Tim Burton's Corpse Bride (Widescreen Edition) Reviews

• Something Borrowed, Something Blue, Something Decomposing....Eeewwww!

  
  By A27KNXAROMSJ7A on 2005-10-10
  Tim Burton's mind must be a very strange place. Remember, it's where if you commit suicide you have to work for social services in the afterlife (Ref: Beetlejuice). I'm a social worker, so I know what that means! Men with hands made of scissors, Jack Nicholson as Batman's foil...this is one sick puppy of a director.
  
  So when you hear Mr. Burton is directing a film based on an Eastern European folktale in which one of the heroines-the heroines, mind you---is a corpse....well, family fare is not what comes to mind.
  
  And, although it's animated, Corpse Bride definitely is not for the younger set, 9 or so and below. These characters look creepy. The title character has a habit of losing her eye and talking to the maggot, Louie, who lives behind it. Skeletons of dogs and people walk and talk about in the "underworld".
  
  However, like Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands, older children will find the animations amusing and fascinating; and parents will be pleased with the messages packaged in the film.
  
  Briefly, "Corpse Bride" is an animated operetta in which Victor (voiced by Johnny Depp), son of fishmongers, is engaged to Victoria, (Emily Watson) the daughter of nobles who are now penniless. Neither know each other but meet accidentally and fall in love. When Victor stumbles over his complicated wedding vows at the rehearsal, he's humiliated by a stranger at the wedding (Richard E. Grant) and walks in the woods to practice. When he says the vows, he places the ring on a "twig" that turns out to be the finger of Emily (Helena Bonham-Carter), the Corpse Bride, who of course jumps up and happily informs him they are married. (She's very pretty, by the way, dead or not).
  
  Much of the rest of the movie is taken up by Victor trying to figure out how to get out from the Underworld and by Emily trying to either deny he's doing that or actively convince him to stay. Gradually, however, Victor finds, to his surprise, that he is falling in love with Emily.
  
  In the end the viewers have heard some good lessons about love, and the main characters, primarily Emily and Victor, have each been willing to sacrifice greatly for the other, out of their love for each other. The importance of wedding vows is a central theme, and Victor especially gives long thought to whom his alliances lie, given what he's promised, and to whom. And those motivated by greed, such as Richard Grant's character, mostly come out empty handed.
  
  The comedy is brilliant. In one scene, Emily's friends in the "pub" do a number quite reminiscent of the Star Wars cantina scene, given the odd-looking musicians. I'm not sure how well the "operetta" mode works with animation; while claymation gives these characters terrific means of expression, they are still limited in their ability to emote, and musical theatre may be best left to human faces. Still, Danny Elfman's score is beautiful as always.
  
  Leave the wee ones with the other parent next door at "March of the Penguins" or "Wallace and Gromit: Search for the Were-Rabbit", then huddle with the rest of the kids to see this wonderful film.
  
  
  

• Death suits them!

  
  By AUSATFDSU2INS on 2005-10-24
  Tim Burton creates a stunning masterpiece that keeps all the parameters typical in his productions. Combining the macabre and childish elements with stop motion animation techniques, Burton gives life to a fantastic story, just as he did in 1993 with the superb Nightmare before Christmas.
  
  The store serves the director as an excuse to build yet another visual fantasy, supported by the voices of several of his favorite actors: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Albert Finney and Christopher Lee.
  
  The ironic and funny style of Burton portraying death repeats itself, forming and obscure and complex world. The principal characters are no other but a dead bride, a colorful number of skeletons, some monsters and a shy and repressed young man.
  
  The plot of The Corpse's Bride is based on a traditional Ukrainian tale about a girl murdered on her weeding day and waiting since then for her true love.
  
  In a Victorian England village lives Victor van Dort, a melancholic young man pressed by his wealthy but uneducated family to engage to a broken but aristocrat young woman named Victoria Everglot, whose parents despise the Van Dorts but want to solve their economical problems with this convenience marriage.
  
  During a wedding rehearsal at the Everglot's house, Victor goes out to practice his vows, and accidentally says the words on a dead bride's tomb, who has been expecting since her dead for her true love to say the words that magically will free her to be happily ever after.
  
  From that point, Victor goes on a journey in the land of the dead with his new bride. Down there everything seems more fun and colorful that "up there", where the world of the living is, on the contrary, almost colorless, with and aesthetic close to whites and blacks, keeping the stiffness and conservative style of the Victorian Ages.
  
  Although the title suggests otherwise, The Corpse's Bride is a sweet and sour love story with a poetic capacity very suggestive and dreamy. True to his provoking spirit, Burton bets on surprising us, letting his usual black humor to disperse over an oppressive atmosphere while the emotional theme of the film, the loss of love, is told like a musical comedy.
  
  
  

• "And in other news, THE DEAD WALK THE EARTH!"

  
  By A3KEZLJ59C1JVH on 2005-09-24
  I have been looking forward to seeing "Corpse Bride" ever since I learned that it was in production. I was not disappointed...Tim Burton always makes amazing films, and this one is no exception.
  
  The animated tale revolves around Victor (voiced by Johnny Depp), a young and somewhat jumpy young man who is betrothed to Victoria (voiced by Emily Watson), a girl he's never even met before. The parents of the newlyweds-to-be are both hoping that the union of their children will better their own reputations and ease their financial burdens. Victor and Victoria finally meet and are pleasantly surprised to discover that they actually like each other. When Victor botches the wedding rehearsal, he rushes out into the woods to practice his wedding vows. He places Victoria's wedding ring on a tree branch, which suddenly grips his hand and emerges from the earth attached to a corpse bride (voiced by Helena Bonham Carter). She takes the unwilling Victor to her home, the land of the undead, which exists beneath the surface of the earth. Victor struggles with his new bride while poor Victoria must cope with the evil man her parents have found to fill in for Victor at the wedding ceremony.
  
  The animation in "Corpse Bride" is phenomenal...if this movie doesn't win the Best Animated Feature category at the Academy Awards, I'll be furious! But the animation isn't the only amazing thing about this movie. The storyline is fun (and perhaps slightly predictable, but what can you do?) and the characters are extremely well-developed. There are several musical numbers in this film, all of which are very enjoyable. (I especially enjoyed the skeleton jazz band!) I guess the only complaint I have is that I wish it was a slightly darker film. Burton is famous for his extreme creepiness...I was basically expecting to see an animated version of "Sleepy Hollow," but this is much more along the lines of "The Nightmare Before Christmas," which was an amazing Burton movie but is still geared toward children. There's nothing wrong with that, of course...it's just that I'm an adult and I prefer Burton when he's at his most macabre. :)
  
  Overall, "Corpse Bride" is a wonderful film. It's a great movie to take the kids to see before Halloween, but adults who are fans of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp will enjoy it as well.
  
  

• 3 1/2 Stars - Great production design and dramatic tale, but...

  
  By A3M2WW0PO34B94 on 2005-09-23
  Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is a classic. I think we can all agree on that. Directed by Henry Selick, who would also work with Burton on "James and the Giant Peach", "Nightmare" is a delightful mix of stop-motion animation, comedy, songs and Tim Burton's warped view of the world and holidays in particular.
  
  It took twelve years, but Tim Burton's newest stop-motion animated film has just been released. "Corpse Bride" shares many things with its predecessor, but it lacks two key ingredients to help the film become a classic.
  
