Corpse Bride: Great animation......boring plot.

Last night, I went to see Tim Burton's Corpse Bride with my husband and our eleven year old son. I have positive memories of Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands, so I had high hopes for this newest of Burton's films. Alas, my hopes were dashed.

The film started out well enough. In the opening scenes, we learn that it's time for the wedding rehearsal of our leads, Victor (the voice of Johnny Depp) and Victoria. This marriage was arranged, for financial and social gain, by the parents. Victor and Victoria meet each other only briefly, right before the rehearsal, but they are smitten and quickly develop affection for each other. Victor is too nervous at the rehearsal, and keeps botching the vows. In embarrassment, he runs off to the dark forest. There, he practices his vows, even putting the ring on a thin tree branch sticking out of the ground. However, most unfortunately, this "tree branch" is really the extended gnarled finger of a dead woman, Emily, who, with her new ring, claims that she is now Victor's wife.

Victor is instantly sucked into the world of the dead, where skeletons are everywhere. The rest of the film consists of Victor's desperate attempts to disentangle himself from marriage to the corpse, and attempts to return to the land of the living. Meanwhile, Victoria and the parents are figuring what to do, with a wedding set to begin, but no sign of the groom.

Now, the first half of the movie was a treat to the eyes. The characters were wonderful caricatures, especially the parents. The animation and visuals were unique and dazzling.

However, the second half lost me completely. I lost count of the number of skeletons and other morbid figures that were dangled in front of my eye. Spiders and maggots. Endless jokes about corpses and death. Except that the jokes weren't terribly funny.

To be fair, even the second half of the film had some clever and adorable moments. At one point, the corpse bride, Emily, is tearfully singing her sorrows over what could the "other woman" (Victoria) possibly have that she herself doesn't have....she answers her own question....the other woman has things such as "a heartbeat" and "a pulse"....but Emily's pals comfort her by saying those things are "overrated". I have to admit, that song was cute and very humorous.

Also, Victor is reunited with his dead dog in the land of the dead, and this leads to some sweet moments and cute lines, such as when Victor asks him to "play dead".

The ending was farfetched and uncreative. A few silly actions are taken, and suddenly everything that was wrong, is magically right again, and they all "live" (pardon the pun) happily ever after. Very predictable. Yawn.

During the second half of the movie, there were so many visual effects, piled one on the other, that they seemed like a cartoonish gimmick very quickly. Also, the plot, what little there was of it, dragged on. Character development was clearly not a priority. I found that I simply didn't care if Victor made it back to Victoria or not.

The corpse bride herself was visually interesting for awhile, with her blue skin, bony skeleton, the hole in her cheek, and the one eyeball that kept popping out. However, even that became dull after awhile.

Basically, after the first half, I kept looking at my watch, and was happy that this movie was only 76 minutes long.


Is the film appropriate for children and did your son like the movie?:
My eleven year old son thought the movie was "ok". (He can be a kid of few words). The movie is rated PG. There are no issues with language or sexuality/nudity. Very young children could be frightened of the images of the dead folks.

If you are a die-hard Tim Burton fan and can be satisfied with great visuals and animation alone, then you might enjoy the movie. If you actually need an interesting plot and characters, you should just skip this film.

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Recommended:
No

Video Occasion: None of the Above
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12