Tim Burton's Corpse Bride

Year of release : 2005

Run time : 1h17m

Genre : Animation / Family / Fantasy / Horror / Musical

Voices : Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Emily Watson, Christopher Lee

The stop motion animated musical Gothic fantasy movie was directed by Tim Burton and Mike Johnson. The animation is inspired by a XVII-th century Jewish folktale.

In an 1800's English village, Victor, who is the son of a newly rich family due to the fish business they are in, is told by his parents that he has to marry Victoria, the daughter of an aristocratic family who's lost all their money.

Both families want their children to marry for the wrong reasons, as Victor's family wants him to marry Victoria for the social status, while Victoria's parents want her to marry Victor for his family's money.

Victor and Victoria meet when he plays the piano in her family's house, as their parents are talking the details of their wedding, and fall in love.

3 hours later they are at the wedding rehearsal, and Victor makes a fool of himself, as he is nervous and messes everything up, lighting Victoria's mother's dress on fire.

Lord Bittern, hearing of the wedding affair, presents himself at the rehearsal, as he hopes to be the one marrying Victoria.

Victor runs into the forest and says his vows talking to the trees. He places the ring on a branch by saying that with the ring he asks her to be his.

The branch proves to be a rotten hand of a dead woman who raises up from the grave and accepts his proposal. Thinking herself to be Victor's wife now, she takes him to the Land of the Dead.

The Land of the Dead is a very colorful place filled with mostly skeletons. Victor finds out his new bride's name is Emily, and she was a girl who was tricked by her fiance (that her parents didn't approve of) to elope with him, only for him to steal her money and jewels and k1ll her.

Victor keeps on trying to run away from his new bride, and get back to Victoria. Thinking his parents wouldn't approve of his new wife, he convinces her to go to the surface.

While he's underground with Emily, the wicked lord Bittern tells the two families the news of the day, that Victor married a corpse bride. Victoria's parents give his parents till dawn to bring him back, or the deal is off.

I personally enjoyed it, not so much the musical parts, as I don't like musicals due to the music style.

I liked the stop motion visual effects, and the world created.

The voice actors were very good.

The soundtrack was good.

The animation received critical acclaim, and grossed 118 million dollars at the box office, against a budget of 40 million.

Cinema Score audiences graded the movie a B+.

The animation was nominated at the Oscars for Best Animated Feature.

Rating : Worth a watch !