  Victor's (Johnny Depp) parents, the Van Dorts (Tracey Ullman and Paul Whitehouse) are newly rich fishmongers, living in Victorian England, a dark and gray place, both in aesthetic and mood. In an effort to establish themselves in society, they have arranged for Victor to marry Victoria (Emily Watson), the daughter of the Everglots (Joanna Lumley and Albert Finney), society people who are now broke. Therefore, the marriage will benefit both families. Victor and Victoria meet for the first time shortly before the wedding rehearsal with Pastor Galswells (Christopher Lee). Galswells quickly loses his patience with Victor, who, very nervous, can't remember his lines. The pastor sends Victor away to practice. Walking around, practicing, Victor unwittingly says his vows correctly and marries the Corpse Bride (Helena Bonham Carter). Soon, Barkis Bittern (Richard E. Grant) arrives and makes a play for Victoria as Victor struggles to make everything right.
  
  The stop motion animation used in "Bride" has clearly developed significantly in the last twelve years. The movements and facial expressions are more fluid and lifelike adding to the look of the film. Reportedly, they were able to build armatures into the puppets to change their facial expressions. In "Nightmare", they had to change the heads to reflect a new expression. All of these advances help to make the figures move as though they were hand- or computer-animated.
  
  The production design is rich in detail. The characters are one of the most interesting aspects of the film. Victor and Victoria are both very skinny with pasty white skin from underexposure to the sun. Their clothes are tight and formfitting, all adding to an authentic, if stylized, take on the period. Victor's mother is a robust, big framed woman and Victoria's father is short and round, both examples of people with more money and food than activity.
  
  Set in Victorian England, the production design seems heavily influenced by Charles Addams' cartoons. The interior of the Everglot Mansion has been painted in shades of gray and black, but this is an effect of few and small windows throughout the house, another good period detail. What light is able to penetrate is gray as a London fog.
  
  All of the voice actors are very good, providing the right amount of serious intonation for the characters. This brings us to one of the problems with the film. "Bride" is much more serious than its predecessor. The story is much closer to one of the Grimm's Fairy Tales, with no Tim Burton-esque moments added. The story is very dark and fable-like, which is interesting and works, but it isn't funny. It seems odd that they would take what is basically a dramatic story and animate it. Perhaps they are trying to challenge the parameters of animation with this film. If this is the case, why did they add a few moments of attempted humor? If you are going to tell a drama, tell a drama. If you want people to laugh, make it funny. Do one or the other the best you can. Don't try to do both half heartedly.
  
  Shortly after Victor proposes to the Corpse Bride, she takes him "downstairs" to her world, where all of the ghosts and skeletons live and play. This sequence features a song by Mr. Bonejangles (Danny Elfman) explaining what happened to the Corpse Bride. It is an amusing sequence but it is entirely out of place in this film. In addition to the previously mentioned thematic inconsistencies, the sequence doesn't match the rest of the film in style. The sequence is filled with Mexican Day of the Dead characters and illustrations, an interesting design, very cute, very charming. But how does that fit with the Victorian England design of the rest of the film?
  
  There are a few songs throughout and they work, to a certain degree. In all of the songs, there becomes a point when the characters start to break into choruses and the choruses are difficult to hear and understand. This may be attributed to the crappy theater I saw the film in, but I am not completely sure of that. Because we can't understand what they are saying, the songs fail to help move the story along, as necessary, and end up slowing the film down.
  
  Note to Warner Bros: If you release a film in "Limited Release", don't use the Cineplex Broadway Cinemas in Santa Monica as one of two venues in Los Angeles for your film. This theater is crap and doesn't do your films justice.
  
  What "Corpse Bride" needed was Henry Selick. Selick was too busy working on "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" and doing pre-production on his new film (hopefully, not "Monkeybone 2") to become involved. Because he directed "Nightmare" and didn't direct this film, it is fairly clear that his involvement would have improved the film dramatically.
  
  "Corpse Bride" has a terrific production design, very good voice acting and a dramatic story. Too bad they felt it necessary to try to make it funny and a musical.
  
  
  

• Don't practice in a lonely forest clearing

  
  By A37PV5GMP2ILJC on 2006-02-13
  If The Nightmare Before Christmas had your gruesome juices flowing
  Or stop-motion animation stops your heart
  Head off to Amazon my dears (Your favorite on-line merchant)
  And drop the lovely Corpse Bride in your cart
  
  Johnny Depp, Christopher Lee and Helena Bonham-Carter
  Team up for this short movie `bout a bride
  Betrayed by her betrothed on the eve of their betrothal
  She dies, but never puts her hopes aside
  
  If you're a groom with shaky nerves who can't repeat your vows
  Don't practice in a lonely forest clearing
  Be very sure your ring stays firmly fixed upon your finger
  `Cos you can't be sure who will be overhearing
  
  And if by chance the dead arise, and take you down below
  Remember it's 'til death before you part
  If there's no hope for living love, there always is a potion
  And from the cruel world you can depart
  
  There's a moral to this story, and you all know what it is
  and it seems that love does triumph over all
  But if you are a scoundrel cheating women of their dowries
  Remember that the bad guys always fall
  
  The only thing that ails this film is that it's much too short
  It's over `fore my popcorn's half way done
  I need more Johnny Depp to keep my hungry heart a beating
  But otherwise, this movie is great fun
  
  
  Amanda Richards, February 12, 2006
  
  
• Best part is the animation, and even that is somewhat lacking...
  By A303AR58MOOYAV on 2005-09-26
  The Corpse Bride is the newest movie that Tim Burton worked on and animated through my personal favorite type of animation, which is stop-motion animation.
  
  The movie is about a young man name Victor (Johnny Depp) who has been set up in an arranged marrage by his parents with a young woman named Victoria who lives a few houses away. They had never met before, but fell in love once Victoria saw Victor playing the piano. At the wedding rehersal, Victor forgets all of his lines and is yelled at by the preacher (Christopher Lee)that the wedding cannot take place until he is more prepared. Victor runs out of the wedding rehersal and wanders through the nearby forest trying to remember his lines. He finally gets it right and using what he thought was a stick in the ground, he places the wedding ring onto the hand of a dead corpse in the ground as he is reciting the lines. This wakes up the corpse bride, who insists that Victor just married her. She kisses him, and they are transported to the very lively land of the dead which Victor desprately tries to escape from in order to marry Victoria. Victor has some adventures down there and eventually returns to the surface followed by all of the residents of the underworld which leads up to the climax of the story, and then the happy, but rather weak ending.
  
  What was wrong with this movie? Well a lot was actually. The story itself was lacking to me. The story wasn't anything that original. Nightmare Before Christmas's story had it's flaws, but at least it was a new concept. Everything in this was very used. Think about how many horror movies include a zombie bride. Lots. The characters weren't original looking either. Victor looked very much like Jack from Nightmare. He was tall and very thin and always wore a tuxcedo. Emily (the bride) was an equivilant to Sally in Nightmare. She had much more meat on her than Victor, even though she should have been more skeleton like since she was dead, and just like Sally, she kept on losing body parts. I had read somewhere that Disney originally was interested in using Tim Burton's animation for a stop motion animatied version of the Haunted Mansion movie, and even went so far into some pre-production until they decided that they would rather use Eddie Murphy for the Haunted Mansion. Knowing this going into the Corpse Bride, I was actually suprised at some of the scenes that had some similar features to the actual Disney Haunted Mansion rides. One example of this is the hallway with all of the portraits of Victoria's family. The Haunted Mansion ride has a scene a lot like this. Also, the Haunted Mansion ride's backstory involves a murdered bride and she appears in the attic scene of the rides. This sort of leaves me to believe that The Corpse Bride is all of the leftover pre production material (everything from the sets to the characters) from The Haunted Mansion movie before Disney dropped them. I actually think if this was the Haunted Mansion movie instead of the Corpse Bride, the end result would have been much better.
  
