many ways pushing to showcase that original spark, but considering how no one really talks about it anymore, it didn’t click with audiences in the same way.  Set in a fictional Victorian era village in England, the movie focuses on a young man named Victor (voiced by Johnny Depp) who is being forced to wed the daughter of a supposedly wealthy family named Victoria (voiced by Emily Watson). Though the two seem to miraculously hit it off given the circumstances, the pressure becomes too much for Victor and he flees. Through a misunderstanding, he proposes to the ghost of a dead bride named Emily (voiced by Helena Bonham Carter), which whisks him down to the land of the dead and he is unable to convince Emily that his proposal was an accident. Time seems to be against him as now that Victor has disappeared, an evil con man named Barkis Baittern (voiced by Richard E. Grant) threatens to marry Victoria instead, and now Victor must decide whether he wishes to return to the living world to be with his true love or fulfill his accidental commitment and ‘permanently’ remain in the land of the dead to be with Emily. It’s debatable how good of movie this film is as despite being a critical and box office success as well as being nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards, no one has much of an attachment to this film next to some of Burton’s previous stop motion outings (most of which he produced while Henry Sellick directed). Despite its obvious flaws that hold it back from truly working, the movie still features several great gothic and creepy elements that Burton strives on and components that are handled with great care like the artistry, the music, and the phenomenally clever concepts.

The idea of a living man becoming engaged to a dead bride is a refreshingly original idea and it’s one that can function as a straightforward comedy, a gothic fairy-tale, or even just a quirky drama.  Burton is known for injecting a sense of wonder into what could be a straightforward twisted tale, which helped him create his own portfolio of weirdness that this film definitely falls into. Along with being based on an old folktale, it is also a great trip into typical Tim Burton strangeness with bizarre imagery, inventive worlds, and a distinct identity. Just beyond being a concept tailor made for his style, it manages to operate in spirit very similarly to various other stop-motion movies; going a bit further in terms of the creepy imagery as well as having a completely unique identity not just in visual style but also in atmosphere and plot, which helped it stand out against other animated movies at the time. The fact that it isn’t a recreation of an already existing source material (moreso being based on a 17th century Jewish folktale) means that it didn’t have to resort to having pop cultural references everywhere and pandering to its audience, it takes the seriously and lets them get soaked up in the visuals, atmosphere and quirky yet macabre story line.  With that said, while the movie is phenomenal in concept and does a great job at visually connecting with its gothic tone, it does suffer from being pretty dull and uninteresting. While from certain areas, this element of disinterest has its purpose within the narrative, like how the movie satirizes the early European era by actually having it look more lifeless and color-drained than the world of the dead- which is a nice touch to get that across visually, it maybe goes too far when everything else feels slow, lifeless, and incredibly boring. It feels more like this could function as an effective short story rather than a feature-length film, with a good chunk of the film feeling padded out and overstretched to work with this one great idea rather than experimenting with new narrative ideas and directions, which would come at the fault of the screenplay written by John August, Caroline Thompson and Pamela Pettler.

The film does sport a very impressive cast.; Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Emily Watson, Joanna Lumley, Christopher Lee, Michael Gough, Albert Finney, Richard E. Grant, etc. All these people were born to star in the dark and cryptic yet oddball world of Tim Burton, and they aren’t bad choices for what the film requires, but the roles they’re saddled with don’t come even close to being worthy of their talent. Despite the film revolving around them, the leads are pretty bland and don’t have much identity outside of being simple, meek, and un-apologetically British. For a movie that surrounds itself with colorful imagery and goofy quirky side characters, it just seems pointless and annoying to cut back to such stagnant leads who don’t even work too strong as blank slates to bounce off the craziness surrounding them as the rest of the cast aren’t that much more intriguing. It feels like most of this movie relied on its technology, premise, and atmosphere to engage the audience rather than its leads, who have turmoils that could work for effective drama, but either through poor writing or a lack of intrigue, feel like chess pieces to get the story going rather than distinct characters. The villain is also very bland, having very little purpose, bringing no threat or intrigue, coming in halfway through the movie, and being remarkably forgettable like the rest of the living people in this movie. The bride isn’t too bad as she’s given a decent backstory, comes the closest to being a sympathetic figure and her design is pretty great with her deep blue skin tone and tattered wedding dress providing a look that stands out as creepy but also elegant and even tragic, but she still isn’t made very interesting. Even most of the side characters are trying to go overboard with their cartoony designs and antics from how they are animated to who voices them, but there just isn’t that much personality to any of them despite having unique designs and quirky voices. Even most of the voice acting is nothing special despite how many special actors are present for the film; most of the leads have awkward deliveries and the others just feel like wasted roles.

While it seems to have trouble handling its characters and story, it mostly makes up for it with its production and visuals. Since the film was co-directed by Mike Johnson, an animator who worked on films like James and the Giant Peach and The Nightmare Before Christmas, it makes sense that the film would capture the gothic and disturbing fairy-tale like environment that Burton ingrains into his story, but also utilize the stop-motion art form to its peak. This film looks stunning all these years later and a lot of that comes from amazing talent behind the craft that put in a ton of effort to make it look as good as possible. It helps that the movie clearly had a distinct visual identity going into it, so they knew how to create the models and the sets from the beginning and it’s all dripping with that gothic element which just adds to the distinct flavor that this kind of story needs to stand out. While it isn’t all perfect as sometimes the character models can be so focused on being designed in a manner that illustrates a point rather than benefit the viewing experience (most of the living characters have odd features that translate well to showcasing emotion), the colors are fantastic, the sets are really impressive, the lighting looks glorious sometimes, you can feel the inspiration for different animation styles and genres in certain instances, and even some of the shots feel distinct to stop-motion, but still work really well and provide for some nice angles. The music by Danny Elfman is also a standout element, as he still does a great job at creating pieces that manage that perfect balance between hauntingly creepy and hauntingly beautiful. While they aren’t nearly as memorable as stuff from Nightmare Before Christmas, most of the songs are still pretty good numbers with bouncy melodies, fun rhymes and lyrics and the only moments something actually funny happens, even if they aren’t always sung the best. Even though most of its comedy fails despite featuring a fun darkness to it, there is a quiet elegance to the story that comes from its simple presentation and that can be felt in moments where the atmosphere and visuals are just allowed to breath.

Despite its shortcomings, Corpse Bride really does deserve praise, as do all the people who worked on it, for pushing to create something that wouldn’t fit the mold of other popular media at the time (even stop motion has become a bit of a niche element in movies). It still doesn’t quite have enough to make it a good movie as some of the key elements likes its characters and dull narrative aren’t handled very well, but the other elements are so impressive that it’s hard to determine how to rank it. This probably would’ve worked better as a short developed by Burton as opposed to stretching it out to a film length where it gets hampered down by other needless plot points that aren’t necessary to bringing this idea to life. While it doesn’t have any real lasting impact like some other stop-motion films like films from Laika (even though Laika did help produce this film), it doesn’t mean there’s nothing of worth here; there’s a lot of great visuals, memorable songs, and a fresh new concept brought to the screen. Even if it’s not one of Burton’s greats, it’s nowhere near one of his worst. A movie that’s much more about eye-candy than earth-shattering, this ghost story with a romantic touch isn’t going to be rolling heads anytime soon.