Tim Burton's The Corpse Bride

I'm up and down on the Tim Burton man. Sometimes I love him (Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Beetlejuice),sometimes I'm kinda meh (Nightmare Before Christmas, Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow) and sometimes I loathe him (Planet of the Apes, Mars Attacks). So going to see a Tim Burton movie isn't an automatic ticket for enjoyment in my case. And since I've really liked his last two movies and was kinda meh about Nightmare Before Christmas I was a little hesitant going in to this.

I needn't have been. The Corpse Bride is wonderful. It's a wonderful little cautionary tale, a curiously sweet folktale. A vertiable bucket of charm and fun.

The story goes thusly: guy named Victor is supposed to marry a girl named Victoria. he gets cold feet and accidentally marries a corpse. Situation ensues. Ending happens.

It's a pretty basic story. There really aren't any suprising twists and turns in the plot. What there is, however, is a metric ton of ambience, character and heart. The story is sweet and simple and the directors wisely choose not to overclutter it. What they do isntead is create a completel world for it to take place in.

That world is most amazing. The details are stunning, precise and sometimes hilarious. (There's a piano in Victoria's house. It's a Harryhausen piano. Great detail that.) Each background character is fully formed and visually interesting. It's like reading an especially well done pciture book, one where you jsut want to read the story and then go back and look at all the hidden things in the pictures.

And the music! Danny Elfman is Burton's music go-to guy. He has a very distinctive style. And that style is still apparent here. But it's cleverly crafted and tweaked to sound period. Lots of harpsichord. It doesn't distract form the movie, it adds to it.

The movie is packed full of actory type voices. My favorites were Joanna Lumley as Victoria's mother and Emily Watson as Victoria. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter were also very good.

There are tons and tons and tons of things I loved about this movie. And I'm going to be seeing it again. Probably several times. There are lots of little things I want to watch again and lots of little details I want to peer at.