  Another problem that I had with this movie was the music. All of the instrumental stuff was great, but when Victor's parents started singing as soon as you were introduced to them, I actually groaned. I was not expecting a musical, and I found most of the musical parts of the story were misplaced and not used to the movie's advantage. I personally think that it would have been much more effective to keep the music in the underworld, and not have any musical numbers above ground.
  
  Now that I've gone over the bad, I'll move to the better, and that would be the animation. The scene with Victor and Emily was amazing how the hands moved so smoothly and accurately on a 6 inch tall puppet that was being moved 24 times for every second. Scenes like this was the highlights of the best parts of the animation, but other scenes were lacking. I was expecting all of the animation to be perfect for this movie. Skelleton Studios (I think I got that right) is tied at the top with Aardman Animation (coming out with a new Wallace and Gromit real soon) on my list of the best Animation studios out there. I though after almost a decade since James and the Giant Peach, the animation in this movie would be absolutely flawless, but it was far from that. To me, in certain parts it looked like the animators just got lazy and moved the puppet way too much and left the camera on for way too many frames for each position. I noticed this especially with Victoria. I noticed in a few spots she seemed to "jump" from one spot to another in a jerky movement (it looked like a stop motion movie I have made!). Although not perfect, the animation was the best part of the movie, and was amazing enough as it was, but just didn't compare to Nightmare or James and the Giant Peach.
  
  The Corpse Bride could have been much better, but I hope if it is successfull (which it will be without a doubt with the praise it's been getting which I don't get why), then Tim Burton will spend more time on his stop motion films and we will get some more with a better story in less than a decade this time...
  
  
• Living up with the dead
  By A1D2C0WDCSHUWZ on 2005-09-27
  Tim Burton has become reknowned for his movies about the weird, the macabre, and the very funny. And his new stop-animated masterpiece "Corpse Bride," a host of bizarre characters and a bittersweet love triangle, has all three qualities.
  
  This is an "underground" film in the best sense of the word. It gives you the sort of feeling that really expert haunted houses do -- you're enjoying the ghouls and skeletons too much to care who it's aimed at.
  
  Victor (Johnny Depp) is at the rehearsal for his arranged wedding, when he forgets his vows. Not a good omen. He runs out and rehearses it by himself, and ends up slipping the ring on the finger of a dead girl, Emily (Helena Bonham Carter). But Emily, who died tragically, falls in love with Victor and considers herself married to him.
  
  Now Victor is trapped in the underworld, which is a surprisingly cheery, upbeat place when you consider everyone is dead. He tries to find his way back to the world of the living, but soon finds himself more drawn to the tragic Emily. Now he must make the ultimate choice: Will he return (for as long as he lives) to his arranged bride, or stay in the underworld with the Corpse Bride?
  
  You'd think a movie about dead people would be depressing. At the very least, dark. But surprisingly "Corpse Bride" is neither -- instead, Burton has crafted a sweet, enchanting little love story where one of the people happens to be dead, and which is set in the underworld. There's nothing frightening about it. If anything, it's enchanting.
  
  Is the plot original? Heck no -- boil it down, and you have a boy-meets-girl story. But it's the delivery that's charming, from the funny dialogue ("Play dead!") to the colorful inhabitants of the underworld (like the pirate, or the intimidating minister). The macabre humour and song-and-dance numbers add to the charm of this world, where the dead are more alive than the living.
  
  And the voice actors seal the deal; what could have been merely funny becomes touching, in their hands.Johnny Depp brings the timid, tremulous Victor to life, and makes his dilemma believable, while Carter makes us look past protruding bones and bluish skin, to the sweet romantic Emily was. The only problem is that moronic maggot -- it's an annoying distraction.
  
  Coming up with a suitable follow-up for cult classic "Nightmare Before Christmas" couldn't have been easy. But Burton does so in rare style, creating a story both hilarious and bittersweet. Enchanting.
  
  
• Tim Burton Is One Sick Puppy!
  By A2ATWKOFJXRRR1 on 2006-02-26
  Victor Van Dort (Johnny Depp) is the son of wealthy fishmongers and he's had an arranged marriage set up for him. His wife to be, Victoria Everglot (Emily Watson) is the daughter of Victorian-style royalty who are having financial difficulties. Marrying Victoria off is seen solely as a "plan (score music here)" to pull her parents out of their money-rut.
  
  All seems to be going well until Victor fouls up his vows during the wedding rehearsal and runs off into the nearby forest. He continues to practice the vows as he stumbles through the trees, finally getting the words right and then ceremoniously placing the ring on a nearby twig ...at least that's what he thought it was. The twig turns out to be the dead finger of the Corpse Bride (Helena Bonham Carter). She and Victor are now husband and wife, and she emerges from the grave to tell him so. Running away from her and plowing into a tree, Victor falls unconscious, only to awaken in the underworld of the dead.
  
  Confusion reigns as Victor tries to tell the Corpse Bride that they cannot be married ...because he is still alive and she is dead. Well, there certainly is an easy way to fix that. But what of his living bride-to-be, Victoria? How will she take the news?
  ___________________________________________________________________________________
  
  The Corpse Bride has a lot going for it, but also a few issues. The positives far outweigh the negatives, however. Most enjoyable (from my perspective) were the miniatures and the way the "claymation" flowed. The clay characters were smooth and outlandishly featured; Victoria's mother (Joanna Lumley) has hair that looks like two large breasts pinned high above her head, the Corpse Bride is disturbingly sexy, and the pastor (a perfect Christopher Lee) appears as an evil Vicar.
  
  Similar to WALLACE AND GROMIT IN THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT, the claymation is smooth and even. Although Wallace and Gromit has a more children's feel to it, Corpse Bride makes no such claim. Necrophilia, frightening death sequences, bodily decay, and several other possibly unappetizing ideas pop-up during the film. But they are usually infused with sprinklings of comedy, which made these items less morbid.
  
  The biggest "hole" in the movie was its script. Clocking in at just 75 minutes, there's very little time to get acquainted with the characters and even less time spent on making sense of the movie's ending (I'll only comment that when the Corpse Bride said, "You have set me free." I said, "Huh?").
  
  But the claymation, beautifully crafted caricatures, and mini-sets can't be denied. Nor can most of the musical numbers that added a certain garish quality to it (although some of the songs seemed forced to me, while several others were spot-on).
  
  I wouldn't let a child under 12 years old watch it, though. Adults will laugh at the humor thrown down at death's door, but the youngsters might not get it.
  
  
• Tim Burton's Corpse Bride is a little lacking.
  By ATOXKQTZLVNDA on 2005-09-26
  Before I go into details about what I didn't like in this movie, the characters looked beautiful.
  
