Republished from the show notes of my other site, Fuds on Film.
See, right, everything I said about The Nightmare Before Christmas? Basically that again. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk, and furthermore, I consider that Carthage must be destroyed.
Well, if you must, in Corpse Bride, co-directed by yer Timothy Burton Esq and stop-motion expert and Nightmare Before Christmas vet Mike Johnson, we learn the importance of not accidentally marrying a corpse when Victor, heir to a fishmongery empire, has a marriage arranged to Victoria, scion of the bankrupt aristocratic Everglots, the families looking for a trade of money and status, their children’s happiness be damned.
Unexpectedly, given the set up, the kids seem to quite like each other, however the pressure of the dress rehearsal on poor shy Victor sees him running off the the woods to recuperate and practise his vows, where said marital accident happens and he finds himself hitched to Emily, the titular Corpse Bride, and taken off the the underworld with its requisite spooky undead, which Victor seeks to escape.
Back in the land of the living, the shock of Victor’s disappearance is short lives, as the Everglots find an apparently suitable if obviously evil marriage candidate in the mysterious Lord Barkis, who may or may not have murdered his previous fiancé, who may or may not have been Emily, which may or may not be a spoiler, for which I may or may not be sorry.
Looking back at my review of some 15 years ago, I struck by how damn old I am, and also my comment that, essentially, I was expecting or wanting a longer film. Serving sizes having ballooned since then, I don’t feel the same way now, although I would add that I enjoy Corpse Bride so much that I certainly would not complain were there an additional quarter hour or so were it as good as the the rest of it, which, for the avoidance of doubt, is very good indeed.
It’s very much taking The Nightmare Before Christmas‘s ball and running with it, and there’s not a damn thing wrong with that. I shall fall back on my previously written assertion that Corpse Bride delivers a sharply written, punchy and funny script, good vocal performances and an abstract, fluid, effective animation style, and, as is something of a theme of this episode, recommend it highly.