Film
Corpse Bride
- Director
- Tim Burton, Mike Johnson
- Certificate
- PG
- Running Time
- 78 mins
According to someone posting on that fantastic US god-bothering website Christian Spotlight on the Movies: “This movie is an abomination . . . As a Christian parent, hopefully your first instincts would be that this is necromancy and absolutely contrary to God’s word.” Who wouldn’t flock to see it on such a recommendation? Corpse Bride continues Tim Burton‘s earlier The Nightmare Before Christmas‘s tradition of macabre-lite fun, although those expecting the broad comedy implied by the trailer may be surprised to find a sweet and rather touching gothic Victorian romance at its core.
In a mutually beneficial arrangement, frightful nouveau riche canned fish tycoons the Van Dorts (Tracey Ullman, Paul Whitehouse) are eager to marry off their son Victor (Johnny Depp) to Victoria (Emily Watson), the daughter of snobby cash-poor aristos the Everglots (Joanna Lumley, Albert Finney). Luckily, the prospective couple seem to get along. But when nervous Victor fluffs his vows during the rehearsal, he flees to the forest, where he finds he can recite them perfectly. Alas, the ‘twig’ on which he places the ring so triumphantly turns out to be the bony finger of a decaying corpse clad in full wedding garb (Helena Bonham Carter), who rises from the ground to claim her new hubby and whisks him down to the Land of the Dead.
The central joke here is that the colourful, singing and dancing dead seem to have a lot more fun than the grey old living. Victor is particularly pleased to be reunited with the animated skeleton of his deceased dog, Scraps, though the hound now looks confused when told to ‘play dead’. The bride herself is a strangely alluring and complex figure, despite the wise-cracking maggot that lives in her eye socket. A well-chosen voice cast enhances the superb sets and models, with Christopher Lee on particularly sonorous form as the pastor. Only Danny Elfman’s feeble songs let the side down. Mind you, if Terry Gilliam were a litigious man he could probably clean up by drawing m’learned friends’ attention to the similarities between the character designs – spindly limbs, huge heads, hunchbacks – and his own, rather more crude Python-era animation.
is needed now More than ever
This romantic Valentine’s Day screening takes place in the suitably spooky surroundings of the Anglican Chapel at Arnos Vale Cemetery. Go here for further information and to book tickets
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