  Other than that, most aspects of the movie seemed rushed and sloppy. The stop-motion animation was not nearly as smooth as in The Nightmare Before Christmas(TNBC). The soundtrack was mediocre at best, though there was occassionally interesting background music.
  
  The movie is just over an hour long and it really seems to have a slow storyline. If I could go back in time, I would not go to see Tim Burton's Corpse Bride. As a Burton fan, the movie was simply sub-par. Tim Burton can and has done better work.
  
  
• As good as Nightmare
  By AMXO419TNAX0C on 2005-09-26
  Let me begin by saying that this is one of the most visually stunning films I have ever seen. It's hard to believe it's all stop motion, as it looks every bit ass good as The Incredibles. Burton makes an excellent choice in his color palette. The land of the living is almost entirely done in shades of grey, while the land of the dead usues a much wider range of colors. In fact, one of the major themes in the filmk is how much more lively it is downstairs. It's more colorful, the people are more friendly and the music is better. The trippy, hallucinagenic sequence of "Remains of the Day" took my breath away.
  As far as the story is concerned, it's a black comedy in the truest sense of the word. What starts out as a very dramatic plot begins to be sprinkled with dry humor, which increases towards the end. The humor is very old fashioned in nature, rooted firmly in the lost art of the pun. Some may find this corny, but I thought it was refreshing and fit the film perfectly.
  The score, by Danny Elfman of course, is in my opinion one of the best he's ever done. And while the songs are just a notch below those of The Nightmare Before Christmas (but only just), the movie as a whole is as good, if not better than its predecessor.
  
  
• Another film for the Hot Topic gang
  By A1K929UX012NNT on 2006-01-25
  Tim Burton tries to recreate the magic from his masterpiece, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and fails miserably.
  The songs are boring and unclever, the plot barely there and full of holes, and the voice acting uninspired.
  The only saving grace is the art works, which is pretty neat looking. If you're looking for a great movie to watch, skip this. If you're looking for something to watch while slicing yourself, watch this movie on mute with My Chemical Romance playing.
  
  
• Great movie with great authoring
  By A3A4ZAIBQWKOZS on 2007-01-05
  Corpse Bride was the first Blu-Ray movie I couldn't wait to see. I had it on DVD and viewed it many times and as I knew the movie inside and out, along with the issues with displaying the SD DVD on my HD TV, I was excited to be able to make a side by side comparison between the 2 releases.
  
  Corpse Bride on Blu-Ray completely blows the other Blu-Ray movies I own out of the water in terms of authoring. The clarity of the image is astounding and the difference between DVD and Blu-Ray is made overly apparent when you can do a comparison of the 2 directly.
  
  In the Blu-Ray release of CB you can see the texture of the puppets' faces, something certainly lacking in the DVD. You can also see in the skeleton dance scene some of the metal bits holding the puppets together. On the DVD you can see it but it is difficult or nearly impossible to tell what the shiny piece is.
  
  As far as the movie, it's a great love story in Tim Burton's typical twisted fashion.
  
  Definitely worth checking out as a movie but also worthy of checking out what Blu-Ray is capable of.
  
  
• NOT BUYING THIS DVD FOR SURE!!
  By A2PMQH87R1H3QU on 2005-12-06
  Don't get me wrong!
  1 star for DVD release, 5 stars for the movie..
  
  I loved this movie & loved "Nightmare before Christmas" both great and very good scrip and animation ...but beware people if u DVD collector like I am, After almost 2 weeks number one in box office. They came out with this bare bone DVD...If u look at the past of his "TIM BURTON DVDS" most of them is double disk or special edition ...so means Most likely they going To another DVD version down the road, like "Double disk special edition "or "EXTENDED Cut"! IF u didn't see it, just rent it for now! "DO NOT BUY THIS DVD!. Guess better be safe then sorry, this is another studio doubledip style of DVD releases these days..and suck up more money from us!just B.S
  
  
  
• Not nearly as good as "Nightmare Before Christmas"
  By A9K1XPM8F9509 on 2006-01-10
  I was very disappointed when I saw this movie. Generally I love Tim Burton, but this movie seemed almost like a half-assed version of Nightmare Before Christmas. It almost seemed as if they slapped together this movie in a rush. This movie is not without it's charms, although. I do like the animation, some parts of it are spooky and beautiful, true to Burton's style of film making. I would say,pass on this movie and watch Nightmare Before Christmas again.
  
  
• We All End Up The Remains of the Day
  By A3MH2J08I114XM on 2006-01-23
  Tim Burton once again makes us laugh at the folly of our own mortality without managing to insult us. It's lovely to imagine that when we die, there will be a pub we can relax in, and all the aches and pains we exprienced will fade. It's nice to know we'll have nothing to fear...
  
  Corpse Bride captures all these things and more! You wouldn't think so, given the title, however it presents a complex love story, and caused me to think deeply about what life is really about. Any story that can do this, in my book, is a masterpiece.
  
  This film also gives us a scrumptious look into the two worlds through stop-motion animation. It is fantastic! The art has come a long way since Nightmare (though I don't think it's fair to compare the two) and moves very beautifully. The ending is bitter-sweet, as is life, and it moved me to tears.
  
  I went opening night (being the Burton groupy that I am) and there were many like me there. We cheered at the ending and gasped at the plot twists. I do have to say, however, this movie would be a little much for children. It gets very close to the edge of what we are comfortable with: The idea of a man falling for a dead woman, the dead rising up and joining us at dinner, seeing people we've lost after many years in the underworld, etc...
  
  All in all, I thought this was brilliant. See it for yourself and you'll understand. If you're a Tim Burton fan and behold his work with great affection like I do, you'll be taken in by the first few frames of animation.
  
  Corpse Bride is spectacular!
  
  
• I don't expect a somewhat negative review will be well-received. But...
  By A3FVIFL4HGI5CL on 2006-04-28
  it at least makes for a contrast and variety in opinions, right? Right?
  
  Anyway, I am a Tim Burton fan. I think he'd be the perfect director to bring some of the works of author Neil Gaiman to the silver screen, I remember being taken with the movie "Beetlejuice" back when I was very young, and I've made it a point to see pretty much all of his movies from the age when I realized he was the guy behind a lot of these cool movies I was seeing. The vast majority of them I enjoyed thoroughly, "Mars Attacks" and "Planet of the Apes" notwithstanding.
  
  The problem is that I am not being 100% fair to this movie. If I had never seen "Nightmare Before Christmas" I would probably have enjoyed this movie more. But I have seen it, and it's difficult to *not* make the inevitable comparisons, and find "Corpse Bride" lacking.
  
  I wanted to like this movie more. I didn't dislike it. But I found little that was truly compelling. It's a short movie to begin with, but it seemed shorter than it actually was - in most cases, that's a good thing, movies shouldn't seem like they drag, but in this case, it just seemed like enough didn't happen and it was over before there was a chance of a movie of any impact to happen.
  
  Basically, my problem was I felt like I was watching a slightly-better-than-average version of "The Nightmare Before Christmas," that cut a lot more corners than the original. The designs of many of the ancillary characters look too much like many "Nightmare" characters (and the Corpse Bride doesn't look a whole lot different than Sally for that matter). Thus, they lack memorability partly because of that, partly because, unlike the "Nightmare" characters, very few characters in the movie are more fleshed out or given interesting twists. The trademark quirky charm of Burton and "Nightmare" seems old hat by now with no real new spin on it. Some of the secondary characters seem less interesting and more like two-dimensional stereotypical cut-outs than real characters.
  
