Rating: PG

Score: 8 out of 10

The Corpse Bride is an hour-and-a-half-long stop-motion feature, set Victorian Europe, created in 2005 by Tim Burton. In the movie, the main character, Victor, enters an arranged marriage to a girl named Victoria to help his family gain status in the community and allow her family to gain back their wealth. However, while practicing his vows out in the woods, he places a ring onto what he thinks is a tree root, which turns out to be the finger of Emily, a scorned undead bride murdered by her lover. After this happens, Victor is taken to the underworld by the corpse and must find a way to escape from his accidental proposal to Emily so he can marry Victoria instead.

Upon its release in theaters, the forty-million-dollar-movie made back nearly three times its original budget, but now both the Blu-ray and DVD are sold relatively cheap at a price of $10 for DVD and $20 for Blu-ray. In addition, it is sold among many other popular Tim Burton movies within various box prices ranging from $12 to $50 depending on which movies are in the collection, making it a steal for fans of Burton’s work.

The film primarily utilizes substituting blue tones in for their settings to create a ghostly mood throughout the entire film. While in the living world, everything excluding the undead tend to be modeled and painted in with a neutral color scheme to accent their strict and dull life, in the land of the dead, there is an abundance of greens, oranges, and purples that are absent from any other setting to show. Through these details, Burton can silently show how the dead live a more exuberant life than those who are actually alive.

Sound throughout the movie is very crisp and audible, but does change in volume depending on the scene, which could become annoying to those who might have hearing difficulties. The film is also filled with both orchestral and lyrical music that ranges in style and volume depending on the scene they were created for. All the music was developed by Danny Elfman, who is known for writing some of the most beloved music in the world of film and television. Thus, some of the music does sound slightly like others in certain segments, but he truly tops himself in the song “Remains of the Day”, which is used to describe Emily’s backstory, using a jazz style to his advantage.

Although Emily is undead, Tim Burton is able to make her a very lively character that has believable motives and a stunning design that pops out to the viewer. Unlike many other characters from the land of the dead, she is portrayed in a style that is much closer to that of the living by having realistic body proportions, hair, and skin. Upon the telling of her backstory, it is made clear that she knows Victor does not want live in the land of the undead, but determined to convince him to stay only out of the fear of being alone for eternity. However, in the end she finally relinquishes him before transforming to a cloud of blue butterflies that fly away, displaying how she had finally found her freedom and peace from her earthly troubles.

Victor is a dynamic character throughout the duration of the film. Starting as a nervous young man, he grows into a confident individual over the span of an hour. However, some of his actions do seem unrealistic. For example, he knows that he wants to reunite with Victoria, but also wants Emily to find happiness. Once Emily marries another man named Barkis Bittern after his disappearance, he decides to kill himself to be with Emily instead. In addition, he hides his wedding to Victoria from Emily, which eventually leads to calamity because he feared her reaction. Overall, Victor does reunite with Victoria, but mainly due to coincidence in the end and not due to his own actions.

For fans of The Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride is a great spiritual successor. Although the primary premise of both films is drastically different, both films have an abundance of lighthearted spirit behind them. Additionally, the characters of Emily and Sally are both strong female leads that work well off the male protagonists of their films. For those who tend to avoid anything scary, the movie is able to use horror conventions, but avoids any unsettling imagery. Thus, it satisfies both horror and animation lovers alike.