Tim Burton's Corpse Bride Review

In a small gloomy Victorian town, the newly-rich Van Dort family arrange the marriage of their son Victor – voiced by Johnny Depp - to Victoria, Emily Watson, daughter of the well bred but destitute Everglot’s. The wedding rehearsal’s a disaster for nervous Victor, who fumbles the vows. He runs off into the forest to practice his lines, slipping the wedding ring onto what he thinks is a twig. As fate would have it, it’s the finger of a Corpse Bride - Helena Bonham-Carter who demands that he keep his vows.

Corpse Bride is painstakingly crafted, bearing Tim Burton’s stamp all over it. With co-director Mike Johnson, he marries stop-motion and computer animation to great effect, and Burton regulars Depp and Bonham-Carter do a fine job voicing the leads. Comparisons will no doubt be made to The Nightmare Before Christmas, which Burton wrote and produced in 1993. But I think this movie is a culmination of everything that’s gone before. Once again, he excels in combining comedic elements with the macabre subject of death, that will keep older ghouls satisfied while enchanting the younger trick or treaters.