  The difference between Halloweentown and Christmastown was quite pronounced and a good contrast in "Nightmare." In "Corpse Bride" the difference between the old time "real world" and the world of the dead isn't so pronounced, and neither of the worlds is designed with the visual flair or creativity found in the older film.
  
  The twist near the conclusion of the movie was pretty easy to see coming from fairly early, and it came off as somewhat contrived to give the ending the proper spin to go off on. The movie is technically great, but the story and designs seem thin and rushed, like not enough time was spent on them, which is odd since it was in the works for so long. Some of effects used in "Nightmare," (among them, the neat lighting in Oogie Boogie's lair, which is similar to some of the lighting used at the beginning of "Remains of the Day") were not utilized as well in "Corpse Bride."
  
  On a positive note, the music was great, as we've come to expect. The use of Wagner was great, and I particularly enjoyed "Remains of the Day" and "Tears to Shed." The music fit the varied moods of the movie excellently and was one of the high points of the film.
  
  In conclusion, since many people don't seem to have the grievances I do with this film, I'd recommend it. I think people who see the previews and trailer should come into the movie with a pretty good idea of whether they'll like it or not, so people interested enough in the movie to be reading reviews of it will probably enjoy it. One suggestion, though: this movie's magic may work better on you if "The Nightmare Before Christmas" isn't fresh in your mind.
  
  
• CUTE MOVIE!!!
  By A2F4A5AN5LQD1 on 2006-08-29
  I think this movie is cute and okay for all ages. Tim Burton is awesome!!!
  
  
  
• Creepy, macabre folk tale with a Tim Burton twist...
  By A2EGK0YRDF4ZZB on 2005-09-23
  Tim Burton, gothic mastermind behind Frankenweenie, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Sleepy Hollow, once again brings his dark, deliciously twisted sense of humor to the screen, this time in a retelling of a Russian Jewish folk tale. I had the chance to see a prescreening of the film on campus before it was released, and greatly enjoyed the film.
  
  The Corpse Bride is a tale based partly on reality - reality that in centuries past, anti-Semitic Russians would ambush Jewish wedding parties, murder the bride, and bury her in her dress, where she is found by a groom-to-be, who jokingly places the ring on her bony finger, thus binding her to him as a corpse bride.
  
  Burton has moved the tale from Russia to Victorian England. Victor, voiced by the ever-charming Johnny Depp, is clumsy and nervous, and can't seem to get his wedding vows straight to Victoria at the rehearsal. After a series of disastrous encounters with his in-laws (including nearly torching his mother-in-law with a wedding candle), he flees in desperation to the nighttime woods, where he practices until he learns his vows, culminating in his placing the ring on a gnarled tree branch, which in reality is the ring finger of the Corpse Bride.
  
  Victor is sucked down into her dark underworld, populated by cannonball-riddled generals, Peter Lorre-like maggots, a Ray Charles skeletal impersonator, and Victorian skeleton children in sailor suits and dresses, and must devise a plan to return to "up there" and rescue his love Victoria from her evil parents and the slimy Lord Barkis. I won't ruin the ending for you; you'll have to see this one for yourself.
  
  Danny Elfman, frequent Burton collaborator (Nightmare Before Christmas, Sleepy Hollow), is at the musical helm here, with typical Elfman embellishments of chimes, bells, and vocals. Part of the problem was the speakers used at our screening; the voices sounded fine, but the musical numbers were very distorted and I couldn't make out the lyrics.
  
  The stop-motion puppets and sets are absolutely gorgeous and stunning in their level of detail. It speaks favorably of Tim's determination to use an old-fashioned special effects technique rather than animating the film in 3D, which doubtless would have been easier, but after his previous success with Nightmare Before Christmas, I can understand why he'd want to return to the medium.
  
  This one might be too scary and macabre for young children; it is not as child-friendly (!) as the Nightmare Before Christmas. Although it will likely be a Halloween hit (I honestly can't see the film doing well at a release at any other time than Halloween, as its appeal is strictly Halloween/ horror-oriented), this will not appeal to many "traditional" moviegoers. Although it does not contain sex, nudity, or profanity, it is full of Burton's graphic images of death (skeletons, internal organs, maggots, decaying corpses), talking skeletons, and dead-bodily humor.
  
  A haunting flick sure to entertain this ghostly Halloween, and fans of Burton's earlier work won't want to miss the Corpse Bride.
  
  
  
• good stuff
  By AYOVYQ5THUL96 on 2005-09-26
  I saw the movie on opening night, and I thought it was pretty great. Of course, the immediate question will be how it compares to Nightmare Before Christmas. I think that Corpse Bride fails to quite achieve the greatness of Nightmare, which is one of my favorite films of all time, but I'm certainly not saying that it isn't great fun, or a success... it is. Part of the question may involve the fact that Nightmare was Burton's first and therefore definitive animated movie, and that this one, though certainly not any sort of 'sequel', just by merit of being a similar film in many ways will always seem at least a little inferior in the minds of most. However, it may be slightly more than that: this one didn't exactly strike the same magical chord with me as Nightmare (of course I am an older and different person now), but I still liked it a lot. As some other reviewers have stated, this film also seems fairly short in comparison. I will say this: the animation, especially at the beginning, is stunning - crisp and complex, probably more so than with its predecessor, and that in itself is a joy to see. The colors are very drab in the beginning, as befits the gloomy starkness of the film's mood and its Victorian (ha ha) setting. Then the film becomes much more colorful in the land of the dead, turning the conventions of death and life around, a very interesting touch, I thought. It seemed, though, that the sharpness of the images became more blurred later in the movie, with all the colors and more sources of light. Perhaps this is intentional, or maybe it was just my eyes, but I preferred the crisper animation. I liked most of the characters a lot (Christopher Lee's character reminds me of the Winter Warlock from "Here Comes Santa Claus"), but overall didn't find them as endearing as Jack, Sally, the two-faced mayor and company... At first, I didn't like Emily (the corpse bride herself) so much, but her redemption at the end is more than enough to change one's mind. The dog (I forget his name) is just as cute as Jack Skellington's Zero. As for the music, I'll agree with some reviewers that it definitely lacks the very original punch of Elfman's work for Nightmare (one plus however are the touches of harpsichord in the dreary above-ground world - perfect!). The main song number in the land of the dead seems to come off as a silly imitation of the style of Oogey Boogey as lacking in substance as he was (okay, okay, the bugs do count as something..) In fact, the music may be the only thing I can put my finger on that I would consider a disappointment in this film, but it's still one worth seeing for anybody (considering, though, that the target audience is really adults, not children, as the themes and images may be considered quite morbid), and a must for Burton fans like myself. I might add that I absolutely loved Charlie & the C.F. too, and am a big fan of Tim's work, particularly Big Fish, Sleepy Hollow, Ed Wood and Batman (Apes is my least favorite of his work). Despite my constructive criticisms, this one remains a dark and wonderful tale with a life-affirming message.
  
  
• "In other news: THE DEAD WALK THE EARTH!"
  By ABK0V7DLYO5NU on 2005-09-27
  If you loved the quirky humor of Burton's movies (Charley and the Chocolate Factory, Nightmare before Xmas etc...) then you'll absolutely love this. The title of the review is a quote from the town crier who is always announcing Viktor's mishaps seconds after they happen. This alone made me laugh aloud and was worth the price of admission.
  
  Corpse bride's setting is initially the land of the living, a drab colorless place, populated by miserable people. After the marriage to the corpse (played perfectly by Helena Bohum Carter), the setting switches to the land of the dead. Full of color and music, it's like a breath of fresh air compared to the 'land above'. Maybe Burton is trying to show that us the living need to be happier while we're here, because unlike the movie where the dead and alive reunite, once we die that's it. Make the most of it while you can.
  
  I highly recommend this to anyone, take your kids to see this and help him or her overcome their fear of death. Seeing as everyone is headed in that direction anyway.
  
  
  
  
• Nightmare Before Christmas 2? Nah.
  By A283NP8NG7X11F on 2006-02-03
  I'm not much of a Tim Burton fan. The guy's films are a mixed bag for me. Pee-Wee's Big Adventure was nothing short of spectacular. Beetlejuice was alright, but I'll always love the cartoon more. Batman was ok, but was more the Joker's movie. Edward Scissorhands was a cute romance. Ed Wood was sheer genius. Sleepy Hollow had awesome special effects, but the no-talent Christina Ricci nearly killed it for me. And Planet of the Apes is best forgotten. But last year, he had two movies come out at almost the same time- the 90% CG overkill Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Corpse Bride. I wanted to get all of that out of the way so you don't think I'm one of the mindless Burton fanboys, much less one of the people that will kill anyone in their path to see a Burton/Depp movie. But I saw Charlie in theaters, and wasn't exactly blown away. Corpse Bride didn't look much more appealing. Watching it tonight, I came out pleasantly surprise, but couldn't help wondering if it could've been something more if it had better direction and writing. Don't get me wrong- the puppets, sets and voice acting are all topnotch. Heck, I thought this was CG because of how flawless everything looked in the trailers. But with unmemorable songs that slow the movie down, a tacked on antagonist, and a couple of plot holes, I can't give the movie itself much praise. And to set the record straight, this is not a movie "only for goths". I pity whoever started that rumor. Fear not- if you don't shop at what I like to call Warm Subject, you won't get any more or less out of Corpse Bride than they do.
  
  The movie starts out with Victor Van Dort, a young man living in a bleak, boring town. We don't get much of a story about him other than he's going to be married soon, arranged by his parents. He's marrying the Everglot's daughter, Victoria, a kind young woman with two frumpy parents who think they have great social status, but really have nothing. Victor and Victoria haven't even really met, or talked to each other, but they finally do on the day of the wedding. Naturally, Emily hoped of marrying someone she'd be in love with and know over time. Victor, doesn't have much of a say, as he's a jittery, nervous mess. During the reception, he screws up his lines, and the priest postpones the wedding until he gets it right. Victor goes off to practice in the woods, and puts the ring on what he probably thought was just a stick. Well, it was a petrified finger, which comes to life. A beautiful, but dead woman appears, and says "I do". Victor runs off, but gets caught, only to wake up in the land of the dead. It turns out he married Victoria, a woman who died while waiting for her husband-to-be to meet her in the woods. Victor, in the nicest way possible, tells her it's a mistake, and tries to make things right again. That's an awful lot to do- going between the land of the living and the land of the dead in order to "properly" marry someone. But what's this? Victoria's set up to marry someone else already? Some guy named Lord Barkis who seems like a tacked on villain? Well that's not cool. Hopefully Victor'll take care of that while he's back up there.
  
  Ok, I'll get it out of the way because it's impossible otherwise- Corpse Bride is not as good as Nightmare Before Christmas. In fact, the only thing it surpasses NBC in is the visuals. The puppets and sets look fantastic. Like I've already said- they look too good to be puppets. Everything flows perfectly in their animations, and shortcuts weren't used like those in NBC (the Mayor having different mouth pieces: you can clearly see the line around his mouth). That aside, everything else pales. The songs flat out suck. When the next song played, I forgot there was even one before it, much less what it was about. Where Nightmare's songs were used perfectly and moved the film right along, the ones here slow it, and feel out of place. Victor's arrival in the after life is a perfect example of this. Danny Elfman must've been low on creativity last year. First Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and then this. And maybe it has something to do with Nightmare taking place in a pure fantasy world where characters could all be distinguished and identified, those here aren't. In fact, there's hardly a cast to work with at all. Victor, Victoria, their parents, Lord Barkis, Emily, and a few standout undead, that's all there really is here. But it's unfair to compare Corpse Bride to an entirely different movie. I'm sure Corpse Bride will get better with time. But the bad jokes won't. Really, how many times is Emily's eye popping out going to get laughs?
  
  Shot with state of the art cameras, everything regarding the picture quality is perfect. I never saw any grain or interlacing errors, and there was no blocking to be found. Blacks are solid of course, and to be expected with a movie like this when it's filmed with lots of dark scenes. The audio is crisp and clear with no fuzz to take away any of the thrills. There's a great use of surround during the boring songs, which is a double edged sword in that case. Hearing bad songs in all their glory, terrific.
  
  This disc is pretty well-packed, but far from great. It's missing a commentary track, which might've helped with the things the other extras don't cover. Inside the Two Worlds is a short featurette that covers the land of the living and the land of the dead. They explain their inspiration for the tones and colors used in both worlds, and how they painted the characters in those tones instead of using lighting tricks. There are also a few short interviews with the voice actors here. Danny Elfman Interprets the Two Worlds is self-explanatory. What's funny is when the featurette starts up, it shows Danny, and he really looks a lot like Jack Skellington now. At 5 minutes, this extra doesn't cover much- mostly just Victor's theme and Bonejangles' song. This could've been much longer- it leaves a lot to be desired. Then again, with how unmemorable the songs were, if it just covered the music pieces, it would've been better. The Animators: Breath of Life covers the stop motion process, and the crew explains how it's much more fun than working on any other type of movie. This is also a good look at how big the puppets are. Victor is at least a foot and a half tall. Tim Burton: Dark vs Light is merely the cast and crew going on about how all of his movies have light and dark tones in them. What's cool is that they mention how much he puts into each movie- that he gets involved in all the creative decisions, which is more than I can say for most directors. Voices From the Underworld is a short featurette showing us the actors who provide the voices for the characters. Honestly, I love these kind of things- seeing who does the voice for a character and watching them act out their lines. More discs need extras like these. Regardless of how short it is, it's my favorite extra on here. Christopher Lee even goes on about how he loved working on the movie, and Johnny Depp says he likes it more than acting- how he'd like to just do voices in movies. Making Puppets Tick is like the Breath of Life featurette, but covers more of the technical aspects. I was blown away by how many mechanisms go in one puppet's head, and how they move their mouths and cheek "muscles" with the twist of a screwdriver. Also, it was great to hear that Carlos Grangel was able ot make puppets out of Burton's normally crude drawings. That guy's got some raw talent in order to do that. Voices Behind the Voice is just footage of the voice actors saying their lines in one screen while the final product of the movie plays in another screen. It's pretty cool. Pre-Production Gallery is a series of illustrations and test puppets for most of the characters- a history of each one if you will. It's just the footage playing to the movie's main theme with no narration, as if it was needed. Finally are an isolated music track and the trailer. Overall, the extras are great, but too short and could've benefited from a commentary by Burton or the voice actors.
  
  While the plot was too simple and had tons of filler, I was satisfied with Corpse Bride. It took a few hours to really grow on me, but hey, I'm a sucker for cool looking puppets. It may never be as big as Nightmare Before Christmas, but it's an entirely different movie, and isn't linked to a holiday, which is part of NBC's success. Corpse Bride can hold its own, but only if you go into it not expecting an NBC sequel, or expect it to be perfection.
  
  
• The Most Animated Corpses Around
  By A39IBJB2PBVC7I on 2006-07-26
  Tim Burton, one of our greatest directors, has a stunning, occasionally unsettling, visual imagination. Beetle Juice gave us a good-humored descent into the underworld while Edward Scissorhands profiled a poignant monster far kinder than the nice suburban folk he encountered. Sleepy Hollow was dark, lush, and painterly. Mars Attacks! - bright and cheery - unleashed some of the nastiest cartoon characters ever drawn. Burton's celebrated stop-motion animation efforts; The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach, and Corpse Bride showcase his uniquely graphic approach to film, to say nothing of his obsession with the macabre.
  
  Maybe the problem is that Burton is starting to behave like a musician who only knows one song and wanders nocturnal landscapes in search of new ways to play it. Where The Nightmare Before Christmas seemed long on visuals and short on story, Corpse Bride feels positively content-less. This is the first movie I have ever seen where I thought to myself, "You know, this would have made a much better book," something along the lines of Polar Express - huge format, gorgeous drawings, brief captions. Clocking in at an anemic 1:18, and padded out with some regrettable Danny Elfman musical numbers, Corpse Bride suffers from "less there than meets the eye" syndrome.
  
  The humor here rests on a slender reed indeed; the living world is dark, foreboding, and cruel while the afterlife is a regular chuckle-fest. The film's most memorable scene is a piano duet between the living Victor and the dead, and cranky, Emily - necrophilia never sounded so good! Indeed, Emily, who has retained a splendid, even opulent, figure despite being dead, seems like a better choice than the living Victoria. Of course Emily does have that chatty and annoying maggot living behind her eye that, for some reason, sounds like Peter Lorre. Because it's a cartoon, voices are important, and Helena Bonham-Carter is perfect, as always. Johnny Depp, by contrast, is unfortunately cast and struggles through his English accent unconvincingly - are all English actors currently employed?
  
  Wonderful eye-candy but just not enough meat on the bones.
  
  
• Living up to expectations
  By AVWCDSTES2RZY on 2005-09-27
  Okay- My biggest worry when entering the theater was that I would be so worried about how this movie would measure up to "the Nightmare Before Christmas"- you can't read a review for this film that doesn't mention it, and there are few that don't compare it-
  
  Luckily for me- I was able to put my worries aside and other than a few parts (mostly the music) I was able to enjoy the movie for what it offered.
  
  The story is very different , and visually it's amazing- but the most amazing thing is Johnny Depp- who did the best non Johnny Depp act I've ever seen- I almost forgot it was him- while Joanna Lumly and Tracey Ulman almost snuck by me- (Michael Gough was pretty obvious though- I mean- it looked like him)
  
  I did have a slight problem with some of the character designs though- mostly Victoria's father- and the Vandort family driver- Victoris' Father was a huge ball of a man on toothpick legs- while the driver's face - well- was very reminiscent of - uh- a very specific part of a man's anatomy- well- three different pieces in one location - twig and berries- N-E-Who
  
  The story is about two people - Victor and Victoria,who are to be wed- even though they've never met each other- mainly to benefit the interests of both sets of parents- Victoris's to gain some finances, being that they are now penniless, and Victor's (whom Victoria's Mother calls the Nouveau Riche)- to gain some status in the town after their fish business apprently boomed-
  
  Duting their rehearsal, Victor can't seem to get his voes right and accidently sets his soon to be Mother In Law's dress on fire- he wanders in into the cemetary practicing when he unintentionally speaks his vows and slips the ring onto what he thinks is a tree branch- but turns out to be the waiting hand of the Corpse Bride- who has been waiting for the moment her entire afterlife,(she was murdered while waiting for her love to elope) and is more than willing to accept- and takes Victor down to the Underworld, where Victor learns that the afterlife isn't as dead as he thinks (it turns out to be much more lively than his own living town) He starts to develp a love for his new bride, but still yearns to be with his fiancee- whom he has also fallen in love with- to make matters worse, the Mysterious Lord Barkus visits with an agenda all his own- and the movie will keep you guessing to what will happen- which is a nice change from so many romantic comedies that don't really leave much of the ending to the imagination.
  
  The music fares pretty well- Remains of the Day is toe tapping fun, but the best musical pieces are Victor's Solo - and the Piano Duet (between Victor and Emily - the Corpse Bride)- unbelievably beautiful- I wish they were longer!
  
  This is a fantastic movie- and I can't wait to see it again- let alone get it on DVD- and I'm pretty sure that Nightmare fans will love it- and those not so much fans may even enjoy it-
  It's no Nightmare, but a beautifully done film- and if it doesn't win this year's animation Oscar- ther is no hope for Cinema-
  
  
• Corpse Bride Has Some Skeletons in the Closet
  By A1V20TOIU7GNAH on 2005-11-30
  It seems like basic Hollywood math. Tim Burton stop-motion animation the voices of Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Albert Finney, and Christopher Lee = filmmaking at its finest. Still, Corpse Bride simply doesn't add up to much of anything.
  
  If you've seen the previews for this films, you know the story already. Guy's marriage is aranged for him, he freaks out, goes into the woods, and accidentally marries a dead woman. Sounds Ashton Kutcher-esque to me.
  
  And the previews also show some of the wonderfully lush and imaginative visuals that Tim Burton provides. Really, the detail and polish of the animation here puts Nightmare Before Christmas to shame. The opening shot of a butterfly flying around a European village was one of the most beautiful shots I've seen in an animated film since the ballroom scene in Beauty and the Beast. Still, interesting visuals are not enough to carry a film.
  
  The biggest problem with Corpse Bride comes from one of Tim Burton's common filmmaking partners: Danny Elfman. While Elfman's songs for Nightmare Before Christmas were charming, well written, and integral to the story, the songs in corpse bride are uninteresting and unmemorable. It's hard for yours truly--the self proclaimed musical theater --to say that the worst part of this film was its songs and it would have been much better without them, but it's the truth. While listening to the songs of Nightmare Before Christmas for the first time inspires you to go out and buy the soundtrack (which by the way is a great addition to one's CD collection), listening to the songs of Corpse Bride for the first time inspired me to vomit and to write to Tim Burton asking him to urge his wife, Ms. Bonham Carter, to stick to acting instead of singing.
  
  And then there are the problems with the plot and characters. The ending of the movie was more abrupt than Rene Zelwegger's breakup with Kenny Chessney, and certain characters that initially are introduced simply for the sake of a gag, such as the maggot that pops out of the bride's eye in those previews, keep coming back unneccessarily. In all honesty, though animation was a perfect medium for this story, the filmmakers should have considered ditching the family friendly feel of the movie. If this was done as a film for adults--minus the hidious songs--it would have been hysterical. Honestly, there need to be more films with jokes about necrophilia or getting a stiff one over a stiff one, and this could have been one of them.
  
  If you are a fan of Tim Burton, do yourself a favor. Take your $10 that you were planning to spend on a ticket to Corpse Bride, go to Blockbuster and rent Nightmare Before Christmas, Edward Scissorhands, Big Fish, and Sleepy Hollow. You'll have a much more enjoyable time.
  
  
• Entertaining Nonetheless
  By A29Y34ALWJUGB5 on 2006-02-04
  After seeing The Nightmare Before Christmas about five-hundred times (that may not be an exaggeration), and loving it every time I saw it, I couldn't wait to get something new from the same creator as Nightmare. Corpse Bride was that something new, and though Nightmare is definitely the better of the two, Corpse Bride is still fun and entertaining nonetheless.
  
  It revolves around the arranged marriage of two young people, names of Victor and Victoria, both of whom have no idea what they are getting into until the very last moments before the marriage. But surprisingly, at the rehearsal, they have a connection, and their marriage seems as though it won't be such a bad thing. Still, though, Victor is nervous to the point of bumbling, and fails his marriage vows miserably. Told to practice his lines, the rehearsal is postponed and Victor makes a quick escape into the woods. While here, he practices on the nearby trees, only not everything is a tree. In accident, he places his ring on the hand of a dead woman named Emily, who becomes Victor's corpse bride. From here, Victor must find a way to escape from the land of the dead and get back to his fiancee Victoria, while we, the viewers, are trying to figure out how the corpse bride got to where she is now.
  
  Though short, Corpse Bride still has a lot to offer. The animation is great, far more detailed than Nightmare, and the moody settings are what you expect from Tim Burton. And the character designs are excellent; every one is unique from the rest and all of them have personality. To add to that, the voice acting was exceptional as well, with songs that sound similar to that of The Nightmare Before Christmas. And where the length of the film may not be so much, the DVD extras surely make up for it.
  
  I'd recommend this to anyone who liked The Nightmare Before Christmas, or who grew up watching the claymation Christmas cartoons. Also, as an artistic film, there are few to rival Corpse Bride. It sets a dreary mood at the beginning, and continually adds to that mood throughout, yet is still able to draw laughs.
  
  
• No Force on Earth Can Tear Us Apart
  By A2BT578J4IZOK6 on 2006-05-20
  "The Corpse Bride" is a stop-motion masterpeice from Tim Burton and is set in the nineteenth century, in an apparently English town. Although what we see on-screen are the models, there is an all-star cast providing the voices. Johnny Depp plays Victor, the hero, while Helena Bonham-Carter provides the voice for Emily, the Corpse Bride. Others who lend their voices include Paul Whitehouse, Joanna Lumley, Christopher Lee and Tracey Ullman.
  
  Victor's wedding for Victoria Everglot has been arranged, with the film opening on the day of their wedding practice - an event that will see the bride and groom meeting for the first time. Victor's father, William, is a very successful and - as a result - very rich Fishmonger. Victoria's parents, on the other hand, are Lord and Lady Everglot. Although they aren't exactly happy about their daughter marrying 'new money', they no longer have their own 'old money' to match their status - hence the wedding. They would've preferred a more suitable son-in-law, but presumably nobody with a title was available.
  
  Victor and Victoria have quite a bit in common though - they're both romantic, artistic souls - and they fall for each other the moment they meet. However, Victor is also quite newvous about the whole event and the practice is a disaster. Pastor Gaswels refuses to allow the wedding - set for the following day - to proceed until Victor learns what to do and say. Victor stumbles off into the woods to practice his lines : reciting his vows perfectly, he slips the ring onto what looks like a fallen branch. Unfortunately, it turns out to be the wedding finger of the Corpse Bride - and with the ovws now made, she doesn't want to give her new husband up.
  
  Victor's Corpse Bride was called Emily when she was alive. Although Victoria is very pretty, it's clear that Emily was also on the other side of the grave. (In fact, at the risk of being considered somwehat odd, I would say she still is). However, while Victoria still has a beating heart, Emily has a maggot living in her head - who also appears to be her best friend. Her right eye also has the unfortunate habit of falling out and rolling around the floor. Victor, naturally, is initially desperate to return to Victoria. However, the Land of the Dead is much brighter and (would you believe) much livelier than the dull and drab Land of the Living. He also finds that his old dog, Scraps, is still living there. There's also plenty of singing and dancing, much of it led by the very jazzy skeleton, Bonejangles. Upstairs, however, the situation is being complicated further by the devious Barksi Bittern. With Victor missing (presumed married), the smarmy, vain, money-grabber steps into Victor's shoes for the wedding.
  
  I can only describe the film as flawless. It looks fantastic, it's very entertaining, the music is excellent, there's plenty of puns that will raise a chuckle, while Victor and both of his brides are genuinely likeable characters. Hugely recommended.
  
  
• Best DVD graphics display I've seen yet
  By A18Y7CYQR1IVU3 on 2006-12-09
  I own Blu Ray and I own HD-DVD. I have a 1080p TV. Up until now, I have seen a better picture on HD-DVD with 1080i, than Blu-Ray on 1080p. This movie changes that. It has the sharpest graphics on my 1080p TV than anything I have seen yet, in any format. I liked the movie too. Get it.
  
  
  
• Looks amazing
  By A1KOYOE8O2F1J4 on 2007-02-09
  When I saw this in the theater I didn't really like the story as much some of Burton's other films but I decided to buy the Blu-ray because I had heard great things about the transfer. I can say I was not disappointed; the picture is simply amazing and I have even come to appreciate the story after watching it a few times at home.
  
  A++ transfer and an A story; a must for any Burton fan.
  
  
• ANOTHER BURTON VISUAL TREAT
  By A1ER6IYOMM8VCT on 2007-03-31
  Tim Burton really has a great talent coming up with all the visual eye candy for these films, he does however lack sometimes in getting his story flowing quickly and smoothly. This is a very good film and if you love NMBC, you should like this one too.
  
  
• Comes Alive When It's Dead
  By A39CX0EE4BZCZC on 2007-09-12
  This stick-figure animated film offers good visuals, inventive-looking characters (that being perhaps the most fun of the film), and a decent story that finished with a very nice ending. There are songs in here but they are only so-so, and certainly not the attraction to the film.
  
  The story starts off slowly, but once the characters went down under into the land of the dead, not only did we finally start seeing some colors other than blue, but the whole film came alive and pretty much stayed that way until the end.
  
  As with good animated movies, there is so much you can see that you can't take it all in. It's a feast for the eyes with all the wild-looking characters and nice drawings. Getting good visuals from director Tim Burton is no surprise; he always comes through in that department. Unfortunately, he also usually delivers an anti-religious cheap shot or two.. Here, the minister is pictured as a sour old guy. Burton also pictures clerics in a negative way, and the occult in a positive way. However, he certainly makes interesting films, no matter what the subject matter, and there usually isn't a lot of profanity in his films. There is none here whatsoever.
  
  Overall, an inventive film and fun to watch once you get past the slow first part.
  
  
  

• The Nightmare Before Christmas (2-Disc Collector's Edition) + Digital Copy
• Edward Scissorhands (Widescreen Anniversary Edition)
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Widescreen Edition)
• March of the Penguins [Blu-ray]
• Big Fish